Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/englandOOgardiala 


THE 

HISTORY 

OF    NATIONS 

ENGLAND 

%.W^ 

v\      '^ 

«r  j^y^ 

at^ 

ZA 

\ 

! 

li 

r 

^1f)^ 


o 

■^ 

J^ 

^2 

►-< 

CQ 

t^ 

^ 

>. 

c< 

"S 

'ij 

O 

^ 

(^ 

C3 

Q 

^ 

>, 

:^ 

!5 

"S 

*^ 

■^ 

>*  • 

1^ 

V3 

Q 

O 

^ 

O 

fc/ 

O 

^  2; 

s 

c=; 

ty 

^ 

'<^ 

-^ 

Ci. 

_^ 

^< 


o 


THE  HISTORY  OF  NATIONS 

HENRY  CABOT  LODGE  ,Ph.D.,LL.D.  EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 


ENGLAND 


by 

SAMUEL  R.GARDINER.M.A. 

Oxford    Universit>' 
Edited 

AUGU5TUSHUNT5nEARER,Ph.D. 

Department  of  History 
Trinit^CoIlege 


Volume     XI 


Illustrated 


r 


The  H  .W.  Snow  and  Son  Company 

C  h   i    c    a    q    o 


Copyright,  1907,  ey 
JOUX  D.  MORRIS  &  COMPANY 


CoPYKKiHT,    1010 

THE  H.  W.  SXOW  &  SOX  COMPAXY 


"> 


6f 


0/  ■ 


THE   HISTORY   OF  NATIONS 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 

HENRY  CABOT  LODGE,  PkD.,  L.L.D. 

Associate  Editors  and  Authors 


ARCHIBALD  HENRY  SAYCE.  LL.D.. 

Professor     of     Assyriology,     Oxford     Uni- 
versity 


SIR  ROBERT  K.  DOUGLAS, 

Professor  of  Chinese,  King's  College,  Lon- 
don 


CHRISTOPHER  JOHNSTON,  M.D.,  Ph.D., 

Associate  Professor  of  Oriental  History  and 
Archaeology,  Johns  Hopkins  University 


C.  W.  C.  OMAN,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  History,  Oxford  University 


JEREMIAH  WHIPPLE  JENKS,  Ph.D.,  LL.D., 

Professor   of   Political    Economy   and    Pol- 
itics, Cornell  University 

KANICHI  ASAKAWA,  Ph.D., 

Instructor    in     the     History    of    Japanese 
Civilization,  Yale  University 


THEODOR  MOMMSEN, 

Late   Professor  of   Ancient    History.    Uni- 
versity of  Berlin 


WILFRED  HAROLD  MUNRO,  Ph.D., 

Professor    of    European    History,    Browp 

University 


G.  MERCER   ADAM, 

Historian  and  Editor 


ARTHUR  C.  HOWLAND,  Ph.D., 

^?yK-S'  °^  "'''°''''  ""^^"^'''-^'  °^  P"""-        FRED  MORROW  FLING,  Ph.D., 


Professor  of  European  History,  University 
of  Nebraska 


CHARLES  MERIVALE,  LL.D., 

Late    Dean    of   Ely.    formerly    Lecturer   In        FRANCOIS  AUGUSTE  MARIE  MIGNET, 


History,  Cambridge  University 


Late  Member  of  the  French  Academy 


J.  HIGGINSON  CABOT,  Ph.D., 

Department  of   History,  Wellesley  College 


JAMES  WESTFALL  THOMPSON.  Ph.D., 

Departm.enl     of     History,     University     ■>(' 
Chicago 


SIR  WILLIAM  W.  HUNTER,  F.R.S., 

lyEte  Director-fiencral  of  Statistics  in   India 


SAMUEL  RAWSON  GARDINER,  LL.D., 

Professor  of   Modern   History,    King's  Col- 
lege. London 


GEORGE   M.  DUTCHER,  Ph.D.. 

Pro/es-.or  of  History,  Wesleyan   University 


R.  W.  JOYCE,  LL.D., 

Comniissioner   for    the    Publicition    of    thv. 
Ancient  Laws  of  Ireland 


ASSOCIATE  EDITORS  AND    AUTHORS-Continued 


JUSTIN  McCarthy,  ll.d.. 

Author  and  Historian 


PAUL  LOUIS  LEGER. 

Professor  of   the   Slav   Languages,   C6llege 
de  France 


AUGUSTUS  HUNT  SHEARER,  Ph.D.. 

Instructor    in     History,     Trinity    College.        WILLIAM  E.  LINGLEBACH,  Ph.D., 

Hartford  Assistant    Professor  of   European   History, 

University  of  Pennsylvania 

W.  HAROLD  CLAFLIN,  BJl., 

Department    of    History.     Harvard     Uni-        BAYARD  TAYLOR, 


versity 


Former  L'nited  States  Minister  to  Germany 


CHARLES  DANDLIKER.  LL.D., 

President  of  Zurich  University 


SIDNEY  B.  FAY,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of   History,    Dartmouth   College 


ELBERT  JAY  BENTON,  Ph.D., 

Department   of   History,   Western   Reserve 

Universitv 


SIR  EDWARD  S.  CREASY, 

Late  Professor  of  History,  University  Col- 
lege, London 

ARCHIBALD  CARY  COOLIDGE,  Ph.D., 

Assistant    Professor    of    History,    Harvard 
University 


WILLIAM  RICHARD  MORFILL,  M.A., 

Professor   of   Russian   and    other    Slavonic 
Languages,  Oxford  University 


CHARLES  EDMUND  FRYER,  Ph.D.. 

Department  of  History,   McGill   University 

E.  C.  OTTE, 

Specialist  on  Scandinavian  History 


J.  SCOTT  KELTIE,  LL.D., 

President  Royal  Geographical  Society 


ALBERT  GALLOWAY  KELLER,  Ph.D., 

.Assistant    Professor  of   the   Science  of  So- 
ciety, Yale  Univerbity 


EDWARD  JAMES  PAYNE,  M.A., 

Feilov.-  of  University  College,   Oxford 


PHILIP  PATTERSON  WELLS,  Ph.D., 

Lecturer  in   History  and  Librarian  of  the 
Law  School,  Yale  University 


FREDERICK  ALBION  OBER, 

Historian,  Author  and  Traveler 


JAMES  WILFORD  GARNER,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of   Political   Science,    University 
of  Illinois 


EDWARD  S.  CORWIN,  Ph.D., 

Instructor     in      History,     Princeton     Uni- 
versity 


JOHN  BACH  McMASTER,  Litt.D.,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  History,  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania 


JAMES   LAMONT   PERKINS,   Managing  Editor 


The  editors  and  publishers  desire  to  express  their  appreciation  for  valuable 
advice  and  suggestions  received  from  the  following:  Ho.\.  Andrew  D.  White, 
LL.D.,  Alfred  Th.wer  Mah.\x,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  Ho.v.  Ch.-\rle's  Emory  Smith, 
LL.D.,  Professor  Edw.\kd  G.a.ylord  Bourne,  Ph.D.,  Ch.vrles  F.  Thwing, 
LI>.D.,  Dr.  E.mil  Reich,  Willi.^.m  Elliot  Griffis,  LL.D.,  Professor  John 
M.A.RTIN  \'incent,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Melvil  Dewey,  LL.D.,  Alston  Ellis,  LL.D., 
Professor  Ch.a.rles  H.  McC.\rthy,  Ph.D.,  Professor  Herm.\n  V.  Ames,  Ph.D., 
Professor  \Y.\lter  L.  Fle.minc,  Ph.D.,  Professor  D.win  Y.  Tho.mas,  Ph.D., 
Mr.  Otto  Reich  and  Mr.  f).  M.  Dickerso.v. 

vii 


CONTENTS 


PART    I 
ENGLAND   BEFORE   THE   NORMAN   CONQUEST 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Prehistoric  and  Roman  Britain              ...  3 

II.  The  English  Settlements              .         .         .         •  17 

III.  The  Strife  of  the  English  Kingdoms            .         .  27 

IV.  The   English   Kingship  and  the   Struggle  with 

the  Danes       .......     41 

V.  Eadgar's  England  ......     50 

VI.  England  and  Normandy        .         .         .         .         .56 


PART   II 
THE   NORMAN   AND   ANGEVIN   KINGS.    1066-1087 


VII.  William  I.     1066-1087 

VIII.  William   II.     1087-1100 

IX.  Henry  I.  and  Stephen. 

X.  Henry  II.     11 54- 11 89 

XI.  Richard  I.     1189-1199 


1100-1154 


71 

82 
88 

97 
112 


PART    III 

THE   GROWTH    OF   THE    PARLIAMENTARY   CON- 
STITUTION.   1199-1399 

XII.  John.     1199-1216  ...... 

XIII.  Henry  III.     1216-1272  .  .  .  .  . 

XIV.  Edward  I.  and  Edward  II.     1272- 1327 

XV.  From  the  Accession  of  Edward  III.  to  the  Treaty 
OF  Bretigni.    1327-1360      .  .  .  .  . 

XVI.  Reign  of  Edward  HI,  .\fter  the  Tre.'\ty  of  Bre- 
tigni.    1360-1377      ...... 


121 

130 
143 

156 

167 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVII.  Richard  II.  and  the  Social  Revolution.    1377-1381  173 
XVIII.  Richard  II.  and  the  Political  Revolution.     1382- 

1399         ...        ..I        :.        ..        ...        .,        1.;        ..   180 


PART   IV 

LANCASTER,   YORK,   AND   TUDOR.    1399-1509 

XIX.  Henry  IV.  and  Henry  V.    1399-1422       .         .         .191 

XX.  Henry  VI.  and  the  Loss  of  France.     1422-1451      .  201 

XXI.  The  Later  Years  of  Henry  VI.    1450-1461      .         .  208 

XXII.  The  Yorkist  Kings.     1461-1485      ....  214 

XXIII.  Henry  VIL     1485-1509  .         .:        .        ,.,        .  223 

PART   V 

THE  RENAISSANCE  AND   THE   REFORMATION 
1509-1603 

XXIV.  Henry  VIII.  and  Wolsey.    1509-1527      .         .         .  235 
XXV.  The  Breach  with  the  Papacy.     1527-1534      .         .  243 

XXVI.  The  Royal  Supremacy,     i 534-1 547  .         .         .  254 

XXVII.  Edward  VI.  and  Mary.     1547-1558  .         .         .  264 

XXVIII.  The    Elizabethan    Settlement    in    Church    and 

State.     1558- 1570  .....  274 

XXIX.  Elizabeth  and  the  European  Conflict.     1570-1587  285 

XXX.  Elizabeth's  Years  of  Triumph.    1587-1603      .         .  295 

PART   VI 

THE   PURITAN   REVOLUTION.    1603-1660 

XXXI.  James  I.     1603-1625 307 

XXXII.  The   Growth   of   the    Personal    Government   of 

Charles  I.     1625-1634      .....  320 

XXXIII.  The  Overthrow  of  the  Personal  Government  of 

Charles  I.     1634-1641       .....  332 

XXXIV.  The    Formation    of    Parliamentary    Parties    and 

the  First  Years  of  the  Civil  War.     1641-1644  340 

XXXV.  The  New  Model  Army,     i 644-1649  .         .         -351 

XXXVI.  The  Commonwealth  and  Protectorate.     1649-1660  362 


CONTENTS  xi 

PART   VII 
THE  POLITICAL  REVOLUTION.   1660-1689 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXXVII.  Charles  II.  and  Clarendon.     1660-1667  .         .  379 

XXX VIII.  Charles  II.  and  the  Cabal.     1667- 1674  .         .  391 

XXXIX.  Danby's   Administration    and   the   Three   Short 

Parliaments.     1675-1681  ....  402 

XL.  The  Last  Years  of  Charles  II.    1681-1685      .         .  412 

XLI.  James  II.     1685-1689       .         ..        .         .        ,..        .  421 

PART   VIII 

THE  RISE   OF  CABINET   GOVERNMENT 
1689-1754 

XLII.  William  III.  and  Mary  II.    1689-1694    .        „         .  435 
XLIII.  William  III.     1694-1702  .....  444 

XLIV.  Queen  Anne.     1702-1714        .....  453 

XLV.  Establishment     of     Parliamentary     Supremacy: 
Townshend,  Sunderland,  and  Walpole.    17 14- 

1737 468 

XLVI.  Establishment  of  Parliamentary  Supremacy: 
Walpole,  Cartaret,  and  the  Pelhams.  1737- 
1754 481 

PART   IX 

THE  FALL  OF  THE   WHIGS   AND   THE   RISE  OF 
THE   NEW   TORYISM.    1754-1789 

XLVII.  Newcastle  and  Pitt.    1754-1760      ....  493 
XLVIIL  The  Break  Up  of  the  Whig  Party.     1760-1770      .   504 
XLIX.  The  Struggle  for  American  Independence.     1770- 

1783  .........  513 

L.  Pitt  and  Fox.    1782- 1789       .        ..        .„        ...        .  524 

PART   X 
THE   CONFLICT  WITH   DEMOCRACY.    1789-1827 

LI.  England  and  the  French  Revolution.     1789-1795  539 
LII.  The    Union    with    Irel.\nd    and    Trouble    with 

France.     1795- 1804  .....  545 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

LIII.  The  Ascendancy  of  Napoleon.     1804-1807  .         .  555 

LIV.  The  Downfall  of  Napoleon.     1807-1814  .         .  562 

LV.  England  after  Waterloo.    1815-1877      .  .         .  569 


PART    XI 
THE   GROWTH   OF  DEMOCRACY.    1827-1910 

LVI.  First  Reform  Bill.     Catholic  Emancipation  and 

Parliamentary  Reform.     1827- 1832  .         ,   581 

LVII.  The  Reformers  in  Power.    1832-1841      .         ,         .   591 

LVIII.  Free  Trade.     1841-1852  .....  602 

LIX.  The  Crimean  War  and  the  End  of  the  East  India 

Company.     1852-1858        .         .         .         .         .611 

LX.  Antecedents  and  Results  of  the  Second  Reform 

Bill.     1857- 1874        ......  620 

LXI.  The    Last    Years   of   the    Nineteenth    Century. 

1874-1910. 632 

Bibliography  „         ,         ^         .         .         .         .         .         .  643 

Index  ....„».•...  651 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Battle  of  Marston  Moor  (Photogravure) 

William  the  Conqueror  Grants  Special  Privileges 

King  John  Confirming  the  Great  Charter 

Edward  I.  Presents  the  First  Prince  of  Wales 

Richard  II.  Resigns  THE  Crown 

Murder  of  the  Children  of  Edward  IV. 

Caxton  Exhibits  His  Press  to  Edward  IV. 

Henry  VIII.  ..... 

Henry  VIII.  Woos  Anne  Boleyn 
Edward  VI.  ..... 

Mary  I.  ) 

Lady  Jane  Grey     (         *         '         *         * 

Queen  Elizabeth  "| 

William  Cecil,  Loud  Burghley     J 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh  and  His  Son 

William  Shakespeare 

Sir  P'rancis  Bacon 

James  I. 

Charles  I. 

Oliver  Cromwell 

Lord  Strafford  on  the  Road  to  Execution 

John  Milton  ..... 

Death  W^\rrant  of  Charles  I. 
Charles  II.  ..... 

Sir  Isaac  Newton     | 
John  Locke  j     ' 

James   II.   Hears   News  of  the  Landing  of  the 
Orange  ..... 

John  Churchill,  Duke  of  Marlborough 
William  I^itt         ..... 

Young  Watt  Watching  the  Action  of  Steam 
Lord  Nelson  ...... 


']■ 


Prin 


Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

.  66 
.  126 

.  144 
.  186 

.  220 

.  230 
•  236 

.  246 
,  264 

.  270 


274 

298 
302 

310 
321 

352 
360 

418 

.  428 

.  454 
.  500 

•  534 

•  54^' 


CE  OF 


xiv  LIST     OF     ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING  PAGE 

George  III.             .....        .:        ,„  .  .  570 

Queen  Victoria              .....        ,»,  .,,  .  594 

John  Stuart  Mill  "| 

Charles  Robert  Darwin       |          •         •         •        »;  ;.  .      2 

Benjamin  Disraeli,  Earl  of  Beaconsfield  .,        «  ^  „  624 


TEXT  MAPS 

PAGE 

Christian  Missions       .....:        .,        ,.,        .     26 

Saxon  England  ........     49 

English  Possessions  in  France      ......   129 

Voyages  of  Discovery  .         .         .         .         .         .         .  232 

The  British  Isles  During  the  Great  Rebellion     .         .         .  350 
The   South   of   England.     1685-1689    .....  432 

India     ............  503 

Siege  of  Sebastopol       .....;.        ;•         .  619 

British  Possessions.     1903    .        ,.,        ..;        „,        ,„        „,        .  631 


PART  I 

ENGLAND  BEFORE  THE  NORMAN 
CONQUEST 


HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Chapter   I 

PREHISTORIC   AND    ROMAN    BRITAIN 

LEADING    DATES 

Cesar's  First  Invasion,  B.C.  55 — Invasion  of  Aulus  Plautius,  A.D. 
43 — Recall  of  Agricola,  A.D.  84 — Severus  in  Britain,  A.D.  208 — 
End  of  the  Roman  Government,  A.D.  410 

COUNTLESS  ages  ago  there  was  a  period  of  time  to  which 
geologists  have  given  the  name  of  the  Pleistocene  Age. 
The  part  of  the  earth's  surface  afterwards  called  Britain 
was  then  attached  to  the  Continent,  so  that  animals  conld  pass 
over  on  dry  land.  The  climate  was  much  colder  than  it  is  now,  and 
it  is  known  from  the  bones  which  have  been  dug  up  that  the 
country  was  inhabited  by  wolves,  bears,  mammoths,  woolly  rhinoce- 
roses, and  other  creatures  now  extinct.  No  human  remains  have 
been  found  amongst  these  bones,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  men 
existed  contemporaneously  with  their  deposits,  because,  in  the  river 
drift,  or  gravel  washed  down  by  rivers,  there  have  been  discovered 
flints  sharpened  by  chipping,  which  can  only  have  been  produced  by 
the  hand  of  man.  The  men  who  used  them  are  known  as  Palseolithic, 
or  the  men  of  ancient  stone,  because  these  stone  implements  are 
rougher  and  therefore  older  than  others  which  have  been  discovered. 
This  race  was  succeeded  by  another  which  dwelt  in  caves. 
They,  as  well  as  their  predecessors,  are  known  as  Palaeolithic  men, 
as  their  weapons  were  still  very  rude.  They  possessed  a  decided 
artistic  power,  which  cnablcfl  them  to  indicate  by  a  few  vigorous 
scratches  the  forms  of  horses,  mammoths,  reindeer,  and  other 
animals.  Vast  heaps  of  rubbish  still  exist  in  various  parts  of 
Europe,  which  are  found  to  consist  of  the  bones,  shells,  and  other 
refuse  thrown  out  by  these  later  Pal.'colithic  men,  who  had  no 
reverence  for  llic  dead,  casting  out  tlicir  relations  to  decay. 
Traces  of  Palieolithic  men  of  this  type  have  been   found  as   far 


4i  ENGLAND 

north  as  Derbyshire.  Their  descendants  are  no  longer  to  be  met 
with  in  these  islands.  The  Eskimos  of  the  extreme  north  of 
America,  however,  have  the  same  artistic  faculty  and  the  same 
disregard  for  the  dead,  and  it  has  therefore  been  supposed  that  the 
cave-dwelling  men  were  of  the  ra-ce  to  which  the  modern  Eskimos 
belong. 

Ages  passed  away,  during  which  the  climate  became  more  tem- 
perate, and  the  earth's  surface  in  these  regions  sank  to  a  lower 
level.  The  seas  afterwards  known  as  the  North  Sea  and  the  English 
Channel  flowed  aver  the  depression ;  and  an  island  was  thus  formed 
out  of  land  which  had  once  been  part  of  the  continent.  After 
this  process  had  taken  place  a  third  race  appeared,  which  must 
have  crossed  the  sea  in  rafts  or  canoes,  and  which  took  the  place  of 
the  Palaeolithic  men.  They  are  known  as  Neolithic,  or  men  of  the 
new  stone  age,  because  their  stone  implements  were  of  a  newer  kind, 
being  polished  and  more  efficient  than  those  of  their  predecessors. 
They  had,  therefore,  the  advantage  of  superior  weapons,  and  per- 
haps of  superior  strength,  and  were  able  to  overpower  those  whom 
they  found  in  the  island.  With  their  stone  axes  they  made  clearings 
in  the  woods  in  which  to  place  their  settlements.  They  brought 
with  them  domestic  animals,  they  spun  thread  and  wove  it,  they 
grew  corn  and  manufactured  a  rude  kind  of  pottery.  Each  tribe 
lived  in  a  state  of  war  with  its  neighbors.  There  is  little  doubt 
that  these  men,  whose  way  of  life  was  so  superior  to  that  of  their 
Eskimo-like  predecessors,  were  of  the  race  now  known  as  Iberian, 
which  at  one  time  inhabited  a  great  part  of  Western  Europe,  but 
which  has  since  mingled  with  other  races.  The  Basques  of  the 
Pyrenees  are  the  only  Iberians  who  still  preserve  anything  like  purity 
of  descent. 

The  Iberians  were  followed  by  a  swarm  of  newcomers  called 
Celts.  The  Celts  belong  to  a  group  of  races  sometimes  known  as 
the  Aryan  group,  to  which  also  belong  Teutons,  Slavonians,  Italians, 
Greeks,  and  the  chief  ancient  races  of  Persia  and  India.  The  Celts 
were  the  first  to  arrive  in  the  West,  where  they  seized  upon  lands 
in  Spain,  in  Gaul,  and  in  Britain,  which  the  Iberians  had  occupied 
before  them.  They  did  not,  however,  destroy  the  Iberians  aho- 
gether.  Plowever  careful  a  conquering  tribe  may  be  to  preserve 
the  purity  of  its  blood,  it  rarely  succeeds  in  doing  so.  Every 
European  population  is  derived  from  many  races.  The  Celts  were 
fair-haired  and  taller  than  the  Iberians,  whom  they  conquered  or 


ROMANBRITAIN  5 

330  B.C. 

displaced.  They  had  the  advantage  of  being-  possessed  of  weapons 
of  bronze,  for  which  even  the  poHshed  stone  weapons  of  the  Iberians 
were  no  match.  They  burned  instead  of  burying  their  dead,  and 
raised  over  the  ashes  round  barrows. 

The  eariiest  known  name  given  to  this  island  was  Albion.  It 
is  uncertain  whether  the  word  is  of  Celtic  or  of  Iberian  origin.  The 
later  name  Britain  is  derived  from  a  second  swarm  of  Celts  called 
Blythons  or  Britons,  who  after  a  long  interval  followed  the  first 
Celtic  immigration.  The  descendants  of  these  first  immigrants  are 
distinguished  from  the  newcomers  by  the  name  of  Goidels,  and  it  is 
probable  that  they  were  at  one  time  settled  in  Britain ;  when  history 
begins  Goidels  were  only  to  be  found  in  Ireland,  though  at  a 
later  time  they  colonized  a  part  of  what  is  now  known  as  Scotland, 
and  sent  some  offshoots  into  Wales.  At  present  the  languages 
derived  from  that  of  the  Goidels  are  the  Gaelic  of  the  Highlands, 
the  Manx  of  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  the  Erse  of  Ireland.  The 
only  language  now  spoken  in  the  British  Isles  which  is  derived  from 
that  of  the  Britons  is  the  Welsh ;  but  the  old  Cornish  language, 
which  was  spoken  nearly  up  to  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
came  from  the  same  stock.  It  is  therefore  likely  that  the  Britons 
pushed  the  Goidels  northward  and  westward,  as  the  Goidels  had 
formerly  pushed  the  Iberians  in  the  same  directions.  It  was  most 
likely  that  the  Britons  erected  the  huge  stone  circle  of  Stonehenge 
on  Salisbury  Plain. 

The  most  civilized  nations  of  the  ancient  world  were  those 
which  dwelt  round  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  It  was  long  supposed 
that  the  PhcEnicians  came  to  Britain  from  the  coast  of  Syria,  or 
from  their  colonies  at  Carthage  and  in  the  south  of  Spain,  for  the 
tin  which  they  needed  for  the  manufacture  of  bronze,  but  the  belief 
that  Phoenicians  visited  Britain  must  be  considered  to  be  very  doubt- 
ful. The  first  educated  visitor  who  reached  Britain  was  Pytheas, 
a  Greek,  who  was  sent  by  the  merchants  of  the  Greek  colony  of 
Massalia  (Marseilles)  about  330  b.c.  to  make  discoveries  which 
might  lead  to  the  opening  across  Gaul,  of  a  trade-route  between 
Britain  and  their  city.  It  was  probably  in  consequence  of  the  infor- 
mation which  he  carried  to  Massalia  on  his  return  that  there  sprang 
up  a  trade  in  British  tin.  Another  Greek,  Posidonius,  who  came 
to  Britain  about  two  centuries  after  Pytheas,  found  this  trade  in  full 
working  order. 

During  the  time  when  this  trade  was  being  carried  on,  tribes 


6  ENGLAND 

55  B.C. 

of  Gauls  and  Belgians  landed  in  Britain.  The  Gauls  were  certainly, 
and  the  Belgians  probably,  of  the  same  Celtic  face  as  that  which 
already  occupied  the  island.  Nothing  is  known  of  the  relations 
between  the  newcomers  and  the  older  Celtic  inhabitants.  At  all 
events,  states  of  some  extent  were  formed  by  the"  conquerors,  thus 
the  Cantii,  the  Trinobantes,  the  Iceni,  and  the  Catuvellauni.  Though 
there  were  other  states  in  Britain,  the  tribes  which  have  been  named 
had  the  advantage  of  being  situated  on  the  southeastern  part  of  the 
island,  and  therefore  of  being  in  commercial  communication  with 
the  continental  Gauls  of  their  own  race  and  language.  Trade  in- 
creased, and  brought  with  it  the  introduction  of  some  things  which 
the  Britons  would  not  have  invented  for  themselves.  For  instance, 
the  inhabitants  of  the  southeast  of  Britain  began  to  use  gold 
coins  and  decorations  in  imitation  of  those  which  were  then  common 
in  Gaul.  Yet,  in  spite  of  these  improvements,  even  the  most 
civilized  Britons  were  still  in  a  rude  and  barbarous  condition.  They 
had  no  towns,  but  dwelt  in  scattered  huts.  When  they  went  out 
to  battle  they  dyed  their  faces  in  order  to  terrify  theif  enemies. 
Their  warriors  made  use  of  chariots,  dashing  in  them  along  the 
front  of  the  enemy's  line  till  they  espied  an  opening  in  his  ranks. 
They  then  leaped  down  and  charged  on  foot  into  the  gap.  Their 
charioteers  in  the  meanwhile  drove  off  the  horses  to  a  safe  distance, 
so  as  to  be  ready  to  take  up  their  comrades  if  the  battle  went 
against  them.  The  Celtic  races  worshiped  many  gods.  In  Gaul, 
the  Druids,  who  were  the  ministers  of  religion,  taught  the  doctrine 
of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  and  even  gave  moral  instruction  to 
the  young.  In  Ireland,  and  perhaps  in  Britain,  they  were  conjurers 
and  wizards.  Both  in  Gaul  and  Britain  they  kept  up  the  traditional 
belief  which  had  once  been  prevalent  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  that 
the  gods  could  only  be  appeased  by  human  sacrifices.  Sometimes 
a  Druid  would  cut  open  a  single  human  victim,  and  would  imagine 
that  he  could  foretell  the  future  by  inspecting  the  size  and  appear- 
ance of  the  entrails. 

In  the  year  55  B.C.  the  Celts  of  southeastern  Britain  first  came 
in  contact  with  a  Roman  army.  The  Romans  were  a  civilized 
people,  and  had  been  engaged  for  some  centuries  in  conquering  the 
peoples  living  round  the  Mediterranean.  They  possessed  disci- 
plined armies,  and  a  regular  government.  By  the  beginning  of 
the  year  the  Roman  general.  Gains  Julius  Ca.sar,  had  made  himself 
master  of  Gaul.     To  CcCsar  the  idea  of  invading  Britain  was  really 


ROMAN     BRITAIN  7 

54  B.C. 

to  prevent  the  Britons  from  coming  to  the  help  of  their  kindred 
whom  he  had  just  subdued,  and  he  would  accomplish  this  object  best 
by  landing  on  their  shores  and  showing  them  how  formidable  a 
Roman  army  was.  Accordingly,  towards  the  end  of  August,  Caesar 
crossed  the  straits  with  about  10,000  men.  He  probably  first  ap- 
peared off  the  spot  at  which  Dover  now  stands,  and  then,  being 
alarmed  at  the  number  of  the  Britons  who  had  crowded  to  defend 
the  coast,  made  his  way  by  sea  to  the  site  of  the  modern  Deal. 
There,  too,  his  landing  was  opposed,  but  he  managed  to  reach  the 
shore  with  his  army.  He  soon  found,  however,  that  the  season  was 
too  advanced  to  enable  him  to  accomplish  anything  and  he  returned 
to  Gaul. 

Caesar  had  hitherto  failed  to  strike  terror  into  the  Britons.  In 
the  following  year  he  started  in  July,  so  as  to  have  many  weeks  of 
fine  weather  before  him,  taking  with  him  as  many  as  25,000  foot 
and  2,000  horse.  After  effecting  a  landing  he  pushed  inland,  de- 
feated the  natives  and  captured  one  of  their  stockades.  Caesar  was 
recalled  to  the  coast  by  the  news  that  the  waves  had  dashed  to 
pieces  a  large  number  of  his  ships.  As  soon  as  he  had  repaired  the 
damage  he  resumed  his  march.  His  principal  opponent  was 
Cassivelaunus,  the  chief  of  the  tribe  of  the  Catuvellauni,  who  had 
subdued  many  of  the  neighboring  tribes,  and  whose  stronghold 
was  a  stockade  near  the  modern  St.  Albans.  This  chief  and  his 
followers  harassed  the  march  of  the  Romans  with  the  rush  of  their 
chariots.  If  Cassivelaunus  could  have  counted  upon  the  continued 
support  of  all  his  warriors,  he  might  perhaps  have  succeeded  in  forc- 
ing Caesar  to  retreat,  as  the  country  was  covered  with  wood  and 
difficult  to  penetrate.  Many  of  the  tribes,  however,  which  now 
served  under  him  longed  to  free  themselves  from  his  rule.  First 
the  Trinobantes  and  then  four  other  tribes  broke  away  from  him 
and  sought  the  protection  of  Caesar.  Caesar,  thus  encouraged, 
dashed  at  his  stockade  and  carried  it  by  storm.  Cassivelaunus 
abandoned  the  struggle,  gave  hostages  to  Caesar,  and  promised  to 
pay  a  yearly  tribute.  On  this  Cresar  returned  to  Gaul.  Though 
the  tribute  was  never  paid,  he  had  gained  his  object.  He  had 
sufficiently  frightened  the  Britisli  tribes  to  make  it  unlikely  that 
they  would  give  him  any  annoyance  in  Gaul. 

For  nearly  a  century  after  Ccesar's  departure  Britain  .was  left 
to  itself.  The'  Catuvellauni  recovered  the  predominance  which  they 
had  lost.     The  prosperity  of  the  inhabitants  of  southeastern  Britain 


8  ENGLAND 

54   B.C. -43  A.D. 

increased  more  rapidly  than  the  prosperity  of  their  ancestors  had 
increased  before  Caesar's  invasion.  Traders  continued  to  flock 
over  from  Gaul,  bringing  with  them  a  knowledge  of  the  arts  and 
refinements  of  civilized  life,  and  those  arts  and  refinements  were  far 
greater  now  that  Gaul  was  under  Roman  rule  than  they  had  been 
when  its  Celtic  tribes  were  still  independent.  Yet,  in  spite  of  the 
growth  of  trade,  Britain  was  still  a  rude  and  barbarous  country. 
Its  exports  were  but  cattle  and  hides,  corn,  slaves,  and  hunting 
dogs,  together  with  a  few  dusky  pearls. 

The  Roman  state  was  now  a  monarchy.  The  emperor  was 
the  head  of  the  army,  as  well  as  the  head  of  the  state.  He,  for  the 
most  part,  sought  to  establish  his  power  by  giving  justice  to  the 
provinces  which  had  once  been  conquered  by  Rome,  but  were 
now  admitted  to  share  in  the  advantages  of  good  government  which 
the  Empire  had  to  give.  One  consequence  of  the  conquest  of 
nations  by  Rome  was  that  there  was  now  an  end  to  cruel  wars  be- 
tween hostile  tribes.  An  army  was  stationed  on  the  frontier  of 
the  Empire  to  defend  it  against  barbarian  attacks.  In  the  interior 
the  Roman  peace,  as  it  was  called,  prevailed,  and  there  was  hardly 
any  need  of  soldiers  to  keep  order  and  to  maintain  obedience. 

One  question  which  each  emperor  had  to  ask  himself  was 
whether  he  would  attempt  to  enlarge  the  limits  of  the  empire  or 
not.  For  a  time  each  emperor  had  resolved  to  be  content  with 
the  frontier  which  Ca:sar  had  left.  There  had  consequently  for 
many  years  been  no  thought  of  again  invading  Britain.  At  last  the 
Emperor  Claudius  reversed  this  policy.  There  is  reason  to  suppose 
that  some  of  the  British  chiefs  had  made  an  attack  upon  the  coasts 
of  Gaul.  However  this  may  have  been,  Claudius  in  43  a.  d.  sent 
Aulus  Plautius.  Where  one  tribe  has  gained  supremacy  over  others, 
it  is  always  easy  for  a  civilized  power  to  gain  allies  among  the 
tribes  which  have  been  subdued.  Aulus  Plautius  now  enlisted  on 
his  side  the  Regni,  wdio  dwelt  in  the  present  Sussex,  and  the  Iceni, 
who  dwelt  in  the  present  Norfolk  and  Suffolk.  \Vith  their  aid, 
Aulus  I^lautius,  at  the  head  of  40,000  men,  defeated  the  Catuvel- 
launi.  The  Romans  tlien  took  possession  of  their  lands,  and,  step- 
ping into  their  jilace,  established  over  the  tril)es  chieftains  who 
were  now  dejjcndcnt  on  the  emperor.  Claudius  himself  came  for  a 
brief  visit  to  receive  the  congratulations  of  the  army  C)n  the  victory 
wdiich  liis  lieutenant  had  won.  Aulus  Plautius  remained  in  I'ritain 
till  47  A.  D.    Before  he  left  it  the  whole  of  the  country  to  the  south  of 


ROMAN     BRITAIN  9 

47-58  A.D. 

a  line  drawn  from  the  Wash  to  some  point  on  the  Severn  had  been 
subjugated.  The  mines  of  the  Mendips  and  of  the  western  penin- 
sula were  too  tempting  to  be  left  unconquered,  and  it  is  probably 
their  attraction  which  explains  the  extension  of  Roman  power  at 
so  early  a  date  over  the  hilly  country  in  the  west. 

In  47  A.  D.  Aulus  Plautius  was  succeeded  by  Ostorius  Scapula. 
He  disarmed  the  tribes  dwelling  to  the  west  of  the  Trent,  while  he 
attempted  to  establish  the  Roman  authority  more  firmly  over  those 
whose  territory  lay  to  the  east  of  that  river.  He  then  sought  to 
strengthen  his  hold  upon  the  southeast  of  Britain  by  founding  (51 
A.  D.)  a  Roman  colony  at  Camulodunum,  which  had  formerly  been 
the  headquarters  of  the  Catuvellauni.  Roman  settlers — for  the  most 
part  discharged  soldiers — established  themselves  in  the  new  city, 
bringing  with  them  all  that  belonged  to  Roman  life  with  all  its 
conveniences  and  luxuries.  Roman  temples,  theaters,  and  baths 
quickly  rose,  and  Ostorius  might  fairly  expect  that  in  Britain,  as 
in  Gaul,  the  native  chiefs  would  learn  to  copy  the  easy  life  of  the 
new  citizens,  and  would  settle  their  quarrels  in  Roman  courts  of 
law  instead  of  taking  arms  on  their  own  behalf. 

Ostorius,  however,  was  soon  involved  in  fresh  troubles.  The 
tribes  beyond  the  line  which  Ostorius  held  were  constantly  breaking 
through  to  plunder  the  Roman  territoiy,  and  he  soon  found  that 
he  must  either  allow  the  lands  of  Roman  subjects  to  be  plundered, 
or  must  carry  war  among  the  hostile  tribes.  He  naturally  chose 
the  latter  alternative,  and  the  last  years  of  his  government  were 
spent  in  wars  with  the  Ordovices  of  central  Wales,  and  with  the 
Silures  of  southern  Wales.  The  mountainous  region  which  these 
two  tribes  defended  made  it  difficult  to  subdue  them.  The  proof 
of  his  comparative  failure  lies  in  the  fact  that  he  established  strong 
garrison  towns  along  the  frontier  of  the  hilly  region,  which  he 
would  not  have  done  unless  he  had  considered  it  necessary  to  have 
a  large  number  of  soldiers  ready  to  check  any  possible  rising.  At 
the  northern  end  of  the  line  was  Deva  (Chester),  at  the  southern 
was  Isca  Silurum  {Caerleon  upon  Usk),  and  in  each  of  which  was 
placed  a  whole  legion,  about  5,000  men.  Between  them  was  the 
smaller  post  of  Uriconium,  or  more  properly  Viriconium 
{Wroxtcr),  the  city  of  the  Wrekin. 

When  Suetonius  Paullinus  arrived  to  take  up  the  government 
he  resolved  to  complete  the  conquest  of  the  west  by  an  attack  on 
Mona  (Anglesey).    In  Mona  was   a   sacred   place   of   the   Druids, 


10  ENGLAND 

61-78   A.D 

who  gave  encouragement  to  the  still  independent  Britons  by  their 
murderous  sacrifices  and  their  soothsayings.  At  first  the  soldiers 
were  terrified  and  shrunk  back.  Then  they  recovered  courage,  and 
put  to  the  sword  or  thrust  into  the  flames  the  priests  and  their 
female  rout.  The  Romans  were  tolerant  of  the  religion  of  the 
peoples  whom  they  subdued,  but  they  could  not  put  up  with  the 
continuance  of  a  cruel  superstition  whose  upholders  preached  resis- 
tance to  the  Roman  government. 

At  the  very  moment  of  success  Suetonius  was  recalled  hurriedly 
to  the  east.  Roman  officers  and  traders  had  misused  the  power 
which  had  been  given  them  by  the  valor  of  Roman  soldiers. 
Might  had  been  taken  for  right,  and  the  natives  were  stripped  of 
their  lands  and  property  at  the  caprice  of  the  conquerors.  Those 
who  resisted  this  oppression  were  treated  as  the  meanest  criminals. 
Boadicea,  the  widow  of  Prasutagus,  who  had  been  the  chief  of  the 
Iceni,  was  publicly  flogged,  and  her  two  daughters  were  subjected 
to  the  vilest  outrage.  She  called  upon  the  whole  Celtic  population 
of  the  east  and  south  to  rise  against  the  foreign  tyrants.  Thou- 
sands answered  to  her  call,  and  the  angry  host  rushed  to  take 
vengeance  upon  the  colonists  of  Camulodunum.  The  colonists  had 
neglected  to  fortify  their  city,  and  the  insurgents,  bursting  in,  slew 
by  the  sword  or  by  torture  men  and  women  alike.  The  massacre 
spread  wherever  Romans  were  to  be  found.  A  Roman  legion 
hastening  to  the  rescue  was  routed,  and  the  small  force  of  cavalry 
attached  to  it  alone  succeeded  in  making  its  escape.  Every  one  of 
the  foot  soldiers  was  slaughtered  on  the  spot.  It  is  said  that  70,000 
Romans  perished  in  the  course  of  a  few  days. 

Suetonius  was  no  mean  general,  and  he  hastened  back  to  the 
scene  of  destruction.  He  won  a  decisive  victory  at  some  unknown 
spot,  probably  not  far  from  Camulodunum,  and  80,000  Britons  are 
reported  to  have  been  slain  by  the  triumphant  soldiery.  Boadicea 
committed  suicide  by  poison.  Suetonius  had  now  restored  the  Roman 
authority  in  Britain,  but  it  was  to  his  failure  to  control  his  sub- 
ordinates that  the  insurrection  had  been  due,  and  he  was  therefore 
promptly  recalled  by  the  Emperor  Nero.  From  that  time  no  more 
is  heard  of  the  injustice  of  the  Roman  government. 

Agricola,  who  arrived  as  governor  in  78  a.  d.,  took  care  to  deal 
fairly  with  all  sorts  of  men,  and  to  make  the  natives  thoroughly 
satisfied  with  his  rule.  He  completed  the  conquest  of  the  country 
afterwards    known    as    Wales,    and    thereby    pushed    the    western 


ROMANBRITAIN  11 

78-208  A.D. 

frontier  of  Roman  Britain  to  the  sea.  Yet  from  the  fact  that  he 
found  it  necessary  still  to  leave  garrisons  at  Deva  and  Isca  Silurum, 
it  may  be  gathered  that  the  tribes  occupying  the  hill  country  were 
not  so  thoroughly  subdued  as  to  cease  to  be  dangerous.  Although 
the  idea  entertained  by  Ostorius  of  making  a  frontier  on  land 
towards  the  west  had  thus  been  abandoned,  it  was  still  necessary  to 
provide  a  frontier  towards  the  north.  Agricola  continued  the  work 
of  conquest.  He  now  governed  the  whole  of  the  country  as  far 
north  as  to  the  Solway  and  the  Tyne,  and  he  made  Eboracum,  the 
name  of  which  changed  in  course  of  time  into  York,  the  center  of 
Roman  power  in  the  northern  districts.  A  garrison  was  established 
there  to  watch  for  any  danger  which  might  come  from  the  extreme 
north,  as  the  garrisons  of  Deva  and  Isca  Silurum  watched  for 
dangers  which  might  come  from  the  west. 

Agricola  thought  that  there  would  be  no  real  peace  unless  the 
whole  island  was  subdued.  For  seven  years  he  carried  on  warfare 
with  this  object  before  him.  He  had  comparatively  little  difficulty 
in  reducing  to  obedience  the  country  south  of  the  narrow  isthmus 
which  separates  the  estuary  of  the  Clyde  from  the  estuary  of  the 
Forth.  Before  proceeding  further  he  drew  a  line  of  forts  across 
that  isthmus  to  guard  the  conquered  country  from  attack  during 
his  absence.  He  then  made  his  way  to  the  Tay,  but  he  had  not 
marched  far  up  the  valley  of  that  river  before  he  reached  the  edge 
of  the  Highlands.  He  there  met  the  Caledonians  and  gained  a 
complete  victory,  but  soon  was  recalled  by  the  Emperor  Domitian. 
It  has  often  been  said  that  Domitian  was  jealous  of  his  success;  but 
it  is  possible  that  the  emperor  really  thought  that  the  advantage  to 
be  gained  by  the  conquest  of  rugged  mountains  would  be  more  than 
counterbalanced  by  the  losses  which  would  certainly  be  incurred  in 
consequence  of  the  enormous  difficulty  of  the  task. 

Agricola,  in  addition  to  his  line  of  forts  between  the  Forth  and 
the  Clyde,  had  erected  detached  forts  at  the  mouth  of  the  valleys 
which  issue  from  the  Highlands,  in  order  to  hinder  the  Caledonians 
from  plundering  the  lower  country.  In  119  the  Emperor  Hadrian 
visited  Britain.  He  was  more  disposed  to  defend  the  empire  than 
to  extend  it.  and  though  he  did  not  abandon  Agricola's  forts,  he 
also  built  further  south  a  continuous  earthwork  l)etween  the  Solway 
and  the  Tyne.  At  a  later  time  Antoninus  Pius  connected  Agricola's 
forts  between  the  Forth  and  Clyde  by  a  continuous  earthwork. 
In    208    the    Emperor    Severus    arrived    in    Britain,    and    after 


12  ENGLAND 

208-238 

strengthening  still  further  the  earthwork  between  the  Forth  and 
Clyde,  and  adding  a  stone  wall  to  the  more  southern  work  of  Ha- 
drian, attempted  to  carry  out  the  plans  of  Agricola  by  conquering 
the  land  of  the  Caledonians.  Severus,  however,  failed  as  com- 
pletely as  Agricola  had  failed  before  him,  and  he  died  soon  after 
his  return  to  Eboracum. 

Very  little  is  known  of  the  history  of  the  Roman  province 
of  Britain,  except  that  it  made  considerable  progress  in  civilization. 
The  Romans  were  great  road-makers,  and  though  their  first  object 
was  to  enable  their  soldiers  to  march  easily  from  one  part  of  the 
country  to  another,  they  thereby  encouraged  commercial  intercourse. 
Forests  were  to  some  extent  cleared  away  by  the  sides  of  the  new 
roads,  and  fresh  ground  was  thrown  open  to  tillage.  Mines  were 
worked  and  country  houses  bifilt,  the  remains  of  which  are  in 
some  places  still  to  be  seen,  and  bear  testimony  to  the  increased 
well-being  of  a  population  which,  excepting  in  the  southeastern  part 
of  the  island,  had  at  the  arrival  of  the  Romans  been  little  removed 
from  savager}'.  Cities  sprang  up  in  great  numbers.  Some  of 
them  were  at  first  garrison  towns,  like  Eboracum,  Deva,  and  Isca 
Silurum.  Aqu^e  Sulis,  the  modern  Bath,  owes  its  existence  to  its 
warm  medicinal  springs.  The  chief  port  of  commerce  was  Lon- 
dinium,  the  modern  London.  Attempts  which  have  been  made  to 
explain  its  name  by  the  Celtic  language  have  failed,  and  it  is  there- 
fore possible  that  an  inhabited  post  existed  there  even  before  the 
Celts  arrived.  Its  importance  was,  however,  owing  to  its  position, 
and  that  importance  was  not  of  a  kind  to  tell  before  a  settled 
system  of  commercial  intercourse  sprang  up.  London  was  situated 
on  the  hill  on  which  St.  Paul's  now  stands.  There  first,  after  the 
Thames  narrowed  into  a  river,  the  merchant  found  close  to  the 
stream  hard  ground  on  which  he  could  land  his  goods.  The  valley 
for  some  distance  above  and  below  it  was  then  filled  with  a  wide 
marsh  or  an  expanse  of  water.  An  old  track  raised  above  the 
marsh  crossed  the  river  by  a  ford  at  Lambeth,  but,  as  London 
grew  in  importance,  a  ferry  was  established  where  London  Bridge 
now  stands,  and  the  Romans,  in  course  of  time,  superseded  the 
ferry  by  a  bridge.  It  is.  therefore,  no  wonder  that  the  Roman 
roads  both  from  the  north  and  from  the  south  converged  upon 
London.  Just  as  Eboracum  was  a  fitting  center  for  military  opera- 
tions directed  to  the  defense  of  the  northern  frontier,  London  was 
:he  fitting  center  of  a  trade  carried  on  with  the  Continent,  and  the 


ROMAN     BRITAIN  13 

208-288 

place  would  increase  in  importance  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of 
that  trade. 

The  improvement  of  communications  and  the  growth  of  trade 
and  industry  could  not  fail  to  influence  the  mind  of  the  population. 
Wars  between  tribes,  which  before  the  coming  of  the  Romans  had 
been  the  main  employment  of  the  young  and  hardy,  were  now 
things  of  the  past.  The  active  and  enterprising  young  men  were 
attracted  to  the  cities,  at  first  by  the  novelty  of  the  luxurious  habits 
in  which  they  were  taught  to  indulge,  but  afterwards  because  they 
were  allowed  to  take  part  in  the  management  of  local  business. 
In  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Caracalla,  the  son  of  Severus,  every 
freeman  born  in  the  empire  was  declared  to  be  a  Roman  citizen, 
and  long  before  that  a  large  number  of  natives  had  been  admitted 
to  citizenship.  In  each  district  a  council  was  formed  of  the 
wealthier  and  more  prominent  inhabitants,  and  this  council  had  to 
provide  for  the  building  of  temples,  the  holding  of  festivals,  the 
erection  of  fortifications,  and  the  laying  out  of  streets.  Justice  was 
done  between  man  and  man  according  to  the  Roman  law,  which 
was  tlie  best  law  that  the  world  had  seen,  and  the  Ingher  Roman 
officials,  who  were  appointed  by  the  emperor,  took  care  that  justice 
was  done  between  city  and  city.  No  one  therefore  wished  to 
oppose  the  Roman  government  or  to  bring  back  tlie  old  times  of 
barbarism. 

Great  as  was  the  progress  made,  there  was  something  still 
wanting.  A  people  is  never  at  its  best  unless  those  who  compose 
it  have  some  object  for  which  they  can  sacrifice  themselves,  and  for 
which,  if  necessary,  they  will  die.  The  Briton  had  ceased  to  be 
called  upon  to  die  for  his  tribe,  and  he  was  not  expected  to  die  for 
Britain.  Britain  had  become  a  more  comfortable  country  to  live 
in,  but  it  was  not  the  l)usiness  of  its  own  inhabitants  to  guard  it. 
It  was  a  mere  part  of  the  vast  Roman  Empire,  and  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  emperors  to  see  that  the  frontier  was  safely  kept.  They 
were  so  much  afraid  lest  any  particular  province  should  wish  to 
set  up  for  itself  and  to  break  away  frcjm  the  empire,  that  lliey  took 
care  not  to  employ  soldiers  born  in  that  province  for  its  ])rotection. 
They  sent  British  recruits  to  guard  the  Danube  or  the  Euplirates, 
and  Gauls,  S])aniards,  or  iVfricans  to  guard  t!ic  wall  between  the 
Solway  and  the  Tyne  and  the  entrenchment  between  tlie  horth 
and  the  Clyde.  Britons,  therefore,  looked  on  their  own  defense 
as  something  to  be  done  f(jr  them  by  the  emperors,  not  as  some- 


14  ENGLAND 

288-314 

thing  to  be  done  by  themselves.  They  lived  on  friendly  terms 
with  one  another,  but  they  had  nothing  of  what  we  now  call 
patriotism. 

The  Emperor  Diocletian  (285 — 305)  discovered  that  the 
whole  empire,  stretching  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Atlantic,  was 
too  extensive  for  one  man  to  govern,  and  he  therefore  decreed  that 
there  should  in  future  be  four  governors,  two  principal  ones  named 
emperors  (Augiisti),  and  two  subordinate  ones  named  Caesars. 
Constantius,  first  a  Caesar  and  afterwards  an  emperor,  was  set  to 
govern  Spain,  Gaul,  and  Britain,  but  he  afterwards  became 
emperor  himself,  and  for  some  time  established  himself  at  Ebora- 
cum  (York).  Upon  his  death  (306)  his  son  Constantine,  after 
much  fighting,  made  himself  sole  emperor  (325),  overthrowing 
the  system  of  Diocletian.  Yet  in  one  respect  he  kept  up  Diocle- 
tian's arrangements.  He  placed  Spain,  Gaul,  and  Britain  together 
under  a  great  officer  called  a  vicar,  who  received  orders  from  him- 
self and  who  gave  orders  to  the  officers  who  governed  each  of  the 
three  countries.  Under  the  new  system,  as  under  the  old,  Britain 
was  not  treated  as  an  independent  country.  It  had  still  to  look  for 
protection  to  an  officer  who  lived  on  the  Continent,  and  was  there- 
fore apt  to  be  more  interested  in  Gaul  and  Spain  than  he  was  in 
Britain. 

When  the  Romans  put  down  the  Druids  and  their  bloody  sacri- 
fices, they  called  the  old  Celtic  gods  by  Roman  names,  but  made 
no  furtlT,er  alteration  in  religious  usages.  Gradually,  however, 
Christianity  spread  among  the  Romans  on  the  Continent,  and 
merchants  or  soldiers  who  came  from  the  Continent  introduced  it 
into  Britain.  Scarcely  anything  is  known  of  its  progress  in  the 
island.  Alban  is  said  to  have  been  martyred  at  Verulamium,  and 
Julius  and  Aaron  at  Isca  Silurum.  In  314  three  British  bishops 
attended  a  council  held  at  Aries  in  Gaul.  Little  more  than  these 
few  facts  have  been  handed  down,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  there 
was  a  settled  Church  established  in  the  island.  The  Emperor  Con- 
stantine acknowledged  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  the  whole 
empire.  The  remains  of  a  church  of  this  period  have  recently 
been  discovered  at  Silchester. 

The  Roman  Empire  in  the  time  of  Constantine  had  the  appear- 
ance rather  than  the  reality  of  strength.  Its  taxation  was  very 
heavy,  and  there  was  no  national  enthusiasm  to  lead  men  to  sacrifice 
themselves  in  its  defense.     Roman  citizens  became  more  and  more 


ROMAN     BRITAIN  15 

325-383 

unwilling  to  become  soldiers  at  all,  and  the  Roman  armies  were 
now  mostly  composed  of  barbarians.  At  the  same  time  the  bar- 
barians outside  the  Empire  were  growing  stronger,  as  the  tribes 
often  coalesced  into  wider  confederacies  for  the  purpose  of  attack- 
ing the  Empire. 

The  assailants  of  Britain  on  the  north  and  the  west  were  the 
Picts  and  Scots.  The  Picts  were  the  same  as  the  Caledonians  of 
the  time  of  Agricola.  They  were  probably  Iberians,  and  at  all 
events  they  were  more  savage  than  the  Britons  had  been  before  they 
were  influenced  by  Roman  civilization.  The  Scots,  who  afterwards 
settled  in  vvhat  is  now  known  as  Scotland,  at  that  time  dwelt  in 
Ireland.  Whilst  the  Picts,  therefore,  assailed  the  Roman  province 
by  land,  and  strove,  not  always  unsuccessfully,  to  break  through  the 
walls  which  defended  its  northern  frontier,  the  Scots  crossed  the 
Irish  Sea  in  light  boats  to  plunder  and  slay  before  armed  assistance 
could  arrive. 

The  Saxons,  who  were  no  less  deadly  enemies  of  the  Roman 
government,  were  as  fierce  and  restless  as  the  Picts  and  Scots,  and 
were  better  equipped  and  better  armed.  At  first  they  were  only 
known  as  cruel  and  merciless  pirates.  In  their  long  flat-bottomed 
vessels  they  swooped  down  upon  some  undefended  part  of  the  coast 
and  carried  off  not  only  the  property  of  wealthy  Romans,  but  even 
men  and  women  to  be  sold  in  the  slave-market.  The  provincials  who 
escaped  related  with  peculiar  horror  how  the  Saxons  were  ac- 
customed to  torture  to  death  one  out  of  every  ten  of  their  captives 
as  a  sacrifice  to  their  gods. 

The  Saxons  were  the  more  dangerous  because  it  was  impossible 
for  the  Romans  to  reach  them  in  their  homes.  They  were  men 
of  Teutonic  race,  speaking  one  of  the  languages,  afterwards  known 
as  Low  German,  which  were  once  spoken  in  the  whole  of  North 
Germany.  The  Saxon  pirates  were  probably  drawn  from  the  whole 
of  the  sea  coast  stretching  from  the  north  of  the  peninsula  of  Jut- 
land to  the  mouth  of  the  Ems,  and  if  so,  there  were  among  them 
Jutes,  whose  homes  were  in  Jutland  itself;  Angles,  who  inhabited 
Schleswig  and  Holstein ;  and  Saxons,  properly  so  called,  who 
dwelt  about  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe  and  further  to  the  west.  They 
could  therefore  only  be  successfully  repressed  by  a  power  with  a 
good  fleet,  able  to  seek  out  the  aggressors  in  their  own  homes  and 
to  stop  the  mischief  at  its  source.  The  Romans  had  always  been 
weak  at  sea,  and  they  were  weaker  now  than  they  had  been  in 


16  ENGLAND 

383  410 

earlier  days.  They  were  therefore  obhged  to  content  themselves 
with  standing  on  the  defensive.  Since  the  time  of  Severus,  Britain 
had  been  divided,  for  purposes  of  defense,  into  Upper  and  Lower 
Britain.  Lower  Britain  in  the  early  days  of  the  Roman  conquest 
had  been  in  no  special  need  of  military  protection.  In  the  fourth 
century  it  was  exposed  more  than  the  rest  of  the  island  to  the 
attacks  of  the  Saxon  pirates.  Fortresses  were  erected  between  the 
Wash  and  Beachy  Head  at  every  point  at  which  an  inlet  of  the  sea 
afforded  an  opening  to  an  invader.  The  whole  of  this  part  of  the 
coast  became  known  as  the  Saxon  Shore,  because  it  was  subjected 
to  attacks  from  the  Saxons,  and  a  special  officer  known  as  the 
Count  of  the  Saxon  Shore  was  appointed  to  take  charge  of  it.  An 
officer  known  as  the  Duke  of  the  Britains  {Dux  Bntanniarum) 
commanded  the  armies  of  Upper  Britain;  whilst  a  third,  who  was 
a  civilian,  and  superior  in  rank  over  the  other  two,  was  the  Count 
of  Britain,  and  had  a  general  supervision  of  the  whole  country. 

In  383  Maximus,  who  was  probably  the  Duke  of  the  Britains, 
was  proclaimed  Emperor  by  his  soldiers.  Unhappily  for  the  in- 
habitants of  the  island,  Maximus,  instead  of  remaining  in  Britain, 
carried  a  great  part  of  his  army  across  the  sea  to  attempt  a  conquest 
of  Gaul  and  Spain.  Neither  he  nor  his  soldiers  ever  returned,  and 
in  consequence  the  Roman  garrison  in  the  island  was  deplorably 
weakened.  Early  in  the  fifth  century  an  irruption  of  barbarians 
gave  full  employment  to  the  army  which  defended  Gaul,  so  that  it 
was  impossible  to  replace  the  forces  which  had  followed  Maximus 
by  fresh  troops  from  the  Continent.  The  Roman  Empire  was  in 
fact  breaking  up.  The  defense  of  Britain  was  left  to  the  soldiers 
who  remained  in  the  island,  and  in  409  they  proclaimed  a  certain 
Constantine  Emperor.  Constantine,  like  Maximus,  carried  his 
soldiers  across  the  Channel  in  pursuit  of  a  wider  empire  than  he 
could  find  in  Britain.  He  was  himself  murdered,  and  his  soldiers, 
like  those  of  Maximus,  did  not  return.  In  410  the  Britons 
implored  the  Emperor  Honorius  to  send  them  help.  Honorius  had 
enough  to  do  to  ward  off  the  attacks  of  barbarians  nearer  Rome, 
and  announced  to  the  Britons  that  they  must  provide  for  their  own 
defense.  From  this  time  Britain  ceased  to  form  part  of  the  Roman 
Empire. 


Chapter   II 

THE    ENGLISH    SETTLEMENTS 

LEADING    DATES 

Landing  of  the  Jutes  in  Thanet,  A.D.  449? — The  West  Saxons 
Defeated  at  Mount  Badon,  520 — The  West  Saxons  Take  Sorbio- 
DUNUM,  552 — Battle  of  Deorham,  577 — The  West  Saxons  Defeated 
at  Faddiley,  584 

A  FTER  the  departure  of  the  Romans  the  Picts  from  the 
zLA  north  and  the  Scots  from  Ireland  continued  their  ravages, 
X  Jl  but  though  they  caused  terrible  misery  by  slaughtering  or 
dragging  into  slavery  the  inhabitants  of  many  parts  of  the  country, 
they  did  not  succeed  in  making  any  permanent  conquests.  The 
Britons  were  not  without  a  government  and  an  armed  force ;  and 
their  later  history  shows  that  they  were  capable  of  carrying  on  war 
for  a  long  time  against  enemies  more  formidable  than  the  Picts 
and  Scots.  Their  power  of  resistance  was,  however,  weakened  by 
the  impossibility  of  turning  their  undivided  attention  to  these 
marauders,  as  at  the  same  time  that  they  had  to  defend  the  Roman 
Wall  and  the  western  coast  against  the  Picts  and  Scots,  they  were 
exposed  on  the  eastern  coast  to  the  attacks  of  the  Saxon  pirates. 

In  their  misery  the  thoughts  of  the  Britons  turned  to  those 
Roman  legions  who  had  defended  their  fathers  so  well.  In  446 
they  appealed  to  Actius,  the  commander  of  the  Roman  armies,  to 
deliver  them  from  their  destroyers.  "  The  groans  of  the  Britons  " 
was  the  title  which  they  gave  to  their  appeal  to  him.  "  The  bar- 
barians," they  wrote,  "  drive  us  to  the  sea :  the  sea  drives  us  back 
to  the  barbarians ;  between  them  we  are  exposed  to  two  sorts  of 
death ;  we  are  either  slain  or  drowned."  Aetius  had  no  men  to 
spare,  and  he  sent  no  help  to  the  Britons.  Before  long  the  whole 
of  Western  Europe  was  overrun  bv  barbarian  tribes. 

It  had  been  the  custom  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  employ  bar- 
barians as  soldiers  in  their  armies,  and  Vortigem,  the  Britisli  ruler, 
now  follovs-ed  that  bad  example.  In  or  alwut  449  a  band  of  Jutish 
sea-rovers  landed  at  Ebbsfleet,  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet.  According 
to  tradition  their  leaders  were  Hengist  and  Horsa,  names  signify- 

ir 


18  ENGLAND 

449  7-520 

ing  the  horse  and  the  mare.  Vortigern  took  them  into  his  service 
against  the  Picts,  giving  them  the  Isle  of  Thanet  as  a  dwelHng- 
place  for  themselves.  With  their  help  he  defeated  the  Picts,  but 
afterwards  found  himself  unable  to  defend  himself  against  his  fierce 
auxiliaries.  Thanet  was  still  cut  off  from  the  mainland  by  an 
arm  of  the  sea,  and  the  Jutes  were  strong  enough  to  hold  it  against 
all  assailants.  Their  numbers  rapidly  increased  as  shiploads  of 
their  fellows  landed,  and  they  crossed  the  strait  to  win  fresh  lands 
from  the  Britons  on  the  mainland  of  Kent.  In  several  battles 
Vortigern  was  overpowered.  His  rival  and  successor  drove  back 
the  Jutes  in  turn.  He  did  not  long  keep  the  upper  hand,  and  in 
465  he  was  routed  utterly.  The  defeat  of  the  British  army  was 
followed  by  an  attack  upon  the  great  fortresses  which  had  been 
erected  along  the  Saxon  Shore  in  the  Roman  times.  The  Jutes 
had  no  means  of  carrying  them  by  assault,  but  they  starved  them 
out  one  by  one,  and  some  twenty-three  years  after  their  first 
landing  the  whole  of  the  coast  of  Kent  was  in  their  hands.  A 
fresh  pirate  band — not  of  Jutes,  but  of  Saxons — landed  near  Selsey, 
and  fought  its  way  eastwards,  conquering  the  South  Downs  and 
the  flat  land  between  the  South  Downs  and  the  sea,  till  it  reached 
Anderida.  Anderida  was  starved  out  after  a  long  blockade,  and 
the  Saxons,  bursting  in,  "  slew  all  that  dwelt  therein,  nor  was  there 
henceforth  one  Briton  left."  Its  Saxon  conquerors  came  to  be 
known  as  the  South  Saxons,  and  their  land  as  Sussex. 

Another  swarm,  also  of  Saxons,  called  Gewissas,  landed  on  the 
shore  of  Southampton  Water.  After  a  time  they  were  reinforced 
by  a  body  of  Jutes,  and  though  the  Jutes  formed  settlements  of 
their  own  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  and  on  the  mainland,  the  difference 
of  race  and  language  between  them  and  the  Gewissas  was  not 
enough  to  prevent  the  two  tribes  from  coalescing.  Ultimately 
Gewissas  and  Jutes  became  known  as  West  Saxons,  and  established 
themselves  in  a  district  roughly  corresponding  with  the  modern 
Hampshire.  Then,  having  attempted  to  penetrate  further  west, 
they  were  defeated  at  ]\Iount  Badon.  Their  overthrow  was  so  com- 
plete as  to  check  their  advance  for  more  than  thirty  years.  Whilst 
the  coast  line  from  the  inlet  of  the  sea  now  filled  by  Romney  Marsh 
to  the  western  edge  of  Hampshire  had  thus  been  mastered  by 
Saxons,  others  of  the  same  stock,  knowii  as  East  Saxons,  seized 
upon  the  low  coast  to  the  north  of  the  Thames.  From  them  the 
land  was  called  Essex.     Neither  Saxons  nor  Jutes,  however,  were 


ENGLISH     SETTLEMENTS  19 

4497-520 

as  yet  able  to  penetrate  far  up  the  valley  of  the  Thames,  as  the 
Roman  settlement  of  London,  surrounded  by  marshes,  still  blocked 
the  way. 

The  coast  line  to  the  north  of  the  East  Saxons  was  seized  at 
some  unascertained  dates  by  different  groups  of  Angles.  Two  of 
these  groups  were  known  as  the  North  folk  and  the  South  folk. 
They  gave  their  names  to  Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  and  at  some  later 
time  combined  under  the  name  of  East  Anglians.  North  of  these 
were  the  Lindiswara — that  is  to  say,  the  settlers  about  the  Roman 
Lindum,  the  modern  Lincoln,  and  beyond  them,  stretching  to  the 
Humber,  were  the  Gainas,  from  whom  is  derived  the  name  of  the 
modern  Gainsborough.  To  the  north  of  the  Humber  the  coast  was 
fringed  by  Anglo  settlements  which  had  not  yet  coalesced  into  one. 

The  three  peoples  who  effected  this  conquest  were  afterwards 
known  among  themselves  by  the  common  name  of  Englisli,  a  name 
which  was  originally  equivalent  to  Angle,  while  among  the  whole 
of  the  remaining  Celtic  population  they  were  only  known  as  Saxons. 
The  mode  in  which  the  English  treated  the  Britons  was  very 
different  from  that  of  the  Romans,  who  were  a  civilized  people  and 
aimed  at  governing  a  conquered  race.  The  newcomers  drove  out 
the  Britons  in  order  to  find  homes  for  themselves,  and  they  pre- 
ferred to  settle  in  the  country  rather  than  in  a  town.  No  English- 
man had  ever  lived  in  a  town  in  his  German  home,  or  was  able  to 
appreciate  the  advantages  of  the  commerce  and  manufacture  by 
which  towns  are  supported.  Nor  were  they  inclined  to  allow  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Roman  towns  to  remain  unmolested  in  their 
midst.  What  took  place  in  the  country  cannot  be  certainly  known. 
Many  of  the  British  were  no  doubt  killed.  Many  took  refuge  in 
fens  or  woods,  or  fled  to  those  portions  of  the  island  in  which  their 
countrymen  were  still  independent.  It  is  difficult  to  decide  to  what 
extent  the  men  who  remained  behind  were  spared,  ])nt  it  is  impos- 
sible to  doubt  that  a  considerable  number  of  women  were  preserved 
from  slaughter.  The  conquerors  at  their  landing  must  have  been 
for  the  most  part  young  men,  and  when  they  wanted  wives  it 
would  be  far  easier  for  them  to  seize  the  daughters  of  slain  Britons 
than  to  fetch  women  from  the  banks  of  the  Elbe. 

When  the  newcomers  planted  themselves  on  British  soil,  each 
group  of  families  united  by  kinship  fixed  its  home  in  a  separate 
village  or  townsliip,  to  which  was  given  the  name  of  the  kindred 
followed  Ijv  "  liam  "  or  "  tun,"  the  first  word  meaning  the  liome  or 


20  ENGLAND 

4497-520 

dwelling,  the  second  the  earthen  mound  which  formed  the  defense 
of  the  community.  Thus  Wokingham  is  the  home  of  the  Wok- 
ings,  and  Welhngton  the  "  tun  "  of  the  Welhngs.  Each  man  had 
a  homestead  of  his  own,  with  a  strip  or  strips  of  arable  land  in  an 
open  field.  Beyond  the  arable  land  was  pasture  and  wood,  common 
to  the  whole  township,  every  villager  being  entitled  to  drive  his 
cattle  or  pigs  into  them  according  to  rules  laid  down  by  the  whole 
township. 

The  population  was  divided  into  Eorls  and  Ceorls.  The  Eorl 
was  hereditarily  distinguished  by  birth,  and  the  Ceorl  was  a  simple 
freeman  without  any  such  distinction.  How  the  difference  arose 
we  do  not  know,  but  we  do  know  that  the  Eorl  had  privileges  which 
the  Ceorl  had  not.  Below  the  Ceorls  were  slaves  taken  in  war  or 
condemned  to  slavery  as  criminals.  There  were  also  men  known 
as  Gesiths,  a  word  which  means  "  followers,"  who  were  the  follow- 
ers of  the  chiefs  or  Ealdormen  (Eldermen)  who  led  the  conquerors. 
The  Gesiths  formed  the  war-band  of  the  chief.  They  were  prob- 
ably all  of  them  Eorls,  so  that  though  every  settler  was  either  an 
Eorl  or  a  Ceorl,  some  Eorls  were  also  Gesiths.  This  war-band 
of  Gesiths  was  composed  of  young  men  w^ho  attached  themselves 
to  the  chief  by  a  tie  of  personal  devotion.  It  was  the  highest  glory 
of  the  Gesith  to  die  to  save  his  chief's  life.  Of  one  Gesith  it  is 
told  that,  when  he  saw  a  murderer  aiming  a  dagger  at  his  chief,  he, 
not  having  time  to  seize  the  assassin,  threw  his  body  between  the 
blow  and  his  chief,  and  perished  rather  than  allow  him  to  be  killed. 
It  was  even  held  to  be  disgraceful  for  a  Gesith  to  return  from  battle 
alive  if  his  chief  had  been  slain.  The  word  by  which  the  chief  was 
known  was  Hlaford  (Lord),  which  means  a  giver  of  bread,  because 
the  Gesiths  ate  his  bread.  They  not  only  ate  his  bread,  but  tliey 
shared  in  the  booty  which  he  brought  home.  They  slept  in  his  hall, 
and  were  clothed  in  the  garments  woven  by  his  wife  and  her 
maidens.  A  continental  writer  tells  how  a  body  of  Gesiths  once 
apprcjaclied  their  lord  with  a  petition  that  he  should  take  a  wife, 
because  as  long  as  he  remained  unmarried  there  was  no  one  to  make 
new  cl(jt]ics  for  them  or  to  mend  their  old  ones. 

At  the  time  of  the  English  settlement,  therefore,  there  were 
two  sorts  (if  w;!rriors  among  the  invaders.  The  Ceorls,  having 
been  accustomed  to  till  land  at  home,  were  c[uite  ready  to  till  the 
lands  whicli  tlicy  Ii;k1  newly  ac(|uired  in  l>ritain.  They  were,  how- 
e\'er,  ready  1(^  dcrciifl  tliemselves  and  their  lands  if  they  were  at- 


ENGLISH     SETTLEMENTS  21 

4497-520 

tacked,  and  they  were  under  the  obhgation  of  appearing  in  arms 
when  needed  for  defense.  This  general  army  of  the  villagers  was 
called  the  Fyrd.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Gesiths  had  not  been 
accustomed  to  till  land  at  home,  but  had  made  fighting  their  busi- 
ness. War,  in  short,  which  was  an  unwelcome  accident  to  the 
Ceorl,  was  the  business  of  life  to  the  Gesith.  The  exact  relation- 
ship between  the  Gesiths  and  Ceorls  cannot  be  ascertained  with 
certainty.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  Gesiths,  being  the  best 
warriors  among  their  countrymen,  sometimes  obtained  land 
granted  them  by  their  chiefs,  and  were  expected  in  consequence  to 
be  specially  ready  to  serve  the  chief  whom  they  had  followed  from 
their  homes.  It  was  from  their  relation  to  their  chief  that  they 
were  called  Gesiths,  a  name  gradually  abandoned  for  that  of  Thegns, 
or  servants,  when  they — as  was  soon  the  case — ceased  to  live  with 
their  chief  and  had  houses  and  lands  of  their  own,  though  they  were 
bound  to  military  service.  How  these  Thegns  cultivated  their  lands 
is  a  question  to  v/hich  there  is  no  certain  answer.  In  later  days 
they  made  use  of  a  class  of  men  known  as  bondmen  or  villeins. 
These  bondmen  were  not,  like  slaves,  the  property  of  llieir  masters. 
They  had  land  of  their  own,  which  they  were  allowed  to  cultivate 
for  themselves  on  condition  of  spending  part  of  their  time  in  culti- 
vating the  land  of  their  lords.  It  has  been  supposed  by  some 
writers  that  the  Thegns  employed  bondmen  from  the  earliest  times 
of  the  conquest.  If,  however,  this  was  the  case,  there  arises  a 
further  question  whether  the  bondmen  were  Englishmen  or  Britons. 
The  whole  subject  is  under  investigation,  and  the  evidence  which 
exists  is  excessively  scanty.  It  is  at  least  certain  that  the  further 
the  conquest  progressed  westwards,  the  greater  was  the  number  of 
Britons  preserved  alive. 

The  bulk  of  the  population  on  the  eastern  and  southern  coasts 
was  undoubtedly  English.  English  institutions  and  English 
language  took  firm  root.  The  conquerors  looked  on  the  Britons 
with  the  utmost  contempt,  naming  them  Welsh,  a  name  which  no 
Briton  thought  of  giving  to  himself,  but  whicli  Cicrmans  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  applying  somewhat  contemptuously  to  the  Celts  on 
the  Continent.  So  far  as  British  words  have  entered  into  the 
English  language  at  all,  they  have  been  words  such  as  gozcn  or 
curd,  which  are  likely  to  have  been  used  by  women,  or  words 
such  as  cart  or  pony,  which  are  likely  to  have  been  used  Iw  agri- 
cultural laborers,  and  the  evidence  of  language  ma}-  therefore  be 


22  ENGLAND 

4497-520 

adduced  in  favor  of  the  view  that  many  women  and  many  agri- 
cultural laborers  were  spared  by  the  conquerors. 

The  smallest  political  community  of  the  new  settlers  was  the 
village,  or,  as  it  is  commonly  called,  the  township,  which  is  still  rep- 
resented by  the  parish,  the  parish  being  merely  a  township  in  which 
ecclesiastical  institutions  have  been  maintained  whilst  political  insti- 
tutions have  ceased  to  exist.  The  freemen  of  the  township  met 
to  settle  small  questions  between  themselves,  under  the  presidency  of 
their  reeve  or  headman.  More  important  cases  were  brought  before 
the  hundred-moot,  or  meeting  of  the  hundred,  a  district  which  had 
been  inhabited,  or  was  supposed  to  have  been  inhabited,  either  by 
a  hundred  kindred  groups  of  the  original  settlers  or  by  the  families 
of  a  hundred  warriors.  This  hundred-moot  was  held  once  a  month, 
and  was  attended  by  four  men  and  the  reeve  from  every  township, 
and  also  by  the  Eorls  and  Thegns  living  in  the  hundred.  It  not 
only  settled  disputes  about  property,  but  gave  judgment  in  criminal 
cases  as  well. 

In  early  days,  long  before  the  English  had  left  their  lands 
beyond  the  sea,  it  was  not  considered  to  be  the  business  of  the 
community  to  punish  crime.  If  anyone  was  murdered,  it  was  the 
duty  of  the  kinsmen  of  the  slain  man  to  put  to  death  the  murderer. 
In  course  of  time  men  got  tired  of  the  continual  slaughter  produced 
by  this  arrangement,  and  there  sprang  up  a  system  according  to 
which  the  murderer  might  offer  to  the  kinsmen  a  sum  of  money 
known  as  weregild,  or  the  value  of  a  man,  and  if  this  money  was 
accepted,  then  peace  was  made  and  all  thought  of  vengeance  was 
at  an  end.  At  a  later  time,  at  all  events  after  the  arrival  of  the 
English  in  this  country,  charges  of  murder  were  brought  before  the 
hundred-moot  whenever  the  alleged  murderer  and  his  victim  lived 
in  the  same  hundred.  If  the  accused  person  did  not  dispute  the  fact 
the  moot  sentenced  him  to  pay  a  weregild,  the  amount  of  which 
differed  in  proportion  to  the  rank  of  the  slain  man,  not  in  proportion 
to  the  heinousness  of  the  offense.  As  there  was  a  weregild  for 
murder,  so  there  was  also  a  graduated  scale  of  payments  for  lesser 
offenses.  One  who  struck  off  a  hand  or  a  foot  could  buy  off  ven- 
geance at  a  fixed  rate. 

A  new  difficulty  was  introduced  when  a  person  who  was 
charged  with  crime  denied  his  guilt.  As  there  were  no  trained 
lawyers  and  there  was  no  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  evidence, 
the  accused  person  was  required  to  bring  twelve  men  to  be  his 


ENGLISH     SETTLEMENTS  23 

1497-520 

compurgators — that  is  to  say,  to  hear  him  swear  to  his  own  inno- 
cence, and  then  to  swear  in  turn  that  his  oath  was  true.  If  he 
could  not  find  men  wilhng  to  be  his  compurgators  he  could  appeal 
to  the  judgment  of  the  gods,  which  was  known  as  the  Ordeal.  If 
he  could  walk  blindfold  over  red-hot  ploughshares,  or  plunge  his 
arm  into  boiling  water,  and  show  at  the  end  of  a  fixed  number  of 
days  that  he  had  received  no  harm,  it  was  thought  that  the  gods 
bore  witness  to  his  innocency  and  had  as  it  were  become  his  com- 
purgators when  men  had  failed  him.  It  is  quite  possible  that  all 
or  most  of  those  who  tried  the  ordeal  failed,  but  as  nobody  would 
try  the  ordeal  who  could  get  compurgators,  those  who  did  not 
succeed  must  have  been  regarded  as  persons  of  bad  character,  so 
that  no  surprise  would  be  expressed  at  their  failure. 

When  a  man  had  failed  in  the  ordeal  there  was  a  choice 
of  punishments.  If  his  offense  was  a  slight  one,  a  fine  was  deemed 
sufficient.  If  it  was  a  very  disgraceful  one,  such  as  secret  murder, 
he  was  put  to  death  or  was  degraded  to  slavery;  in  most  cases  he 
was  declared  to  be  a  "  wolf's-head  " — that  is  to  say,  he  was  out- 
lawed and  driven  into  the  woods,  where,  as  the  protection  of  the 
community  was  withdrawn  from  him,  anyone  might  kill  him  with- 
out fear  of  punishment. 

As  the  hundred-moot  did  justice  between  those  who  lived  in 
the  hundred,  so  the  folk-moot  did  justice  between  those  who  lived 
in  different  hundreds,  or  were  too  important  to  be  judged  in  the 
hundred-moot.  The  folk-moot  was  the  meeting  of  the  whole  folk 
or  tribe,  which  consisted  of  several  hundreds.  It  was  attended,  like 
the  hundred-moot,  by  four  men  and  the  reeve  from  each  township, 
and  it  met  twice  a  year,  and  was  presided  over  by  the  chief  or 
Ealdorman.  The  folk-moot  met  in  arms,  because  it  was  a  muster 
as  well  as  a  council  and  a  court.  The  vote  as  to  war  and  peace  was 
taken  in  it,  and  while  the  chief  alone  spoke,  the  warriors  signified 
their  assent  by  clashing  their  swords  against  their  shields. 

How  many  folks  or  tribes  settled  in  the  island  it  is  impossible 
to  say,  but  there  is  little  doubt  but  many  of  them  soon  combined. 
The  resistance  of  the  Britons  was  desperate,  and  it  was  only  by 
joining  together  that  the  settlers  could  hope  to  overcome  it.  The 
causes  which  produced  this  amalgamation  of  the  folks  produced 
the  king.  It  was  necessary  to  find  a  man  always  ready  to  take  the 
command  of  the  united  folks,  and  this  man  was  called  King,  a  name 
which  signifies  the  man  of  the  kinship  or  race  at  the  head  of  which 


24  ENGLAND 

520-577 

he  Stood.  His  authority  was  greater  than  the  Ealdorman's,  and  his 
warriors  were  more  numerous  than  those  which  the  Ealdorman 
had  led.  He  must  come  of  a  royal  family — that  is,  of  one  supposed 
to  be  descended  from  the  god  Woden.  As  it  was  necessary  that 
he  should  be  capable  of  leading  an  army,  it  was  impossible  that  a 
child  could  be  king,  and  therefore  no  law  of  hereditary  succession 
prevailed.  On  the  death  of  a  king  the  folk-moot  chose  his  suc- 
cessor out  of  the  kingly  family.  If  his  eldest  son  was  a  grown  man 
of  repute,  the  choice  would  almost  certainly  fall  upon  him.  If  he 
was  a  child  or  an  invalid,  some  other  kinsman  of  the  late  king 
would  be  selected. 

Thirty-two  years  passed  away  after  the  defeat  of  the  West 
Saxons  at  Mount  Badon  in  520  before  they  made  any  further  con- 
cjuests.  Welsh  legends  represent  this  period  as  that  of  the  reign  of 
Arthur.  Some  modern  inquirers  have  argued  that  Arthur's  king- 
dom was  in  the  north,  whilst  others  have  argued  that  it  was  in  the 
south.  It  is  cjuite  possible  that  the  name  was  given  by  legend  to 
more  than  one  champion;  at  all  events,  there  was  a  time  when  an 
Ambrosius  protected  the  southern  Britons.  His  stronghold  was 
at  Sorbiodunum,  the  hill  fort  now  a  grassy  space  known  as  Old 
Sarum.  Thirty-two  years  after  the  battle  of  Mount  Badon  the 
kingdom  of  Ambrosius  had  been  divided  amongst  his  successors, 
who  were  plunged  in  vice  and  were  quarreling  with  one  another. 

In  552  Cynric,  the  West  Saxon  king,  attacked  the  divided 
Britons,  captured  Sorbiodunum,  and  made  himself  master  of  Salis- 
bury Plain.  Step  by  step  he  fought  his  way  to  the  valley  of  the 
Thames,  and  when  he  had  reached  it  he  turned  eastwards  to 
descend  the  river  to  its  mouth.  Here,  however,  he  found  himself 
anticipated  by  the  East  Saxons,  who  had  captured  London,  and 
had  settled  a  branch  of  their  people  under  the  name  of  the  Middle 
Saxons  in  Middlesex.  The  Jutes  of  Kent  had  pushed  westwards 
through  the  Surrey  hills,  but  in  568  the  W^est  Saxons  defeated  them 
and  drove  them  back.  After  this  battle,  the  first  in  which  the  con- 
querors strove  with  one  another,  the  West  Saxons  turned  north- 
wards, defeated  the  Britons  in  571  at  Bedford,  and  occupied  the 
valleys  of  the  Thames  and  Cherwell  and  the  upper  valley  of  the 
Ouse.  They  are  next  heard  of  much  further  west,  and  it  has  been 
supposed  that  they  turned  in  that  direction  because  they  found  the 
lower  Ouse  already  held  by  Angle  tribes.  They  crossed  the  Cots- 
wolds   in    577   under  two  brothers,   Ceawlin   and   Cutha,    and   at 


ENGLISH     SETTLEMENTS  25 

584-597 

Deorham  defeated  and  slew  three  kings  who  ruled  over  the  cities  of 
Glevum  (Gloucester),  Corinium  (Cirencester),  and  Aqiise  SuHs 
(Bath).  They  seized  on  the  fertile  valley  of  the  Severn,  and  during 
the  next  few  years  they  pressed  gradually  northwards.  In  584  they 
destroyed  and  sacked  the  old  Roman  station  of  Viriconium.  This 
was  their  last  victory  for  many  a  year.  They  attempted  to  reach 
Chester,  but  were  defeated  at  Faddiley  by  the  Britons,  who  slew 
Cutha  in  the  battle. 

After  the  defeat  at  Faddiley  the  West  Saxons  split  up  into 
two  peoples.  Those  of  them  who  settled  in  the  lower  Severn  val- 
ley took  the  name  of  Hwiccan,  and  joined  the  Britons  against  their 
own  kindred.  The  Britons,  now  allied  with  the  Hwiccan,  defeated 
Ceawlin  at  Wanborough.  After  this  disaster,  though  the  West 
Saxon  kingdom  retained  its  independence,  it  was  independent 
within  smaller  limits  than  those  which  Ceawlin  had  wished  to  give 
to  it.  His  people  can  hardly  have  been  numerous  enough  to  occupy 
in  force  a  territory  reaching  from  Southampton  Water  to  Bedford 
on  one  side  and  to  Chester  on  another. 

While  the  West  Saxons  were  enlarging  their  boundaries  in 
the  south,  the  Angles  were  gradually  spreading  in  the  center  and 
the  north.  The  East  Anglians  were  stopped  on  their  way  to  the 
west  by  the  great  fen,  but  either  a  branch  of  the  Lindiswara  or  some 
newcomers  made  their  wav  up  the  Trent,  and  established  them- 
selves first  at  Nottingham  and  then  at  Leicester,  and  called  them- 
selves the  Middle  English.  Another  body,  known  as  the  ^lercians, 
or  men  of  the  mark  or  border-land,  seized  on  the  upper  valley  of 
the  Trent.  North  of  the  Humber  the  advance  was  still  slower. 
In  547,  five  years  before  the  West  Saxons  attacked  Sorbiodunum, 
Ida,  a  chieftain  of  one  of  the  scattered  settlements  on  the  coast, 
was  accepted  as  king  by  all  those  which  lay  between  the  Tees  and 
the  Forth.  His  new  kingdom  was  called  Bernicia,  and  his  prin- 
cipal fortress  was  on  a  rock  by  the  sea  at  Bamborough.  During 
the  next  fifty  years  he  and  his  successors  enlarged  their  borders 
till  they  reached  that  central  ridge  of  moorland  hill  which  is  some- 
times known  as  the  Pennine  range.  The  Angles  between  the  Tees 
and  the  Humber  called  their  country  Deira,  but  though  they  also 
united  under  a  king,  their  progress  was  as  slow  as  that  of  the  Ber- 
nicians.  Bernicia. and  Deira  together  were  known  as  North-hum- 
berland,  the  land  north  of  the  Humber,  a  much  larger  territory  than 
that  of  the  modern  country  of  Northumberland. 


26 


ENGLAND 


597 


It  is  probable  that  the  cause  of  the  slow  advance  of  the  northern 
Angles  lay  in  the  existence  of  a  strong  Celtic  state  in  front.  This 
territory  was  inhabited  by  a  mixed  population  of  Britons  and 
Goidels,  with  an  isolated  body  of  Picts  in  Galloway.  A  common 
danger  from  the  English  fused  them  together,  and  as  a  sign  of  the 
wearing  out  of  old  distinctions,  they  took  the  name  of  Kymry,  or 
Comrades,  the  name  by  which  the  Welsh  are  known  among  one 


CHRISTIAN   (MISSIONS 


another  to  this  day,  and  which  is  also  preserved  in  the  name  of 
Cumberland,  though  the  Celtic  language  is  no  longer  spoken  there. 
During  the  sixth  century  the  Kymry  ceased  to  be  governed  by 
one  ruler,  but  for  purposes  of  war  they  combined  together,  and  as 
the  country  which  they  occupied  was  hilly  and  easily  defended, 
the  northern  English  discovered  that  they  too  must  unite  among 
themselves  if  they  were  to  overpower  the  united  resistence  of  the 
Kymry. 


Chapter   III 

THE    STRIFE   OF   THE    ENGLISH    KINGDOMS 

LEADING    DATES 

Augustine's  Mission,  A.D.  597 — ^thelfrith's  Victory  at  Chester, 
613 — Penda  Defeats  Eadwine  at  Heathfield,  633 — Penda's  Defeat 
AT  WiNw^?i;D,  655 — Theodore,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  668 — Offa 
Defeats  the  West  Saxons  at  Bensington,  779 — Ecgberht  Returns 
to  England,  800 — Death  of  Ecgberht,  839 

WHATEVER  may  be  the  exact  truth  about  the  numbers 
of  Britons  saved  ahve  by  the  Enghsh  conquerors,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  Enghsh  speech  and  Enghsh  cus- 
toms prevailed  wherever  the  Enghsh  settled.  In  Gaul,  where  the 
German  Franks  made  themselves  masters  of  the  country,  a  dif- 
ferent state  of  things  prevailed.  Roman  officials  continued  to 
govern  the  country  under  Prankish  kings,  Roman  bishops  converted 
the  conquerors  to  Christianity,  and  Roman  cities  maintained,  as 
far  as  they  could,  the  old  standard  of  civilization.  All  commercial 
intercourse  between  Gaul,  still  comparatively  rich  and  prosperous, 
and  Britain  was  for  some  time  cut  off  by  the  irruption  of  the  Eng- 
lish. Gradually,  however,  trade  again  sprang  up.  The  Gaulish 
merchants  who  crossed  the  straits  found  themselves  in  Kent,  and 
the  communications  with  the  Continent  had  become  so  friendly 
that  in  584,  or  a  little  later,  iEthelberht,  King  of  Kent,  took  to  wife 
Bertha,  the  daughter  of  a  Prankish  king,  Charibert,  Bertha  was 
a  Christian,  and  brought  with  her  a  Christian  bishop.  She  begged 
of  her  husband  a  forsaken  Roman  church  for  her  own  use.  This 
church  is  now  known  as  St.  Martin's.  Near  it  were  the  dwell- 
ings in  which  ^thelberht  and  his  followers  lived,  which  had 
been  given  the  new  name  of  Cantwarabyrig  or  Canterbury  {the 
dwelling  of  the  men  of  Kent).  The  English  were  heathen,  but 
their  heathenism  was  not  intolerant. 

^thelberht's  authority  reached  far  beyond  his  native  Kent. 
Within  a  few  years  after  his  marriage  he  had  gained  a  supremacy 
over  most  of  the  other  kings  to  the  south  of  the  Humber.      There 

27 


28  ENGLAND 

597 

is  no  tradition  of  any  war  between  /Ethelberht  and  these  kings, 
and  he  certainly  did  not  thrust  them  out  from  the  leadership  of 
their  own  peoples.  The  exact  nature  of  his  supremacy  is,  how- 
ever, unknown  to  us,  though  it  is  possible  that  they  w^ere  bound 
to  follow  him  if  he  went  to  war  with  peoples  not  acknowledging 
his  supremacy,  in  which  case  his  position  towards  them  was  some- 
thing of  the  same  kind  as  that  of  a  lord  to  his  Gesiths. 

^thelberht's  position  as  the  over-lord  of  so  many  kings  and 
as  the  husband  of  a  Christian  wife  drew^  upon  him  the  attention  of 
Gregory,  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  or  Pope.  Many  years  before,  as 
a  deacon,  he  had  been  attracted  by  the  fair  faces  of  some  boys 
from  Deira  exposed  for  sale  in  the  Roman  slave-market.  He 
was  told  that  the  children  were  Angles.  "  Not  Angles,  but  angels," 
he  replied.  "  Who,''  he  asked,  "  is  their  king?  "  Hearing  that  his 
name  was  .^lla,  he  continued  to  play  upon  the  words.  "  Alleluia," 
he  said,  "  shall  be  sung  in  the  land  of  ^lla."  Busy  years  kept  him 
from  seeking  to  fulfill  his  hopes,  but  at  last  the  time  came  when 
he  became  Pope.  In  those  days  the  Pope  had  far  less  authority 
over  the  churches  of  Western  Europe  than  he  afterwards  acquired, 
but  he  offered  the  only  center  round  which  they  could  rally,  now 
that  the  empire  had  broken  up  into  many  states  ruled  over  by  dif- 
ferent barbarian  kings.  The  general  habit  of  looking  to  Rome 
for  authority,  w-hich  had  been  diffused  over  the  whole  empire 
while  Rome  was  still  the  seat  of  the  Emperors,  made  men  look 
to  the  Roman  Bishop  for  advice  and  help  as  they  had  once  looked  to 
the  Roman  emperor.  Gregory  now  sent  Augustine  to  England 
as  the  leader  of  a  band  of  missionaries. 

Augustine  with  his  companions  landed  at  Ebbsfleet,  in  Thanet, 
where  .T^thelberht's  forefathers  had  landed  nearlv  a  century  and  a 
half  before.  After  a  while  /Ethelberht  arrived.  He  welcomed 
tlie  newcomers,  and  told  them  that  they  were  free  to  convert  those 
who  would  willingly  accept  their  doctrine.  A  place  was  assigned 
to  them  in  Canterbury,  and  thev  were  allowed  to  use  Bertha's 
church.  In  the  end  /Ethelberht  himself,  together  with  thousands 
of  the  Kentisli  men,  received  baptism.  It  was  more  by  their  ex- 
ample than  by  their  teaching  that  Augustine's  band  won  converts. 
The  missionaries  lived  "after  the  model  of  the  primitive  Church, 
giving  themsc]\-cs  to  frequent  prayers,  watchings,  and  fastings; 
preaching  to  all  wl-:o  were  witliin  their  reach,  disregarding  all 
worldly   things   as   matters   with   which   they   had   nothing  to   do, 


STRIFE    OF    KINGDOMS  29 

597 

accepting  from  those  whom  they  taught  just  what  was  necessary 
for  hveHhood,  Hving  themselves  altogether  in  accordance  with  what 
they  taught,  and  with  hearts  prepared  to  suffer  every  adversity,  or 
even  to  die,  for  that  truth  which  they  preached/' 

These  missionaries  were  monks  as  well  as  preachers.  The 
Christians  of  those  days  considered  the  monastic  life  to  be  the 
highest.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Church,  when  the  world  was  full 
of  vice  and  cruelty,  it  seemed  hardly  possible  to  live  in  the  world 
without  being  dragged  down  to  its  wickedness.  Men  and  women, 
therefore,  who  wished  to  keep  themselves  pure,  withdrew  to  hermit- 
ages or  monasteries,  where  they  might  be  removed  from  temptation, 
and  might  fit  themselves  for  heaven  bv  prayer  and  fasting.  In  the 
fifth  century  Benedict  of  Xursia  had  organized  in  Italy  a  system 
of  life  for  the  monastery  which  he  governed,  and  the  Benedictine 
rule,  as  it  was  called,  was  soon  accepted  in  almost  all  the  monas- 
teries of  Western  Europe.  The  special  feature  of  this  rule  was 
that  it  encouraged  labor  as  well  as  prayer.  It  was  a  saying  of 
Benedict  himself  that  "to  labor  is  to  pray."  He  did  not  mean  that 
labor  was  good  in  itself,  but  that  monks  who  worked  during  some 
hours  of  the  day  would  guard  their  minds  against  evil  thoughts 
better  than  if  they  tried  to  pray  all  day  long.  Augustine  and  his 
companions  were  Benedictine  monks,  and  their  cjuietness  and  con- 
tentedness  attracted  the  population  amid  which  they  had  settled. 
The  religion  of  the  heathen  English  was  a  religion  which  favored 
bravery  and  endurance,  counting  tlie  warrior  who  slaughtered  most 
enemies  as  most  highly  favored  by  the  gods.  The  religion  of 
Augustine  was  one  of  peace  and  self-denial.  Its  sj-mbol  was  the 
cross,  to  be  borne  in  the  heart  of  the  believer.  The  message  brought 
by  Augustine  was  very  hard  to  learn.  If  Augustine  had  expected 
the  whole  English  population  to  forsake  entirely  its  evil  ways  and 
to  walk  in  paths  of  peace,  he  would  probably  have  been  rejected  at 
once.  It  was  pcriip])s  because  he  was  a  monk  that  h.e  did  not 
expect  so  mucli.  A  monk  was  accustomed  to  judge  laymen  by  a 
lower  standard  of  self-denial  than  that  by  whicli  lie  juflgcd  liimsclf. 
He  would,  therefore,  not  ask  too  mucli  of  the  new  con\-erts.  Tliey 
must  forsake  th.e  heatlien  temples  and  sacrifices,  and  must  give  up 
some  particularly  evil  habits.  The  rest  must  be  left  to  time  and  tlic 
example  of  the  mcnks. 

After  a  short  stay  Augustine  revisited  Gaul  and  came  back  as 
^rchbisliop    of   the    Englisli.      .Ethelberiit    g;ivc    to    him    a    ruinc'l 


30  ENGLAND 

588-593 

church  at  Canterbury,  and  that  poor  church  was  named  Christ 
Church,  and  became  the  mother  church  of  England.  From  that 
day  the  archbishop's  see  has  been  fixed  at  Canterbury.  If  Au- 
gustine in  his  character  of  monk  led  men  by  example,  in  his  char- 
acter of  Archbishop  he  had  to  organize  the  Church.  With  ^thel- 
berht's  help  he  set  up  a  bishopric  at  Rochester  and  another  in  Lon- 
don. London  was  now  again  an  important  trading  city,  which, 
though  not  in  yEthelberht's  own  kingdom  of  Kent,  formed  part  of 
the  kingdom  of  Essex,  which  was  dependent  on  Kent.  More  than 
these  three  sees  Augustine  was  unable  to  establish.  An  attempt 
to  obtain  the  friendly  cooperation  of  the  Welsh  bishops  broke  down 
because  Augustine  insisted  on  their  adoption  of  Roman  customs ; 
and  Lawrence,  who  succeeded  to  the  archbishopric  after  Augustine's 
death,  could  do  no  more  than  his  predecessor  had  done. 

Li  6i6  ^thelberht  died.  The  over-lordship  of  the  kings  of 
Kent  ended  with  him,  and  Augustine's  church,  which  had  largely 
depended  upon  his  influence,  very  nearly  ended  as  well.  Augustine's 
Church  was  weak,  because  it  depended  on  the  kings,  and  had  not 
had  time  to  root  itself  in  the  affections  of  the  people,  ^thelberht's 
supremacy  was  also  weak.  The  greater  part  of  the  small  states 
which  still  existed — Sussex,  Kent,  Essex,  East  Anglia,  and  most 
of  the  small  kingdoms  of  central  England — were  no  longer  bordered 
by  a  Celtic  population.  For  them  the  war  of  conquest  and  defense 
was  at  an  end.  If  any  one  of  the  kingdoms  was  to  rise  to  perma- 
nent supremacy  it  must  be  one  of  those  engaged  in  strenuous  war- 
fare, and  as  yet  strenuous  warfare  was  only  carried  on  with  the 
Welsh.  The  kingdoms  which  had  the  Welsh  on  their  borders  were 
three — W>ssex,  ]\Iercia,  and  North-humberland,  and  neither  Wes- 
sex  nor  Mercia  was  as  yet  very  strong.  Wessex  was  too  distracted 
Ijy  conflicts  among  members  of  the  kingly  familv,  and  ^lercia  was 
as  yet  too  small  to  be  of  much  account.  North-humberland  was 
therefore  the  first  of  the  three  to  rise  to  the  foremost  place.  Till 
the  death  of  .Ella,  the  king  of  Deira,  from  whose  land  had  been 
carried  off  the  slave-boys  whose  faces  had  charmed  Gregory  at 
Rome,  Deira  and  Bernicia  had  l)een  as  separate  as  Kent  and  Essex. 
Then  in  58S  /Ethelric  of  Bernicia  drove  out  /Ella's  son  and  seized 
his  kingdom  of  Deira,  thus  joining  the  two  kingdoms  of  Deira 
and  Ijernicia  into  dne,  under  the  new  name  of  Xorth-humber- 
land. 

In  593,  four  years  before  the  landing  of  Augustine,  ^Ethelric 


STRIFE    OF    KINGDOMS  31 

593-613. 

was  succeeded  by  his  son  ^thelfrith,  ^thel frith  began  a  fresh 
struggle  with  the  Welsh.  We  know  little  of  the  internal  history 
of  the  Welsh  population,  but  what  we  do  know  shows  that  towards 
the  end  of  the  sixth  century  there  was  an  improvement  in  their 
religious  and  political  existence.  The  monasteries  were  thronged. 
St.  David  and  other  bishops  gave  examples  of  piety.  In  fighting 
against  ^thelfrith  the  warriors  of  the  Britons  were  fighting  for 
their  last  chance  of  independence.  They  still  held  the  west  from 
the  Clyde  to  the  Channel.  Unhappily  for  them,  the  Severn,  the 
Dee,  and  the  Solway  Firth  divided  their  land  into  four  portions, 
and  if  an  enemy  coming  from  the  east  could  seize  upon  the  heads 
of  the  inlets  into  which  those  rivers  flowed  he  could  prevent  the 
defenders  of  the  west  from  aiding  one  another.  Already  the  West 
Saxons  had  split  off  the  West  Welsh  of  the  southwestern  peninsula, 
^thelfrith  had  to  do  with  the  Kymry,  whose  territories  stretched 
from  the  Bristol  Channel  to  the  Clyde,  and  who  held  an  outlying 
wedge  of  land  then  knovv^n  as  Loidis  and  Elmet,  which  now  together 
form  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire. 

The  long  range  of  barren  hills  which  separated  ^thelfrith's 
kingdom  from  the  Kymry  made  it  difficult  for  either  side  to  strike 
a  serious  blow  at  the  other.  In  the  extreme  north,  where  a  low 
valley  joins  the  Firths  of  Clyde  and  Forth,  it  was  easier  for  them 
to  meet.  Here  the  Kymry  found  an  ally  outside  their  own  borders. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  fifth  century  a  colony  of  Irish  Scots  had 
driven  out  the  Picts  from  the  modern  Argyle.  In  603  their  king 
invaded  ^thelfrith's  country,  but  was  defeated.  "  From  that  time 
no  king  of  the  Scots  durst  come  into  Britain  to  make  war  upon  the 
English."  Having  freed  himself  from  the  Scots  in  the  north, 
^thelfrith  turned  upon  the  Kymry.  After  a  succession  of  strug- 
gles he  forced  his  way  in  613  to  the  western  sea  near  Chester.  The 
Kymry  had  brought  with  them  the  2,000  monks  of  the  great  mon- 
astery Bangor-iscoed,  to  pray  for  victory  while  their  warriors  were 
engaged  in  battle.  yEthelfrith  bade  his  men  to  slay  them  all. 
"  Whether  they  bear  arms  or  no,"  he  said,  *'  they  fight  against  us 
when  they  cry  against  us  to  their  God."  The  monks  were  slain  to 
a  man.  Their  countrymen  were  routed,  and  Chester  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  English.  The  capture  of  Chester  split  the  Kyniric 
kingdom  in  two.  The  southern  Kymry,  in  what  is  now  called 
Wales,  could  no  longer  give  help  to  the  northern  Kymry  between 
the  Clyde  and  the  Kibble,  who  grouped  themselves  into  the  king- 


32  ENGLAND 

617-626 

dom  of  Strathclyde.  Three  weak  Celtic  states,  unable  to  assist 
one  another,  would  not  long  be  able  to  resist  their  invaders. 

Powerful  as  Ethelfrith  was,  he  was  overcome  by  young  Ead- 
wine,  a  son  of  his  father's  rival,  ^lla  of  Deira,  who  became  king 
over  the  united  North-humberland,  and  then  completed  and  con- 
solidated the  conquests  of  his  predecessors.  He  conquered  the  Isle 
of  Man  and  the  greater  island  which  was  henceforth  known  as 
Anglesea,  the  island  of  the  Angles.  Eadwine  assumed  unwonted 
state.  Wherever  he  went  a  standard  was  borne  before  him,  as  well 
as  a  spear  decorated  with  a  tuft  of  feathers,  the  ancient  sign  of 
Roman  authority.  It  has  been  thought  by  some  that  his  meaning 
was  that  he,  rather  than  any  Welshman,  was  the  true  Gwledig,  that 
is,  the  successor  of  the  Duke  of  the  Britains  (Dux  Britanniarmn), 
and  that  the  name  of  Bretwalda,  or  ruler  of  the  Britons,  which  he 
is  said  to  have  borne,  was  only  a  translation  of  the  Welsh  Gwledig. 
It  is  true  that  the  title  of  Bretwalda  is  given  to  other  powerful  kings 
before  and  after  Eadwine,  some  of  whom  were  in  no  sense  rulers 
over  Britons ;  but  it  is  possible  that  it  was  taken  to  signify  a  ruler 
over  a  large  part  of  Britain,  though  the  men  over  whom  he  ruled 
were  English,  and  not  Britons. 

Eadwine's  immediate  kingship  did  not  reach  farther  south 
than  the  Humber  and  the  Dee.  But  before  625  he  had  brought 
the  East  Angles  and  the  kingdoms  of  central  England  to  submit  to 
his  over-lordship,  and  he  hoped  to  make  himself  over-lord  of  the 
south  as  well,  and  thus  to  reduce  all  England  to  dependence  on 
himself.  In  625  he  planned  an  attack  upon  the  West  Saxons,  and 
with  the  object  of  winning  Kent  to  his  side,  he  married  vEthelburh, 
a  sister  of  the  Kentish  king.  Kent  was  still  the  only  Christian  king- 
dom, and  Eadwine  was  obliged  to  promise  to  his  w'ife  protection 
for  her  Christian  worship.  He  was  now  free  to  attack  the  West 
Saxons.  He  defeated  them  in  battle  and  forced  them  to  ac- 
knowledge him  as  their  over-lord.  He  was  now  over-lord  of  all 
the  English  states  except  Kent,  and  Kent  had  become  his  ally  in 
consequence  of  his  marriage. 

Eadwine's  over-lordship  had  been  gained  with  as  little  diffi- 
culty as  /Etiielbcrht's  had  been.  The  case  witli  which  each  of  them 
carried  out  their  purpose  can  only  be  explained  by  the  change  which 
had  taken  place  in  (lie  condition  of  the  English.  The  small  bodies 
of  conquerors  wliich  had  landed  at  different  parts  of  the  coast  had 
been  interested  to  a  man  in  the  defense  of  tlie  lands  which  tliey  had 


STRIFE    OF    KINGDOMS  33 

626 

seized.  Every  freeman  had  been  ready  to  come  forward  to  defend 
the  soil  which  his  tribe  had  gained.  After  tribe  had  been  joined  to 
tribe,  and  still  more  after  kingdom  had  been  joined  to  kingdom, 
there  were  large  numbers  who  ceased  to  have  any  interest  in  re- 
sisting the  Welsh  on  what  was,  as  far  as  they  were  concerned,  a 
distant  frontier. 

The  first  result  of  this  change  was  that  the  king's  war-band 
formed  a  far  greater  proportion  of  his  military  force  than  it  had 
formed  originally.  There  was  still  the  obligation  upon  the  whole 
body  of  the  freemen  to  take  arms,  but  it  was  an  obligation  which 
had  become  more  difficult  to  fulfill,  and  it  must  often  have  hap- 
pened that  very  few  freemen  took  part  in  a  battle  except  the  local 
levies  concerned  in  defending  their  own  immediate  neighborhood. 
A  military  change  of  this  kind  would  account  for  the  undoubted 
fact  that  the  further  the  English  conquest  penetrated  to  the  west 
the  less  destructive  it  Avas  of  British  life.  The  thegns,  or  warriors 
personally  attached  to  the  king,  did  not  want  to  plow  and  reap 
with  their  own  hands.  They  would  be  far  better  pleased  to  spare 
the  lives  of  the  conquered  and  to  compel  them  to  labor.  Every 
step  in  advance  was  marked  by  a  proportionately  larger  Welsh  ele- 
ment in  the  population. 

The  character  of  the  kingship  was  as  much  affected  by  the 
change  as  the  character  of  the  population.  The  old  folk-moots  still 
remained  as  the  local  courts  of  the  smaller  kingdoms,  or  of  the 
districts  out  of  which  the  larger  kingdoms  were  composed,  and 
continued  to  meet  under  the  presidency  of  ealdormen  appointed  or 
approved  by  the  king.  Four  men  and  a  reeve,  all  of  tliem  humble 
cultivators,  could  not,  however,  be  expected  to  w'alk  up  to  York 
from  the  shores  of  the  Forth,  or  even  from  the  banks  of  the  Tyne, 
whenever  Eadwine  needed  their  counsel.  Their  place  in  tlie  larger 
kingdoms  was  therefore  taken  by  the  Witenagcmot  {llw  moot  of 
the  zi'ise  moi),  composed  of  the  ealdormen  and  the  chief  thegns, 
together  with  the  priests  attached  to  the  king's  service  in  the  time 
of  heathendom,  and,  in  the  time  of  Christianity,  the  bishop  or 
bishops  of  his  kingdom.  In  one  way  the  king  was  the  stronger  for 
th.e  change.  His  counselors,  like  his  fighting  force,  v/erc  more 
dependent  on  himself  than  before.  Fie  was  able  to  i)lan  greater 
designs,  and  to  carry  out  military  enterprises  at  a  greater  distance. 
In  another  way  he  was  the  weaker  for  the  change.  He  liad  less 
support  from  the  bulk  of  his  people,  and  was  more  likely  to  under- 


34  ENGLAND 

.    627-635 

take  enterprises  in  which  they  had  no  interest.  The  over-lordships 
of  ^thelberht  and  Eadwine  appear  very  imposing,  but  no  real  tie 
united  the  men  of  the  center  of  England  to  those  of  Kent  at  one 
time,  or  to  those  of  North-humberland  at  another.  Eadwine  was 
supreme  over  the  other  kings  because  he  had  a  better  war-band  than 
they  had.  If  another  king  appeared  whose  war-band  was  better 
than  his,  his  supremacy  would  disappear. 

In  627  Eadwine,  moved  by  his  wife's  entreaties  and  the  urgency 
of  her  chaplain,  Paulinus,  called  upon  his  Witan  to  accept  Christian- 
ity. Coifi,  the  priest,  declared  that  he  had  long  served  his  gods 
for  naught,  and  would  try  a  change  of  masters.  "  The  present 
life  of  man,  O  king,"  said  a  thegn,  "  seems  to  me,  in  comparison  of 
that  time  which  is  unknown  to  us,  like  to  the  swift  flight  of  a  spar- 
row through  the  room  wherein  you  sit  at  supper  in  winter,  with 
your  ealdormen  and  thegns,  and  a  good  fire  in  the  midst,  and  storms 
of  rain  and  snow  without.  ...  So  this  life  of  man  appears 
for  a  short  space,  but  of  what  went  before  or  what  is  to  follow  we 
are  utterly  ignorant.  If  therefore  this  new  doctrine  contains  some- 
thing more  certain,  it  seems  justly  to  deserve  to  be  followed."  On 
this  recommendation  Christianity  was  accepted.  Paulinus  was  ac- 
knowledged as  Bishop  of  York,  but  as  yet  it  was  but  a  missionary 
station.  He  converted  thousands  in  Deira,  but  the  men  of  Bernicia 
were  unaffected  by  his  pleadings.  Christianity,  like  the  extension 
of  all  better  teaching,  brought  at  first  not  peace,  but  the  sword.  The 
new  religion  was  contemptible  in  the  eyes  of  warriors.  The  su- 
premacy of  Eadwine  was  shaken.  The  worst  blow  came  from 
Mercia.  Hitherto  it  had  been  only  a  little  state  on  the  Welsh 
border.  Its  king,  Penda,  the  stoutest  warrior  of  his  day,  now 
gathered  under  him  all  the  central  states,  and  founded  a  new  Mercia 
which  stretched  from  the  Severn  to  the  Fens.  He  first  turned  on 
the  West  Saxons,  defeated  them  at  Cirencester,  and  in  628  brought 
the  territory  of  the  Hwiccas  under  ^Mercian  sway.  Penda  called 
to  his  aid  Cccdwalla,  the  king  of  Gwynnedd,  the  Snowdonian  region 
of  Wales.  The  alliance  was  too  strong  for  Eadwine,  and  in  633, 
at  the  battle  of  Heathfield,  the  great  king  was  slain  and  his  army 
routed. 

Penda  was  content  to  split  up  Bernicia  and  Deira  into  separate 
kingdoms,  and  to  join  East  Anglia  to  his  subject  states.  Cccdwalla 
had  all  the  wrongs  of  his  race  to  avenge.  He  remained  in  Xorth- 
humberland  burning  and  destroying  till  635,  when  Oswald,  wIkj 


STRIFE    OF    KINGDOMS  35 

635-655 

was  a  son  of  ^thelfrith  and  of  Eadwine's  sister,  and  therefore 
united  the  claims  of  the  rival  families,  overthrew  Csedwalla,  and 
was  gratefully  accepted  as  king  by  the  whole  of  North-humberland. 

In  the  days  of  Eadwine,  Oswald,  as  the  heir  of  the  rival  house 
of  Bernicia,  had  passed  his  youth  in  exile,  and  had  been  converted 
to  Christianity  in  the  monastery  of  Hii,  the  island  now  known  as 
lona.  The  monastery  had  been  founded  by  Columba,  an  Irish 
Scot.  It  sent  its  missionaries  abroad,  and  brought  Picts  as  well  as 
Scots  under  the  influence  of  Christianity.  Oswald  now  requested 
its  abbot,  the  successor  of  Columba,  to  send  a  missionary  to  preach 
the  faith  to  the  men  of  North-humberland  in  the  place  of  Paulinus, 
who  had  fled  when  Eadwine  was  slain.  The  first  who  was  sent 
came  back  reporting  that  the  people  were  too  stubborn  to  be  con- 
verted. "Was  it  their  stubbornness  or  your  harshness?"  asked 
the  monk  Aidan.  "  Did  you  forget  to  give  them  the  milk  first  and 
then  the  meat?"  Aidan  was  chosen  to  take  the  place  of  the 
brother  who  had  failed.  He  established  himself,  not  in  an  inland 
town,  but  in  Holy  Island.  His  life  was  spent  in  wandering 
among  the  men  of  the  valleys  opposite,  winning  them  over  by 
his  gentleness  and  his  self-denying  energy.  Oswald,  warrior  as  he 
was,  had  almost  all  the  gentleness  and  piety  of  Aidan.  "  By  reason 
of  his  constant  habit  of  praying  or  giving  thanks  to  the  Lord  he 
was  wont  whenever  he  sat  to  hold  his  hands  upturned  on  his  knees." 

As  a  king  Oswald  based  his  power  on  the  acknowledgment  of 
his  over-lordship  by  all  the  kingdoms  which  were  hostile  to  Penda. 
In  635  Wessex  accepted  Christianity,  and  the  acceptance  of  Christi- 
anity brought  with  it  the  acceptance  of  Oswald's  supremacy.  Penda 
was  thus  surrounded  by  enemies,  but  his  courage  did  not  fail  him, 
and  in  642  at  the  battle  of  jMaserfi.eld  he  defeated  Oswald.  Oswald 
fell  in  the  battle,  begging  with  his  last  words  for  God's  mercy  on 
the  souls  of  his  followers. 

After  Oswald's  fall  Bernicia  was  ruled  by  his  brother  Oswiu, 
and  Deira  by  Oswini,  who  acknowledged  Penda  as  his  over-lord. 
Penda  had  for  some  years  been  burning  and  slaughtering  in  Ber- 
nicia, till  he  had  turned  a  quarrel  between  himself  and  Oswiu  into  a 
national  strife.  In  G55  Oswiu  and  Penda  met  to  figlit,  as  it  seemed 
for  suj^remacy  over  the  whole  of  England,  In'  the  river  \\'inwa:;d, 
near  the  present  Leeds.  The  heatlicn  Penda  was  defeated  and 
slain. 

For  a  moment  it  seemed  as  if  England  would  loe  br-'Uglit  to- 


36  ENGLAND 

659-664 

gether  under  the  rule  of  Oswiu.  After  Penda's  death  Mercia  ac- 
cepted Christianity,  and  the  newly  united  Mercia  was  split  up  into 
its  original  parts  ruled  by  several  kings.  The  supremacy  of  Oswiu 
was,  however,  as  little  to  be  borne  by  the  Mercians  as  the  supremacy 
of  Penda  had  been  borne  by  the  men  of  North-humberland.  Under 
Wulfhere  the  Mercians  rose  in  659  against  Oswiu.  All  hope  of 
uniting  England  was  for  the  present  at  an  end.  For  about  a 
century  and  a  half  longer  there  remained  three  larger  kingdoms — 
North-humberland,  Mercia,  and  Wessex,  whilst  four  smaller  ones — - 
East  Anglia,  Essex,  Kent,  and  Sussex — were  usually  attached  either 
to  Mercia  or  to  Wessex.  The  failure  of  North-humberland  to 
maintain  the  power  was,  no  doubt,  in  the  first  place  owing  to  the 
absence  of  any  common  danger,  the  fear  of  which  would  bind 
together  its  populations  in  self-defense.  The  northern  Kymry  of 
Strathclyde  were  no  longer  formidable,  and  they  grew  less  for- 
midable as  years  passed  on.  The  southern  Kymry  of  Wales  were 
too  weak  to  threaten  Mercia,  and  the  Welsh  of  the  southwestern 
peninsula  were  too  weak  to  threaten  Wessex.  It  was  most  unlikely 
tliat  any  permanent  union  of  the  English  states  would  be  brought 
about  till  some  enemy  arose  who  was  more  terrible  to  them  than 
the  Welsh  could  any  longer  be. 

Some  preparation  might,  however,  be  made  for  the  day  of 
union  by  the  steady  growth  of  tlie  Church.  The  South  Saxons, 
secluded  between  the  forest  and  the  sea,  w^ere  the  last  to  be  con- 
verted, but  with  them  English  heathenism  came  to  an  end  as  an 
avowed  religion,  though  it  still  continued  to  influence  the  multitude 
in  the  form  of  a  belief  in  fairies  and  witchcraft.  Monasteries  and 
nunneries  sprang  up  on  all  sides.  Missionaries  spread  over  the 
country.  In  their  mouths,  and  still  more  in  their  lives,  Christianity 
taught  what  the  fierce  English  warrior  most  wanted  to  learn,  the 
duty  of  restraining  his  evil  passions,  and  above  all  liis  cruelty. 
Nowhere  in  all  Europe  did  the  missionaries  appeal  so  exclusively  as 
they  did  in  England  to  higher  and  purer  motives.  Nowhere  but  in 
England  were  to  be  found  kings  like  Oswald  and  Oswini,  who 
bowed  their  souls  to  the  lesson  of  the  Cross,  and  learned  that  they 
were  not  their  own,  but  were  placed  in  power  that  they  might  use 
their  strengtii  in  helping  the  poor  and  needy. 

The  lesson  was  all  the  better  taught  because  those  who  taught 
it  were  monks.  Monasticism  l^rought  with  it  an  extravagant  view 
of  tlie  life  of  self-denial,  but  those  who  had  to  be  instructed  needed 


STRIFE    OF    KINGDOMS  37 

664-668 

to  have  the  lesson  written  plainly  so  that  a  child  might  read  it.  The 
rough  warrior  or  the  rough  peasant  was  more  likely  to  abstain  from 
drunkenness  if  he  had  learned  to  look  up  to  men  who  ate  and  drank 
barely  enough  to  enable  them  to  live  ;  and  he  was  more  likely  to 
treat  women  with  gentleness  and  honor  if  he  had  learned  to  look 
up  to  some  women  who  separated  themselves  from  the  joys  of  mar- 
ried life  that  they  might  give  themselves  to  fasting  and  prayer.  Yet, 
great  as  the  influence  of  the  clergy  was,  it  was  in  danger  of  being 
lessened  through  internal  disputes  among  themselves.  A  very 
large  part  of  England  had  been  converted  by  the  Celtic  mission- 
aries, and  the  Celtic  missionaries,  though  their  life  and  teaching 
was  in  the  main  the  same  as  that  of  the  Church  of  Canterbury  and 
of  the  Churches  of  the  Continent,  differed  from  them  in  the  shape 
of  the  tonsure  and  in  the  time  at  which  they  kept  their  Easter. 
These  things  were  themselves  unimportant,  but  it  was  of  great 
importance  that  the  young  English  Church  should  not  be  separated 
from  the  Churches  of  more  civilized  countries  which  had  preserved 
much  of  the  learning  and  art  of  the  old  Roman  Empire.  One  of 
those  who  felt  strongly  the  evil  which  would  follow  on  such  a 
separation  was  Wilfrid.  He  was  scornful  and  self-satisfied,  but 
he  had  traveled  to  Rome,  and  had  been  impressed  with  the  ecclesi- 
astical memories  of  the  great  city,  and  with  the  fervor  and  learning 
of  its  clergy.  He  came  back  resolved  to  bring  the  customs  of 
England  into  conformity  with  those  of  the  churches  of  the  Conti- 
nent. On  his  arrival,  Oswiu,  in  664,  gathered  an  assembly  of  the 
clergy  of  the  north  to  discuss  the  point.  Learned  arguments  were 
poured  forth  on  either  side.  Oswiu  listened  in  a  puzzled  way. 
Wilfrid  boasted  that  his  mode  of  keeping  Easter  was  derived  from 
Peter,  and  that  Christ  had  given  to  Peter  the  keys  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  Oswiu  at  once  decided  to  follow  Peter,  lest  when  he 
came  to  the  gate  of  that  kingdom  Peter,  who  held  the  keys,  should 
lock  him  out.  Wilfrid  triumphed,  and  the  English  Church  was  in 
all  outward  matters  regulated  in  conformity  with  that  of  Rome. 

In  668,  four  years  after  Oswiu's  decision  was  taken,  Theodore 
of  Tarsus  was  consecrated  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  at  Rome  by 
the  Pope  himself.  When  he  arrived  in  England  the  time  had  come 
for  the  purely  missionary  stage  of  the  English  Church  to  come  to 
an  end.  Hitherto  the  bishops  had  been  few,  only  seven  in  all 
England.  Their  number  was  now  increased,  and  they  were  set  to 
work  no  longer  merelv  to  convert  the  heathen,  but  to  see  that  the 


38  ENGLAND 

clergy  did  their  duty  among'  those  who  had  been  already  con- 
verted. Gradually,  under  these  bishops,  a  parochial  clergy  came 
into  existence.  The  parish  clergy  attacked  violence  and  looseness 
of  life  in  a  way  different  from  that  of  the  monks.  The  monks  had 
given  examples  of  extreme  self-denial.  Theodore  introduced  the 
penitential  system  of  the  Roman  Church,  and  ordered  that  those 
who  had  committed  sin  should  be  excluded  from  sharing  in  the 
rites  of  the  Church  until  they  had  done  penance.  They  were  to 
fast,  or  to  repeat  prayers,  sometimes  for  many  years,  before  they 
were  readmitted  to  communion.  Many  centuries  afterwards  good 
men  objected  that  these  penances  were  only  bodily  actions,  and  did 
not  necessarily  bring  with  them  any  real  repentance.  In  the 
seventh  century  the  greater  part  of  the  population  could  only  be 
reached  by  such  bodily  actions.  They  had  never  had  any  thought 
that  a  murder,  for  instance,  was  anything  more  than  a  dangerous 
action  which  might  bring  down  on  the  murderer  the  vengeance  of 
the  relations  of  the  murdered  man,  which  might  be  bought  off  with 
the  payment  of  a  weregild  of  a  few  shillings.  The  murderer  who 
was  required  by  the  Church  to  do  penance  was  being  taught  that  a 
murder  was  a  sin  against  God  and  against  himself,  as  well  as  an 
offense  against  his  fellow-men.  Gradually — very  gradually — men 
would  learn  from  the  example  of  the  monks  and  from  the  discipline 
of  penance  that  they  were  to  live  for  something  higher  than  the 
gratification  of  their  own  passions. 

When  a  change  is  good  in  itself,  it  usually  bears  fruit  in  un- 
expected ways.  Theodore  was  a  scholar  as  well  as  a  bishop.  Un- 
der his  care  a  school  grew  up  at  Canterbury,  full  of  all  the  learning 
of  the  Roman  world.  The  scholars  learned  architecture  on  the 
Continent  in  order  to  raise  churches  of  stone  in  the  place  of  churches 
of  wood.  Among  these  was  Ealdhelm,  the  abbot  of  Malmesbury,  a 
teacher  of  all  the  knowledge  of  the  time.  In  the  north,  Caedmon, 
a  rude  herdsman  on  the  lands  of  the  abbey  which  in  later  days  was 
known  as  Whitby,  was  vexed  wath  himself  because  he  could  not 
sing.  One  night  in  a  dream  he  heard  a  voice  bidding  him  sing 
of  the  Creation.  In  his  sleep  the  words  came  to  him,  and  they 
remained  with  him  when  he  woke.  He  had  become  a  poet — a  rude 
poet,  it  is  true,  but  still  a  poet.  The  gift  which  Caedmon  had  ac- 
quired never  left  him.  He  sang  of  the  Creation  and  of  the  whole 
course  of  God's  providence.  To  the  end  he  was  unable  to  compose 
any  songs  which  were  not  religious. 


STRIFE    OF    KINGDOMS  39 

673-779 

Of  all  the  English  scholars  of  the  time  B?eda,  usually  known 
as  "  the  venerable  Bede,"  was  the  most  remarkable.  He  was  a  monk 
of  Jarrow  on  the  Tyne.  From  his  youth  up  he  was  a  writer  on 
all  subjects  embraced  by  the  knowledge  of  his  day.  One  subject 
he  made  his  own.  He  was  the  first  English  historian.  The  title  of 
his  greatest  work  was  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  English 
Nation.  He  told  how  that  nation  had  been  converted,  and  of  the 
fortunes  of  its  Church ;  but  for  him  the  Church  included  the  whole 
nation,  and  he  told  of  the  doings  of  kings  and  people,  as  well  as  of 
priests  and  monks.  In  this  he  was  a  true  interpreter  of  the  spirit 
of  the  English  Church.  Its  clergy  did  not  stand  aloof  from  the 
rulers  of  the  state,  but  worked  with  them  as  well  as  for  them.  The 
bishops  stepped  into  the  place  of  the  heathen  priests  in  the  Witen- 
agemots  of  the  kings,  and  counseled  them  in  matters  of  state  as 
well  as  in  matters  of  religion. 

Bede  recognized  in  the  title  of  his  book  that  there  was  such  a 
thing  as  an  English  nation  long  before  there  was  any  political  unity. 
Whilst  kingdom  was  fighting  against  kingdom,  Theodore  in  673 
assembled  the  first  English  Church  council  at  Hertford.  From  that 
time  such  councils  of  the  bishops  and  principal  clergy  of  all  England 
met  whenever  any  ecclesiastical  question  required  them  to  deliberate 
in  common.  The  clergy  at  least  did  not  meet  as  West  Saxons  or 
as  Mercians.  They  met  on  behalf  of  the  whole  English  Church, 
and  their  united  consultations  must  have  done  much  to  spread  the 
idea  that,  in  spite  of  the  strife  between  the  kings,  the  English  nation 
was  really  one. 

Many  years  passed  away  before  the  kingdoms  could  be  brought 
under  one  king.  North-humberland  stood  apart  from  southern 
England,  and  during  the  latter  half  of  the  seventh  century  Wessex 
grew  in  power.  Wessex  had  been  weak  because  it  was  seldom  thor- 
oughly united.  Each  district  was  presided  over  by  an  ^T^theling, 
or  chief  of  royal  blood,  and  it  was  only  occasionally  that  these 
^thelings  submitted  to  the  king.  From  time  to  time  a  strong 
king  compelled  the  obedience  of  the  ^thelings  and  carried  on  the 
old  struggle  with  the  western  Welsh.  King  Ine  in  726  gave 
up  the  struggle  and  went  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome.  yEthelbald, 
king  of  the  Mercians,  took  the  opportunity  to  invade  Wessex,  and 
made  himself  master  of  the  country  and  over-lord  of  all  tlie  other 
kingdoms  south  of  the  Humber.  By  779  the  ^Mercian  frontier  was 
pushed  to  the  Thames.     Then  there  was  a  contest  fur  tlie  West 


40  ENGLAND  ^3,.33, 

Saxon  crown  between  Beorhtric  and  Ecgberht,  and  Ecgberht  fled 
to  the  Continent. 

A  great  change  had  passed  over  Europe  since  the  days  when  a 
Frankish  princess,  by  her  marriage  with  the  Kentish  Ethelberht, 
had  smoothed  the  way  for  the  introduction  of  Christianity  into 
England.  In  the  first  part  of  the  seventh  century  Mohammed  had 
preached  a  new  rehgion  in  Arabia.  This  had  spread  and  seemed 
likely  to  overrun  Europe  till  checked  by  Charles  Martel  in  732. 
The  latter's  grandson  was  Charles  the  Great,  who  before  he  died 
ruled  over  the  whole  of  Gaul  and  Germany,  over  the  north  and 
center  of  Italy,  and  the  northeast  of  Spain.  In  800  the  Pope 
placed  the  Imperial  crown  on  the  head  of  Charles  as  the  successor 
of  the  old  Roman  Emperors. 

Though  Charles  did  not  directly  govern  England,  he  made  his 
influence  felt  there.  Offa  of  Mercia  had  claimed  his  protection,  and 
Ecgberht  took  refuge  at  his  court.  Ecgberht  doubtless  learned 
something  of  the  art  of  ruling  from  him,  and  in  802  he  returned  to 
England,  and  was  accepted  as  king  by  the  West  Saxons.  Before 
he  died,  in  839,  he  had  made  himself  the  over-lord  of  all  the  other 
kingdoms.  He  was  never,  indeed,  directly  king  of  all  England. 
Kent,  Sussex,  and  Essex  were  governed  by  rulers  of  his  own  family 
appointed  by  himself.  IMercia.  East  Anglia.  and  Xorth-humberland 
retained  their  own  kings,  ruling  under  Ecgberht  as  their  over-lord. 
Towards  the  west  Ecgberht's  direct  government  did  not  reach 
beyond  the  Tamar,  though  the  Cornish  Celts  acknowledged  his 
autliority,  as  did  the  Celts  of  Wales.  The  Celts  of  Strathclyde  and 
the  Picts  and  Scots  remained  entirelv  independent. 


Chapter    IV 

THE    ENGLISH    KINGSHIP   AND   THE    STRUGGLE 
WITH    THE    DANES 

LEADING   DATES 

First  Landing  of  the  Danes,  A.D.  787 — Treaty  of  Wedmore,  878 — 
Dependent  Alliance  of  the  Scots  with  Eadward  the  Elder,  925 — 
Accession  of  Eadgar,  959 

IT  was  quite  possible  that  the  power  founded  by  Ecgberht  might 
pass  away  as  completely  as  did  the  power  which  had  been 
founded  by  iEthelfrith  of  North-humberland  or  by  Penda 
of  Mercia.  To  some  extent  the  danger  was  averted  by  the  unusual 
strength  of  character  which  for  six  generations  showed  itself  in 
the  family  of  Ecgberht.  It  was  no  less  important  that  these  suc- 
cessive kings,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  kept  up  a  good  under- 
standing with  the  clergy,  and  especially  with  the  archbishops  of 
Canterbury,  so  that  the  whole  of  the  influence  of  the  Church  was 
thrown  in  favor  of  the  political  unity  of  England  under  the  West 
Saxon  line.  The  clergy  wished  to  see  the  establishment  of  a 
strong  national  government  for  the  protection  of  the  national 
Church.  Yet  it  was  difficult  to  establish  such  a  government  un- 
less other  causes  than  the  good-will  of  the  clergy  had  contributed 
to  its  maintenance.  Peoples  who  have  had  little  intercourse  except 
by  fighting  with  one  another  rarely  unite  heartily  imless  they  have 
some  common  enemy  to  ward  off,  and  some  common  leader  to 
look  to  in  the  conduct  of  their  defense. 

The  common  enemy  came  from  the  north.  At  the  end  of  the 
eighth  century  the  inhabitants  of  Norway  and  Denmark  resembled 
the  Angles  and  Saxons  three  or  four  centuries  before.  The  North- 
men were  heathen  still,  and  their  religion  was  the  old  religion  of 
force.  They  held  that  the  warrior  who  was  slain  in  fight  was  re- 
ceived by  the  god  Odin  in  Valhalla,  where  immortal  heroes  spent 
their  days  in  cutting  one  anotlier  to  pieces,  and  were  healed  of 
their  wounds  in  the  evening  that  they  might  join  in  the  nightly 
feast,  and  be  able  to  fight  again  on  the  morrow.     He  that  died  in 

41 


42  ENGLAND 

787-868 

bed  was  condemned  to  a  chilly  and  dreary  existence  in  the  abode 
of  the  goddess  Hela,  whose  name  is  the  Norse  equivalent  of  Hell. 

Since  Englishmen  had  settled  in  England  they  had  lost  the 
art  of  seamanship.  The  Northmen  therefore  were  often  able  to 
plunder  and  sail  away.  They  could  only  be  attacked  on  land, 
and  some  time  would  pass  before  the  Ealdorman  who  ruled  the 
district  could  gather  together  not  only  his  own  war-band,  but  the 
fyrd,  or  levy  of  all  men  of  fighting  age.  When  at  last  he  arrived 
at  the  spot  on  the  coast  where  the  pirates  had  been  plundering, 
he  often  found  that  they  were  already  gone.  Yet,  as  time  went  on, 
the  Northmen  took  courage,  and  pushed  far  enough  into  the 
interior  to  be  attacked  before  they  could  regain  the  coast.  Their 
first  landing  had  been  in  787,  before  the  time  of  Ecgberht.  In 
Ecgberht's  reign  their  attacks  upon  Wessex  were  so  persistent 
that  Ecgberht  had  to  bring  his  own  war-band  to  the  succor  of 
his  Ealdormen.  His  son  and  successor,  ^thelwulf,  had  a  still 
harder  struggle.  The  pirates  spread  their  attacks  over  the  whole 
of  the  southern  and  the  eastern  coast,  and  ventured  to  remain  long 
enough  on  shore  to  fight  a  succession  of  battles.  In  851  they 
were  strong  enough  to  remain  during  the  whole  winter  in  Thanet. 
The  crews  of  no  less  than  350  ships  landed  in  the  mouth  of  the 
Thames  and  sacked  Canterbury  and  London.  They  were  finally  de- 
feated by  ^T'.thelwulf  at  Aclea  (Ockley),  in  Surrey.  In  858  ^^Lthel- 
wulf  died.  Four  of  his  sons  wore  the  crown  in  succession;  the 
two  eldest,  ^thelbald  and  iEthelberht,  ruling  only  a  short  time. 

The  task  of  the  third  brother,  ^thelred.  who  succeeded  in 
866,  was  harder  than  his  father's.  Hitherto  the  Northmen  had 
come  for  plunder,  and  had  departed  sooner  or  later.  A  fresh 
swarm  of  Danes  now  arrived  from  Denmark  to  settle  on  the  land 
as  conquerors.  Though  they  did  not  themselves  fight  on  horse- 
back, they  seized  horses  to  betake  themselves  rapidly  from  one 
part  of  England  to  the  other.  Their  first  attack  was  made  on  the 
north,  where  there  was  no  great  affection  for  the  West  Saxon 
kings.  They  overcame  the  greater  part  of  North-humberland. 
Everywhere  the  Danes  plundered  and  burned  the  monasteries,  be- 
cause the  monks  were  weak,  and  their  houses  were  rich  with  jeweled 
sen-ice  books  and  golden  plate.  They  next  turned  upon  Mercia, 
and  forced  the  Mercian  under-king  to  pay  tribute  to  them.  Only 
\\'essex,  to  which  the  smaller  eastern  states  of  Kent  and  Sussex 
had  by  this  time  been  completely  annexed,  retained  its  independence. 


STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  DANES     43 

866-886 

In  Wessex  ^thelred  strove  hard  against  the  invaders.  He 
was  succeeded  by  Alfred,  his  youngest  brother.  It  was  not  the 
EngHsh  custom  to  give  the  crown  to  the  child  of  a  king  if  there 
was  any  one  of  the  kingly  family  more  fitted  to  wear  it.  yElfred 
was  no  common  man.  In  his  childhood  he  had  visited  Rome,  and 
had  been  hallowed  as  king  by  Pope  Leo  IV.,  though  the  ceremony 
could  have  had  no  weight  in  England.  He  had  early  shown  a  love 
of  letters,  and  the  story  goes  that  when  his  mother  offered  a  book 
with  bright  illuminations  to  the  one  of  her  children  who  could  first 
learn  to  read  it,  the  prize  was  won  by  Alfred.  During  yEthelred's 
reign  he  had  little  time  to  give  to  learning.  He  fought  nobly  by 
his  brother's  side  in  the  battles  of  the  day,  and  after  he  succeeded 
him  he  fought  nobly  as  king  at  the  head  of  his  people.  In  878 
the  Danish  host,  under  its  king,  Guthrum,  beat  down  all  resistance. 
^-Ifred  was  no  longer  able  to  keep  in  the  open  country,  and  took 
refuge  with  a  few  chosen  warriors  in  the  little  island  of  Athelney, 
in  Somerset.  After  a  few  weeks  he  came  forth,  and  with  the 
levies  of  Somerset  and  Wilts  and  of  part  of  Hants  he  utterly 
defeated  Guthrum  and  stormed  his  camp. 

After  this  defeat  Guthrum  and  the  Danes  swore  to  a  peace 
with  Alfred  at  Chippenham.  They  were  afterwards  baptized  in 
a  body.  Guthrum  with  a  few  of  his  companions  then  visited 
Alfred  at  Wedmore,  a  village  from  which  is  taken  the  name  by 
which  the  treaty  is  usually  but  wrongly  known.  By  this  treaty 
Alfred  retained  no  more  than  Wessex,  with  its  dependencies,  Sus- 
sex and  Kent,  and  the  western  half  of  Mercia.  The  remainder  of 
England  as  far  north  as  the  Tees  was  surrendered  to  the  Danes, 
and  became  known  as  the  Danelaw,  because  Danish  and  not  Saxon 
law  prevailed  in  it.  Beyond  the  Tees  Bernicia  maintained  its 
independence  under  an  English  king.  Though  the  English  people 
never  again  had  to  struggle  for  its  very  existence  as  a  political 
body,  yet,  in  886,  after  a  successful  war,  yElfred  wrung  from  Guth- 
rum a  fresh  treaty  by  which  the  Danes  surrendered  London  and  the 
surrounding  district.  Yet,  even  after  this  second  treaty,  it  might 
seem  as  if  Alfred,  who  only  ruled  over  a  part  of  England,  was 
worse  off  than  his  grandfather,  Ecgberht,  who  had  ruled  over  the 
whole.  In  reality  he  was  better  off.  In  the  larger  kingdom  it 
would  have  been  almost  impossible  to  produce  the  national  spirit 
which  alone  could  have  permanently  kept  the  whole  together.  In 
the  smaller  kingdom   it  was  possible,   especially  as   there   was  a 


44.  ENGLAND 

886-901 

strong-  West  Saxon  element  in  the  southwest  of  Mercia.  More- 
over, Alfred,  taking  care  not  to  offend  the  old  feeling  of  local 
independence  which  still  existed  in  Mercia,  appointed  his  son-in- 
law,  ^thelred,  who  was  a  Mercian,  to  govern  it  as  an  ealdorman 
under  himself. 

Alfred  would  hardly  have  been  able  to  do  so  much  unless  his 
own  character  had  been  singularly  attractive.  Other  men  have 
been  greater  warriors  or  legislators  or  scholars  than  Alfred  was, 
but  no  man  has  ever  combined  in  his  own  person  so  much  excellence 
in  war,  in  legislation,  and  in  scholarship.  As  to  war,  he  was  not 
only  a  daring  and  resolute  commander,  but  he  was  an  organizer  of 
the  military  forces  of  his  people.  One  chief  cause  of  his  defeat 
of  the  English  had  been  the  difficulty  of  bringing  together  in  a 
short  time  the  "  fyrd."  or  general  levy  of  the  male  population,  or  of 
keeping  it  long  together  when  men  were  needed  at  home  to  till 
the  fields.  Alfred  did  his  best  to  overcome  this  difficulty  by  order- 
ing that  half  the  men  of  each  shire  should  be  always  ready  to  fight, 
while  half  remained  at  home.  This  new  half-army,  like  his  new 
half-kingdom,  was  stronger  than  the  whole  one  had  been  before. 
To  an  improved  army  yElfred  added  a  navy,  and  he  was  the  first 
English  king  who  defeated  the  Danes  at  sea. 

Alfred  was  too  great  a  man  to  v/ant  to  make  every  one  con- 
form to  some  ideal  of  his  own  choosing.  It  was  enough  for  him 
to  take  men  as  they  v>-ere.  and  to  help  them  to  become  better.  He 
took  the  old  laws  and  customs,  and  then,  suggesting  a  few  improve- 
ments, submitted  tliem  to  the  approval  of  his  A\'itenagemot,  the 
assembly  of  his  bishops  and  warriors.  He  knew  also  that  men's 
conduct  is  influenced  more  by  what  they  think  than  by  what  they 
are  commanded  to  do.  His  whole  land  was  steeped  in  ignorance. 
The  monasteries  had  been  the  schools  of  learning;  and  many  of 
them  had  been  sacked  by  the  Danes,  their  books  burned  and  their 
inmates  scattered,  while  others  were  deserted.  iElfred  did  his 
best  to  remedy  the  evil.  He  called  learned  men  to  him  wherever 
they  could  be  found.  Some  of  these  were  English  ;  others,  like 
Asser,  who  wrote  /Elfred's  life,  were  Welsh  ;  others  again  were 
Germans  from  beyond  the  sea.  Yet  ^-Elfred  was  not  content.  It 
was  a  great  thing  that  there  should  be  again  schools  in  England  for 
those  who  could  write  and  speak  Latin,  the  language  of  the  learned, 
but  his  heart  yearned  for  those  who  could  not  speak  anything  but 
their  own  native  tongue.     He  set  himself  to  be  the  teacher  of  these. 


STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  DANES     45 

886-901 

He  himself  translated  Latin  books  for  them,  with  the  object  of 
imparting  knowledge,  not  of  giving,  as  a  modern  translator  would 
do,  the  exact  sense  of  the  author.  When,  therefore,  he  knew  any- 
thing which  was  not  in  the  books,  but  which  he  thought  it  good  for 
Englishmen  to  read,  he  added  it  to  his  translation.  Even  with  this 
he  was  not  content.  The  books  of  Latin  writers  which  he  trans- 
lated taught  men  about  the  history  and  geography  of  the  Continent. 
They  taught  nothing  about  the  hist-04-y  of  England  itself,  of  the 
deeds  and  words  of  the  men  who  had  ruled  the  English  nation.  That 
these  things  might  not  be  forgotten,  he  bade  his  learned  men  bring 
together  all  that  was  known  of  the  history  of  his  people  since  the 
day  when  they  first  landed  as  pirates  on  the  coast  of  Kent.  The 
Chronicle,  as  it  is  called,  is  the  earliest  history  which  any  European 
nation  possesses  in  its  own  tongue.  Yet,  after  all,  such  a  man  as 
Alfred  is  greater  for  what  he  was  than  for  what  he  did.  No 
other  king  ever  showed  forth  so  well  in  his  own  person  the  truth 
of  the  saying,  "  He  that  would  be  first  among  you,  let  him  be  the 
servant  of  all." 

Li  901  Alfred  died.  He  had  already  fortified  London  as  an 
outpost  against  the  Danes,  and  he  left  to  his  son,  Eadward,  a  small 
but  strong  and  consolidated  kingdom.  The  Danes  on  the  other 
side  of  the  frontier  were  not  united.  Guthrum's  kingdom  stretched 
over  the  old  Essex  and  East  Anglia,  as  well  as  over  the  south- 
eastern part  of  the  old  Mercia.  The  land  from  the  Humber  to  the 
Nen  was  under  the  rule  of  Danes  settled  in  the  towns  known 
to  the  English  as  the  five  boroughs  of  Derby,  Leicester,  Lincc^ln, 
Stamford  and  Nottingham.  Li  the  old  Deira  or  modern  Yorkshire 
was  a  separate  Danish  kingdom.  Danes,  in  short,  settled  where\'er 
we  now  find  tlie  place-names,  such  as  Derby  and  Whitby,  ending  in 
the  Danish  termination  "  by  "  instead  of  the  English  terminations 
"  ton  "  or  "  ham,"  as  in  Luton  and  Chippenham.  Yet  even  in  these 
parts  the  bulk  of  the  population  was  usually  English,  and  the  Eng- 
lish population  would  everywhere  welcome  an  English  conqueror. 
A  century  earlier  a  ]\Iercian  or  a  North-humbrian  had  preferred 
independence  to  submission  to  a  West  Saxon  king.  They  now 
preferred  a  West  Saxon  king  to  a  Danish  master,  especially  as  the 
old  royal  houses  were  extinct,  and  there  was  no  one  but  the  West 
Saxon  king  to  lead  them  against  the  Danes. 

Eadward  was  not,  like  his  father,  a  legislator  or  a  scholar,  1)nt 
he  was  a  great  warrior.     Step  by  step  he  won  his  way,  not  content 


46  ENGLAND 

901-945 

with  victories  in  the  open  country,  but  securing  each  district  by 
the  erection  of  "  burhs,"  or  fortifications.  Towns,  small  at  first, 
grew  up  in  and  around  the  "  burhs,"  and  were  guarded  by  the  cour- 
age of  the  townsmen  themselves.  Eadward,  after  his  sister's  death, 
took  into  his  own  hands  the  government  of  Mercia,  and  from  that 
time  all  southern  and  central  England  was  united  under  him. 
In  922  the  Welsh  kings  acknowledged  his  supremacy. 

Tradition  assigns  to  Eadward  a  wider  rule  shortly  before  his 
death.  It  is  said  that  in  925  the  king  of  the  Scots,  together  with 
other  northern  rulers,  chose  Eadward  "  to  father  and  lord."  What 
was  the  precise  form  of  the  acknowledgment  must  remain  uncer- 
tain. In  925  Eadward  died.  Three  sons  reigned  in  succession. 
The  eldest  was  ^thelstan.  The  Danish  king  at  York  owned  him 
as  over-lord,  and  on  his  death  in  926  ^thelstan  took  Danish  North- 
humberland  under  his  direct  rule.  The  Welsh  kings  were  reduced 
to  make  a  fuller  acknowledgment  of  his  supremacy  than  they  had 
made  to  his  father.  Great  rulers  on  the  Continent  sought  his 
alliance.  The  empire  of  Charles  the  Great  had  broken  up.  One 
of  ^thelstan's  sisters  was  given  to  Charles  the  Simple,  the  king 
of  the  Western  Franks;  another  to  Hugh  the  Great,  Duke  of  the 
French  and  lord  of  Paris,  who,  though  nominally  the  vassal  of  the 
king,  was  equal  in  power  to  his  lord,  and  whose  son  was  after- 
wards the  first  king  of  modern  France.  A  third  sister  was  given  to 
Otto,  the  son  of  Henry,  the  king  of  the  Eastern  Franks,  from  whom, 
in  due  time,  sprang  a  new  line  of  emperors.  yEthelstan's  great- 
ness drew  upon  him  the  jealousy  of  the  king  of  the  Scots  and  of 
all  the  northern  kings.  In  937  he  defeated  them  all  in  a  great 
battle  at  Brunanburh.  His  victory  was  celebrated  in  a  splendid 
war-song. 

^thelstan  died  in  940.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  young 
brother,  Eadmund.  Eadmund  had  to  meet  a  general  rising  of  the 
Danes  of  Mercia  as  well  as  of  those  of  the  north.  After  he  had 
suppressed  the  rising  he  showed  himself  to  be  a  great  statesman  as 
well  as  a  great  warrior.  The  relations  between  the  king  of  the 
English  and  the  king  of  the  Scots  had  for  some  time  been 
very  uncertain.  Eadmund  took  an  opportunity  of  making  it  to  be 
the  interest  of  the  Scottish  king  permanently  to  join  the  English, 
The  southern  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Strathclyde  had  for  some 
time  been  under  the  English  kings.  In  945  Eadmund  overran  the 
remainder,  but  gave  it  to  Malcolm  on  condition  that  he  should  be 


STRUGGLE  WITH  THE  DANES     47 

946-955 

his  fellow-worker  by  sea  and  land.  The  king  of  Scots  thus  entered 
into  a  position  of  dependent  alliance  towards  Eadmund.  A  great 
step  was  thus  taken  in  the  direction  in  which  the  inhabitants  of 
Britain  afterwards  walked.  The  dominant  powers  in  the  island 
were  to  be  English  and  Scots,  not  English  and  Danes.  Eadmund 
thought  it  worth  while  to  conciliate  the  Scottish  Celts  rather  than 
to  endeavor  to  conquer  them.  The  result  of  Eadmund's  states- 
manship was  soon  made  manifest.  He  himself  did  not  live  to 
gather  its  fruits.  In  946  an  outlaw  who  had  taken  his  seat  at  a 
feast  in  his  hall  slew  him  as  he  was  attempting  to  drag  him  out 
by  the  hair.  The  next  king,  Eadred,  the  last  of  Eadward's  sons, 
though  sickly,  had  all  the  spirit  of  his  race.  He  had  another  sharp 
struggle  with  the  Danes,  but  in  954  he  made  himself  their  master. 
North-humberland  was  now  thoroughly  amalgamated  with  the 
English  kingdom,  and  was  to  be  governed  by  an  Englishman, 
Oswulf,  with  the  title  of  Earl,  an  old  Danish  title  equivalent  to  the 
English  Earldorman,  having  nothing  to  do,  except  philologically, 
with  the  old  English  word  Eorl. 

In  955  Eadred  died,  having  completed  the  work  which  Alfred 
had  begun,  and  which  had  been  carried  on  by  his  son  and  his  three 
grandsons.  England,  from  the  Forth  to  the  Channel,  was  under 
one  ruler.  Even  the  contrast  between  Englishmen  and  Danes  was 
soon,  for  the  most  part,  wiped  out.  They  were  both  of  the  same 
Teutonic  stock,  and  therefore  their  languages  were  akin  to  one 
another  and  their  institutions  very  similar.  The  Danes  of  the 
north  were  for  some  time  fiercer  and  less  easily  controlled  than 
the  English  of  the  south,  but  there  was  little  national  distinc- 
tion between  them,  and  what  little  there  was  gradually  passed 
away. 

There  were  two  ecclesiastics  of  prominence  about  this  time, 
Dunstan  and  Oda.  Dunstan  in  his  boyhood  had  been  attaclied  to 
Eadmund's  court,  but  he  had  been  driven  off  by  the  rivalry  of  other 
youths.  He  was  in  no  way  fitted  to  be  a  warrior.  He  loved  art 
and  song,  and  preferred  a  book  to  a  sword.  Eor  such  youths  there 
was  no  place  among  the  fighting  laymen,  and  Dunstan  early  found 
the  peace  which  he  sought  as  a  monk  at  Glastonbury.  Eadmund 
made  him  abbot,  but  Dunstan  had  almost  to  create  his  monastery 
before  he  could  rule  it.  Monasteries  had  nearly  vanislicd  from 
England  in  the  time  of  the  Danish  plundcrings,  and  the  few  monks 
who  remained  had  very  little  that  was  monastic  about  them.     Dun- 


48  ENGLAND 

955 

Stan  brought  the  old  monks  into  order,  and  attracted  new  ones,  but 
to  the  end  of  his  days  he  was  conspicuous  rather  as  a  scholar  than 
as  an  ascetic.  From  Glastonbury  he  carried  on  the  work  of  teach- 
ing an  ignorant  generation,  just  as  Alfred  had  done  in  an  earlier 
time.  Alfred,  however,  was  a  warrior  and  a  ruler  first,  and  then 
a  teacher.  Dunstan  was  a  teacher  first,  and  then  a  ruler.  Eadred 
took  counsel  with  him,  and  Dunstan  became  thus  the  first  example 
of  a  class  of  men  which  afterwards  rose  to  power — that,  namely, 
of  ecclesiastical  statesmen.  Up  to  that  time  all  who  had  governed 
had  been  warriors. 

Another  side  of  the  Church's  work,  the  maintenance  of  a 
high  standard  of  morality,  was,  in  the  time  of  Eadred,  represented 
by  Oda,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  The  accepted  standard  of 
morality  differs  in  different  ages,  and,  for  many  reasons,  it  was  held 
by  the  purer  minds  in  the  tenth  century  that  celibacy  was  nobler 
than  marriage.  If  our  opinion  is  changed  now,  it  is  because  many 
things  have  changed.  No  one  then  thought  of  teaching  a  girl 
anything,  except  to  sew  and  to  look  after  the  house,  and  an  ignorant 
and  untrained  wife  could  only  be  a  burden  to  a  man  who  was  intent 
upon  the  growth  of  the  spiritual  or  intellectual  life  in  himself  and 
in  others.  At  all  times  the  monks,  who  were  often  called  the 
regular  clergy,  because  they  lived  according  to  a  certain  rule,  had 
been  unmarried,  and  attempts  had  frequently  been  made  by  coun- 
cils of  the  Church  to  compel  the  parish  priests,  or  secular  clergy, 
to  follow  their  example.  In  England,  however,  and  on  the  Con- 
tinent as  well,  these  orders  were  seldom  heeded,  and  a  married 
clergy  was  everywhere  to  be  found.  Of  late,  however,  there  had 
sprung  up  in  the  monastery  of  Cluny,  in  Burgundy,  a  zeal  for  the 
establishment  of  universal  clerical  celibacy,  and  this  zeal  was 
shared  by  Archbishop  Oda,  though  he  found  it  impossible  to  over- 
come the  stubborn  resistance  of  the  secular  clergy. 

In  its  eagerness  to  set  up  a  pure  standard  of  morality,  the 
Church  had  made  rules  against  the  marriage  of  even  distant  rela- 
tions. Eadwig.  who  had  succeeded  Eadred  while  still  young, 
offended  against  these  rules  by  marrying  his  kinswoman,  ^Ifgifu. 
A  quarrel  arose  on  this  account  between  Dunstan  and  the  young 
king,  and  Dunstan  was  driven  into  banishment.  Such  a  quarrel 
was  sure  to  weaken  the  king,  because  the  support  of  the  bishops  was 
usually  given  to  him,  for  the  sake  of  the  maintenance  of  peace  and 
order.      The  dispute  came  at  a  bad  time,  because  there  was  also 


STRUGGLE     WITH     THE     DANES 


959 


49 


a  quarrel  among  the  ealdormen  and  other  great  men.  At  last 
the  ealdormen  of  the  north  and  center  of  England  revolted  and 
set  up  the  king's  brother,  Eadgar,  to  be  king  of  all  England  north 


SAXON     ENGLAND 


of  the  Thames.  Upon  this,  Oda,  taking  courage,  declared  Eadwig 
and  his  young  wife  to  be  separated  as  too  near  of  kin.  and  even 
seized  her  and  had  her  carried  beyond  sea.  In  959  Eadwig  died, 
and  Eadgar  succeeded  to  the  whole  kingdom. 


Chapter   V 

EADGAR'S    ENGLAND 

EADGAR  was  known  as  the  Peaceful  King.  He  had  the  ad- 
vantage, which  Eadwig  had  not,  of  having  the  Church  on 
his  side.  He  maintained  order,  with  the  help  of  Dunstan 
as  his  principal  adviser.  Not  long  after  his  accession  Dunstan  be- 
came Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  His  policy  was  that  of  a  man  who 
knows  that  he  cannot  do  everything  and  is  content  to  do  what  he  can. 
The  Danes  were  to  keep  their  own  laws,  and  not  to  have  English 
laws  forced  upon  them.  The  great  ealdormen  were  to  be  concili- 
ated, not  to  be  repressed.  Everything  was  to  be  done  to  raise  the 
standard  of  morality  and  knowledge.  Foreign  teachers  were 
brought  in  to  set  up  schools.  More  than  this  Dunstan  did  not 
attempt.  It  is  true  that  in  his  time  an  effort  was  made  to  found 
monasteries,  which  should  be  filled  with  monks  living  after  the 
stricter  rule  of  which  the  example  had  been  set  at  Cluny,  but  the 
man  who  did  most  to  establish  monasteries  again  in  England  was 
not  Dunstan,  but  ^Ethelwold,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  ^thelwold, 
however,  was  not  content  with  founding  monasteries.  He  also 
drove  out  the  secular  canons  from  his  own  cathedral  of  Winchester 
and  filled  their  places  with  monks.  His  example  was  followed 
by  Oswold,  Bishop  of  Worcester.  Dunstan  did  not  introduce 
monks  even  into  his  own  cathedrals  at  W^orcester  and  Canterbury. 
As  far  as  it  is  now  possible  to  understand  the  matter,  the  change, 
though  it  provoked  great  hostility,  was  for  the  better.  The  secular 
canons  were  often  married,  connected  with  the  laity  of  the  neigh- 
borhood, and  lived  an  easy  life.  The  monks  were  celibate, 
living  according  to  a  strict  rule,  and  conforming  themselves  to 
what,  according  to  the  standard  of  the  age,  was  the  highest  ideal  of 
religion.  By  a  life  of  complete  self-denial  they  were  able  to  act 
as  examples  to  a  generation  which  needed  teaching  by  example 
more  than  by  word.  How  completely  monasticism  was  associated 
with  learning  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  monks  now  established 
at  Worcester  took  up  the  work  of  continuing  the  Chronicle  which 
had  begun  under  /Elfrcd. 

50 


EADGAR'S     ENGLAND  61 

959-975 

Eadgar's  title  of  Peaceful  shows  that  at  least  he  lived  on  good 
terms  with  his  neighbors.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  he  was 
able  to  do  this  because  he  followed  out  the  policy  of  Eadmund  in 
singling  out  the  king  of  Scots  as  the  ruler  whom  it  was  most  worth 
his  while  to  conciliate.  Eadmund  had  given  over  Strathclyde  to 
one  king  of  Scots.  Eadgar  gave  over  Lothian  to  another.  Lothian 
was  then  the  name  of  the  whole  of  the  northern  part  of  Bernicia, 
stretching  from  the  Cheviots  to  the  Forth. 

The  long  struggle  with  the  Danes  could  not  fail  to  leave  its 
mark  upon  English  society.  The  history  of  the  changes  which 
took  place  is  difficult  to  trace ;  in  the  first  place  because  our  informa- 
tion is  scanty,  in  the  second  because  things  happened  in  one  part 
of  the  country  which  did  not  happen  in  another.  Yet  there  were 
two  changes  which  were  widely  felt:  the  growth  of  the  king's 
authority,  and  the  acceleration  of  the  process  which  was  reducing 
to  bondage  the  ceorl,  or  simple  freeman. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  English  conquest  the  kings  and  other 
great  men  had  around  them  their  war-bands,  composed  of  gesiths 
or  thegns,  personally  attached  to  themselves,  and  ready,  if  need 
were,  to  die  on  their  lord's  behalf.  Very  early  these  thegns  were 
rewarded  by  grants  of  land  on  condition  of  continuing  military 
service.  Every  extension  of  the  king's  power  over  fresh  territory 
made  their  services  more  important.  It  had  always  been  difficult 
to  bring  together  the  fyrd,  or  general  army  of  the  freemen,  even 
of  a  small  district,  and  it  was  quite  impossible  to  bring  together 
the  fyrd  of  a  kingdom  reaching  from  the  Channel  to  the  Firth  of 
Forth.  The  kings  therefore  had  to  rely  more  and  more  upon 
their  thegns,  who  in  turn  had  thegns  of  their  own  whom  they 
could  bring  with  them,  and  thus  was  formed  an  army  ready  for 
military  service  in  any  part  of  the  kingdom.  A  king  who  could 
command  such  an  army  was  even  more  powerful  than  one  who 
could  command  the  whole  of  the  forces  of  a  smaller  territory. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  a  certain  account  of  the  changes  which 
passed  over  the  English  freemen,  but  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  a  process  had  been  for  some  time  going  on  which  converted 
them  into  bondmen,  and  that  this  process  was  greatly  accelerated 
by  the  Danish  wars.  When  a  district  was  being  plundered  the 
peasant  holders  of  the  strips  of  village  land  suffered  most,  and 
needed  the  protection  of  the  neighboring  thegn,  who  was  better 
skilled  in  war  than  themselves,  and  this  iH-otection  they  could  only 


52  ENGLAND 

959-975 

obtain  on  condition  of  becoming  bondmen  themselves — that  is  to 
say,  of  giving  certain  days  in  the  week  to  work  on  the  special 
estate  of  the  lord.  A  bondman  differed  both  from  a  slave  and  from 
a  modern  farmer.  Though  he  was  bound  to  the  soil  and  could  not 
go  away  if  he  wished  to  do  so,  yet  he  could  not  be  sold  as  though 
he  were  a  slave;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  could  he,  like  a  farmer, 
be  turned  out  of  his  holding  so  long  as  he  fulfilled  his  obligation 
of  cultivating  his  lord's  demesne.  The  lord  was  almost  invariably 
a  thegn,  either  of  the  king  or  of  some  superior  thegn,  and  there 
thus  arose  in  England,  as  there  arose  about  the  same  time  on  the 
Continent,  a  chain  of  personal  relationships.  The  king  was  no  longer 
merely  the  head  of  the  whole  people.  He  was  the  personal  lord 
of  his  own  thegns,  and  they  again  were  the  lords  of  other  thegns. 
The  serfs  cultivated  their  lands,  and  thereby  set  them  free  to  fight 
for  the  king  on  behalf  of  the  whole  nation.  It  seems  at  first  sight 
as  if  the  English  people  had  fallen  into  a  worse  condition.  An 
organization,  partly  military  and  partly  servile,  was  substituted  for 
an  organization  of  freemen.  Yet  only  in  this  way  could  the  whole 
of  England  be  amalgamated.  The  nation  gained  in  unity  what  it 
lost  in  freedom. 

In  another  way  the  condition  of  the  peasants  was  altered  for 
the  worse  by  the  growth  of  the  king's  power.  In  former  days 
land  was  held  as  "  folkland,"  granted  by  the  people  at  the  original 
conquest,  passing  to  the  kinsmen  of  the  holder  if  he  died  without 
children.  Afterwards  the  clergy  introduced  a  system  by  which  the 
owner  could  grant  the  "  bookland,"  held  by  book  or  charter,  setting 
at  naught  the  claim  of  his  kinsmen,  and  in  order  to  give  validity 
to  the  arrangement,  obtained  the  consent  of  the  king  and  his 
Witenagemot.  In  time  the  king  and  his  Witenagemot  granted 
charters  in  other  cases,  and  the  new  *'  bookland "  to  a  great 
extent  superseded  the  old  "  folkland,"  accompanied  by  a  grant  of 
the  right  of  holding  special  courts.  In  this  manner  the  old  hundred- 
moots  became  neglected,  people  seeking  for  justice  in  the  courts 
of  the  lords.  Yet  those  who  lived  on  the  lord's  land  attended 
his  court,  appeared  as  compurgators,  and  directed  the  ordeal  just 
as  they  had  once  done  in  the  hundred-moot. 

The  towns  had  grown  up  in  various  ways.  Some  were  of 
old  Roman  foundation,  such  as  Lincoln  and  Gloucester.  Others, 
like  Nottingham  and  Bristol,  had  come  into  existence  since  the 
English    settlement.      Others    again    gathered    rcjimd    monasteries. 


EADGAR'S     ENGLAND  53 

959-975 

like  Bury  St.  Edmunds  and  Peterborough.  The  inhabitants  met 
to  consult  about  their  own  affairs,  sometimes  in  dependence  on  a 
lord.  Where  there  was  no  lord  they  held  a  court  which  was  com- 
posed in  the  same  way  as  the  hundred-moots  outside.  The  towns- 
men had  the  right  of  holding  a  market.  Every  sale  had  to  take 
place  in  the  presence  of  witnesses  who  could  prove,  if  called  upon 
to  do  so,  that  the  sale  had  really  taken  place,  and  markets  were 
therefore  usually  to  be  found  in  towns,  because  it  was  there  that 
witnesses  could  most  easily  be  found. 

Shires,  which  were  divisions  larger  than  the  hundreds,  and 
smaller  than  the  larger  kingdoms,  originated  in  various  ways.  In 
the  south,  and  on  the  east  coast  as  far  as  the  Wash,  they  were  either 
old  kingdoms  like  Kent  and  Essex,  or  settlements  forming  part  of 
old  kingdoms,  as  Norfolk  (the  north  folk)  formed  part  of  East 
Anglia,  and  Dorset  or  Somerset,  the  lands  of  the  DorsDstan  or  the 
Somerssetan,  formed  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Wessex.  In  the  center 
and  north  they  were  of  more  recent  origin,  and  were  probably 
formed  as  those  parts  of  England  were  gradually  reconquered  from 
the  Danes.  The  fact  that  most  of  these  shires  are  named  from 
towns — as  Derbyshire  from  Derby,  and  Warwickshire  from  War- 
wick— shows  that  they  came  into  existence  after  towns  had  become 
of  importance. 

While  the  hundred-moot  decayed,  the  folk-moot  continued 
to  flourish  under  a  new  name,  as  the  shire-moot.  This  moot  was 
still  attended  by  the  freemen  of  the  shire,  tliough  the  thegns  were 
more  numerous  and  the  simple  freemen  less  numerous  than  they 
had  once  been.  Still  tl-he  continued  existence  of  the  shire-moot 
kept  up  the  custom  of  self-government  more  than  anything  else  in 
England.  The  ordeals  were  witnessed,  the  weregild  inflicted,  and 
rights  to  land  adjudged,  not  by  an  officer  of  the  king,  but  by  the 
landowners  of  the  shire  assembled  for  the  purpose.  These  meet- 
ings were  ordinarily  presided  over  by  the  ealdorman,  who  ap- 
peared as  the  military  commander  and  the  official  head  of  the  sliire, 
and  by  the  bishop,  who  represented  the  Church.  Another  most 
important  personage  was  the  sheriff,  or  sliire-reeve,  whose  business 
it  was  to  see  that  the  king  had  all  his  riglits,  to  preside  over  the 
shire-moot  when  it  sat  as  a  judicial  court,  and  to  take  care  that  its 
sentences  were  put  in  execution. 

During  the  long  fight  with  the  Danes  commanders  were  needed 
who  could  lead  the  forces  of  more  than  a  single  shire.     Before  the 


54  ENGLAND 

959-975 

end  of  Eadred's  reign  there  were  ealdormen  who  ruled  over  many 
shires.  One  of  them  for  instance,  ^thelstan,  Ealdorman  of  East 
Anglia,  and  of  the  shires  immediately  to  the  west  of  East  Anglia, 
was  so  powerful  that  he  was  popularly  known  as  the  Half-King. 
Such  ealdormen  had  great  influence  in  their  own  districts,  and 
they  also  were  very  powerful  about  the  king.  The  king  could  not 
perform  any  important  act  without  the  consent  of  the  Witenage- 
mot,  which  was  made  up  of  three  classes — the  Ealdormen,  the 
bishops,  and  the  greater  thegns.  When  a  king  died  the  Witenage- 
mot  chose  his  successor  out  of  the  kingly  family;  its  members 
appeared  as  witnesses  whenever  the  king  "  booked  "  land  to  any 
one;  and  it  even,  on  rare  occasions,  deposed  a  king  who  was  unfit 
for  his  post.  In  the  days  of  a  great  warrior  king  like  Eadward 
or  Eadmund,  members  of  the  Witenagemot  w^ere  but  instruments 
in  his  hands,  but  if  a  weak  king  came  upon  the  throne  each  member 
usually  took  his  own  way  and  pursued  his  own  interests  rather  than 
that  of  the  king's  and  kingdom. 

The  cultivated  land  was  surrounded  either  by  wood  or  by 
pasture  and  open  commons.  Every  cottager  kept  his  hive  of  bees, 
to  produce  the  honey  which  was  then  used  as  we  now  use  sugar, 
and  drove  his  swine  into  the  woods  to  fatten  on  the  acorns  and 
beechnuts  which  strewed  the  ground  in  the  autumn.  Sheep  and 
cattle  were  fed  on  the  pastures,  and  horses  were  so  abundant  that 
when  the  Danish  pirates  landed  they  found  it  easy  to  set  every 
man  on  horseback.  Yet  neither  the  Danes  nor  the  English  ever 
learned  to  fight  on  horseback.  They  rode  to  battle,  but  as  soon  as 
they  approached  the  enemy  they  dismounted  to  fight  on  foot. 

The  huts  of  the  villagers  clustered  round  the  house  of  the  lord. 
His  abode  was  built  in  a  yard  surrounded  for  protection  by  a  mound 
and  fence,  while  very  great  men  often  established  themselves  in 
burhs,  surrounded  by  earthworks,  either  of  their  own  raising  or  the 
work  of  earlier  times.  Its  principal  feature  was  the  hall,  in  which 
the  whole  family  with  the  guests  and  the  thegns  of  the  lord  met  for 
their  meals.  The  walls  were  covered  with  curtains  worked  in  pat- 
terns of  bright  colors.  The  fire  was  lighted  on  the  hearth,  a 
broad  stone  in  the  middle,  over  which  was  a  hole  in  the  roof  through 
which  the  smoke  of  the  hall  escaped.  The  windows  were  narrow, 
and  were  either  unclosed  holes  in  the  wall,  or  covered  with  oiled 
linen  which  would  admit  a  certain  amount  of  light. 

In  a  great  house  at  meal-time  boards  were  brought  forward 


EADGAR'S     ENGLAND  55 

959-975 

and  placed  on  tressels.  Bread  was  to  be  had  in  plenty,  and  salt 
butter.  Meat  too,  in  winter,  was  always  salted,  as  turnips  and 
other  roots  upon  which  cattle  are  now  fed  in  winter  were  wholly 
unknown,  and  it  was  therefore  necessary  to  kill  large  numbers  of 
sheep  and  oxen  when  the  cold  weather  set  in.  There  were  dishes, 
but  neither  plates  nor  forks.  Each  man  took  the  meat  in  his  fingers 
and  either  bit  off  a  piece  or  cut  it  off  with  a  knife.  The  master  of 
the  house  sat  at  the  head  of  the  table,  and  the  lady  handed  round 
the  drink,  and  afterwards  sat  down  by  her  husband's  side.  She, 
however,  with  any  other  ladies  who  might  be  present,  soon  departed 
to  the  chamber  which  was  their  own  apartment.  The  men  con- 
tinued drinking  long.  The  cups  or  glasses  which  they  used  were 
often  made  with  the  bottoms  rounded  so  as  to  force  the  guests  to 
keep  them  in  their  hands  till  they  were  empty.  The  usual  drink 
was  mead,  that  is  to  say,  fermented  honey,  or  ale  brewed  from  malt 
alone,  as  hops  were  not  introduced  till  many  centuries  later.  In 
wealthy  houses  imported  wine  was  to  be  had.  English  wine  was 
not  unknown,  but  it  was  so  sour  that  it  had  to  be  sweetened  with 
honey.  It  was  held  to  be  disgraceful  to  leave  the  company  as  long 
as  the  drinking  lasted,  and  drunkenness  and  quarrels  were  not  un- 
frequent.  Wandering  minstrels  who  could  play  and  sing  or  tell 
stories  were  always  welcome,  especially  if  they  were  jugglers  as 
well,  and  could  amuse  the  company  by  throwing  knives  in  the  air 
and  catching  them  as  they  fell,  or  could  dance  on  their  hands  with 
their  legs  in  the  air.  When  the  feast  was  over  the  guests  and 
dependents  slept  on  the  floor  on  rugs  or  straw,  each  man  taking 
care  to  hang  his  weapons  close  to  his  head  on  the  wall,  to  defend 
himself  in  case  of  an  attack  by  robbers  in  the  night.  The  lord  re- 
tired to  his  chamber,  while  the  unmarried  ladies  occupied  bowers, 
or  small  rooms,  each  with  a  separate  door  opening  on  to  the  yard. 
Their  only  beds  were  bags  of  straw.  Neither  men  nor  women 
wore  night-dresses  of  any  kind,  but  if  they  took  off  their  clothes  at 
all,  wrapped  themselves  in  rugs. 


Chapter   VI 

ENGLAND   AND    NORMANDY 

LEADING    DATES 

Death  of  Eadgar,  A.D.  975 — Accession  of  ^thelred,  979 — Ac- 
cession OF  Cnut,  1016 — Accession  of  Eadward  the  Confessor,  1035 — 
Banishiment  of  Godwine,  1051 — Accession  of  Harold  and  Battle 
of  Senlac,  1066 

EADGAR  died  in  975,  leaving  two  boys,  Eadward  and 
^thelred.  On  his  death  a  quarrel  broke  out  among-  the 
ealdormen,  some  declaring  for  the  succession  of  Eadward 
and  others  for  the  succession  of  ^thelred.  The  political  quarrel 
was  complicated  by  an  ecclesiastical  quarrel.  The  supporters  of 
Eadward  were  the  friends  of  the  secular  clergy;  the  supporters  of 
^thelred  were  the  friends  of  the  monks.  Dunstan,  with  his  usual 
moderation,  gave  his  voice  for  the  eldest  son,  and  Eadward  was 
chosen  king  and  crowned.  After  reigning  four  years  he  was  mur- 
dered by  some  of  the  opposite  party,  and,  as  was  commonly  sup- 
posed, by  his  stepmother's  directions. 

^thelred,  now  a  boy  of  ten,  became  king  in  979.  The  epithet 
the  Unready,  which  is  usually  assigned  to  him,  is  a  mistranslation 
of  a  word  which  properly  means  the  Rede-less,  or  the  man  without 
counsel.  He  was  entirely  without  the  qualities  which  befit  a  king, 
Eadmund  had  kept  the  great  chieftains  in  subordination  to  himself 
because  he  was  a  successful  leader.  Eadgar  had  kept  them  in 
subordination  because  he  treated  them  with  respect,  ^thelred 
could  neither  lead  nor  show  respect.  He  was  always  picking  quar- 
rels when  he  ought  to  have  been  making  peace,  and  always  making 
peace  wlien  he  ought  to  have  been  fighting.  What  he  tried  to  do 
was  to  lessen  the  power  of  the  great  ealdormen,  and  bring  the 
whole  country  more  directly  under  his  own  authority.  In  985  he 
drove  out  ^Ifric,  the  ealdorman  of  the  Mercians.  In  988  Dunstan 
died,  and  yEthelred  had  no  longer  a  wise  adviser  by  his  side. 

It  would  have  been  difficult  for  /Ethelred  to  overpower  the 
ealdormen  even  if  he  had  had  no  other  enemies  to  deal  with.     Un- 

6Q 


ENGLAND     AND     NORMANDY  57 

979-994 

luckily  for  him,  new  swarms  of  Danes  and  Norwegians  had 
already  appeared  in  England.  They  began  by  plundering 
the  country,  without  attempting  to  settle  in  it.  yEthelred  could 
think  of  no  better  counsel  than  to  pay  them  10,000/.,  a 
sum  of  money  which  was  then  of  much  greater  value  than 
it  is  now,  to  abstain  from  plundering.  It  was  not  nec- 
essarily a  bad  thing  to  do.  One  of  the  greatest  of  the  kings 
of  the  Germans,  Henry  the  Fowler,  had  paid  money  for  a  truce 
to  barbarians  whom  he  was  not  strong  enough  to  fight.  But  when 
the  truce  had  been  bought  Henry  took  care  to  make  himself 
strong  enough  to  destroy  them  when  they  came  again.  iEthelred 
was  never  ready  to  fight  the  Danes  and  Norwegians  at  any  time. 
In  994  Olaf  Trygvasson,  who  had  been  driven  from  the  kingship 
of  Norway,  and  Svend,  who  had  been  driven  from  the  kingship  of 
Denmark,  joined  forces  to  attack  London.  The  London  citizens 
fought  better  than  the  English  king,  and  the  two  chieftains  failed 
to  take  the  town.  "  They  went  thence,  and  wrought  the  greatest 
evil  that  ever  any  army  could  do,  in  burning,  and  harrying,  and  in 
man-slaying,  as  in  Essex,  and  in  Kent,  and  in  Sussex,  and  in  Hamp- 
shire. And  at  last  they  took  their  horses  and  rode  as  far  as  they 
could,  and  did  unspeakable  evil."  The  plunderers  were  now  known 
as  "  the  army,"  moving  about  where  they  would.  TEthelred  this 
time  gave  them  16,000/.  He  got  rid  of  Olaf,  who  sailed  away  and 
was  slain  by  his  enemies,  but  he  could  not  permanently  get  rid  of 
Svend.  Svend,  about  the  year  1000,  recovered  his  kingship  in 
Denmark,  and  was  more  formidable  than  he  had  been  before. 
Plunderings  went  on  as  usual,  and  ^Ethelred  had  no  resource  but 
to  pay  money  to  the  plunderers  to  buy  a  short  respite.  He  then 
looked  across  the  sea  for  an  ally,  and  hoped  to  find  one  by  con- 
necting himself  with  the  Duke  of  the  Normans. 

The  country  which  lies  on  both  sides  of  the  lower  course  of 
the  Seine  formed,  at  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century,  part  of  the 
dominions  of  Charles  the  Simple,  king  of  the  AVest  Franks.  Danes 
and  Norwegians,  known  on  the  Continent  as  Normans,  plundered 
Charles's  dominions  as  they  had  plundered  England,  and  at  last 
settled  in  them  as  they  had  settled  in  parts  of  England.  In  912 
Charles  the  Simple  ceded  to  their  leader,  Ilrolf,  a  territory  of  which 
the  capital  was  Rouen,  and  which  became  known  as  Normandy — • 
the  land  of  the  Normans.  Hrolf  became  the  first  Duke  of  the 
Normans  and  his  successors  became  the  most  powerful  vassals  of 


58  ENGLAND 

1002-1013 

the  Capetians  who  had  made  themselves  kings  of  the  French.  In 
I002  the  duke  was  Richard  II. — the  Good — the  son  of  Richard  the 
Fearless.  In  that  year  ^thelred,  who  was  a  widower,  married 
Richard's  sister,  Emma.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  connection  with 
Normandy  which  never  ceased  till  a  Norman  duke  made  himself  by 
conquest  king  of  the  English. 

The  causes  which  were  making  the  English  thegnhood  a  mili- 
tary aristocracy  acted  with  still  greater  force  in  Normandy.  The 
tillers  of  the  soil,  sprung  from  the  old  inhabitants  of  the  land,  were 
kept  by  their  Norman  lords  in  even  harsher  bondage  than  the 
English  serfs.  The  Norman  warriors  held  their  land  by  military 
service,  each  one  being  bound  to  fight  for  his  lord,  and  the  lord  in 
turn  being  bound,  together  with  his  dependents,  to  fight  for  a 
higher  lord,  and  all  at  last  for  the  Duke  himself.  In  England, 
though  in  theory  the  relations  between  the  king  and  his  ealdormen 
were  not  very  different  from  those  existing  between  the  Norman 
duke  and  his  immediate  vassals,  the  connection  between  them  was 
far  looser.  The  kingdom  as  a  whole  had  no  general  unity.  The 
king  could  not  control  the  ealdormen,  and  the  ealdormen  could  not 
control  the  king.  Even  when  ealdormen,  bishops,  and  thegns  met 
in  the  Witenagemot  they  could  not  speak  in  the  name  of  the  nation. 
A  nation  in  any  true  sense  hardly  existed  at  all,  and  they  were  not 
chosen  as  representatives  of  any  part  of  it.  Each  one  stood  for 
himself,  and  it  was  only  natural  that  men  who  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  year  were  ruling  in  their  own  districts  like  little  kings 
should  think  more  of  keeping  up  their  own  almost  independent 
power  at  home  than  of  the  common  interests  of  all  England,  which 
they  had  to  consider  when  they  met — and  that  for  a  few  days  only 
at  a  time — in  the  Witenagemot.  ^thelred  at  least  was  not  the 
man  to  keep  them  united. 

iEthelred,  having  failed  to  buy  off  the  Danes,  tried  to  murder 
them.  In  1002,  on  St.  Brice's  Day,  there  was  a  general  massacre 
of  all  the  Danes — not  of  the  old  inhabitants  of  Danish  blood  who 
had  settled  in  ^Elfred's  time — but  of  the  newcomers.  Svend  re- 
turned to  avenge  his  counti-}aTien.  ^thelred  had  in  an  earlier  part 
of  his  reign  levied  a  land-tax  known  as  the  Danegeld  to  pay  off  the 
Danes — the  first  instance  of  a  general  tax  in  England.  Pie  now 
called  on  all  the  shires  to  furnish  ships  for  a  fleet;  but  he  could 
not  trust  his  ealdormen.  In  1013  Svend  appeared  no  longer  as  a 
plunderer  but  as  a  conqueror.     First  the  old  Danish  districts  of  the 


ENGLAND     AND     NORMANDY  59 

1014-1016 

north  and  east,  and  then  the  Anglo-Saxon  reahn  of  /Elfred — Mer- 
cia  and  Wessex — submitted  to  him  to  avoid  destruction.  In  1013 
^Ethelred  fled  to  Normandy. 

In  1014  Svend  died  suddenly  as  he  was  riding  at  the  head  of 
his  troops.  His  Danish  warriors  chose  his  son  Cnut  king  of 
England.  The  English  Witenagemot  sent  for  ^thelred  to  return. 
At  last,  in  1016,  yEthelred  died  before  he  had  conquered  Cnut  or 
Cnut  conquered  him.  ^thelred's  eldest  son — not  the  son  of  Emma 
— Eadmund  Ironside,  succeeded  him.  He  did  all  that  could  be 
done  to  restore  the  English  kingship  by  his  vigor.  In  a  single 
year  he  fought  six  battles ;  but  the  treachery  of  the  ealdormen  was 
not  at  an  end,  and  he  w^as  completely  overthrown.  He  and  Cnut 
agreed  to  divide  the  kingdom,  but  before  the  end  of  the  year  the 
heroic  Eadmund  died,  and  Cnut  the  Dane  became  king  of  England 
without  a  rival. 

Cnut  was  one  of  those  rulers  who,  like  the  Emperor  Augustus, 
shrink  from  no  barbarity  in  gaining  power,  but  when  once  they  have 
acquired  it  exercise  their  authority  with  moderation  and  gentleness. 
He  began  by  outlawing  or  putting  to  death  men  whom  he  consid- 
ered dangerous,  but  when  this  had  once  been  done  he  ruled  as  a 
thoroughly  English  king  of  the  best  type.  Tlie  Danes  who  had 
hitherto  fought  for  him  had  come  not  as  settlers,  but  as  an  army, 
and  soon  after  Eadmund's  death  he  sent  most  of  them  home,  re- 
taining a  force,  variously  stated  as  3,000  or  6,000,  warriors  known 
as  his  House-carls  (Housc-inen),  who  formed  a  small  standing 
army  depending  entirely  on  himself.  They  were  not  enough  to 
keep  down  a  general  rising  of  the  whole  of  England,  but  they  were 
quite  enough  to  prevent  any  single  great  man  from  rebelling  against 
him.  Cnut  therefore  was,  what  /Ethelred  had  wished  to  be,  really 
master  of  his  kingdom.  Under  him  ruled  the  ealdormen,  who 
from  this  time  were  known  as  Earls,  from  the  Danish  title  of  Jarl. 
and  of  these  earls  the  principal  were  the  three  who  governed 
Mercia,  North-humberland,  and  Wessex,  th.e  last  named  ncnv 
including  the  old  kingdoms  of  Kent  and  Sussex.  There  was 
a  fourth  in  East  Anglia,  but  the  limits  of  thiis  earldom  varied  troni 
time  to  time,  and  there  were  sometimes  otlier  earldoms  set  up  in 
the  neighboring  shires,  Avhereas  the  first-named  three  remained 
as  they  were  for  some  time  after  Cnut's  deaiii.  It  is  characteristic 
of  Cnut  that  the  one  of  the  earls  to  whom  he  gave  his  greatest 
confidence  was  Godwine,   an   Englishman,   who  was   Earl  of  the 


60  ENGLAND 

1016-1035 

West  Saxons.  Another  Englishman,  Leofwine,  became  Earl  of  the 
Mercians.  A  Dane  obtained  the  earldom  of  the  North-humbrians, 
but  the  land  was  barbarous,  and  its  Earls  were  frequently  murdered. 
Sometimes  there  was  one  Earl  of  the  whole  territory,  sometimes 
two.  It  was  not  till  after  the  end  of  Cnut's  reign  that  Siward 
became  Earl  of  Deira,  and  at  a  later  time  of  all  North-humberland 
as  far  as  the  Tweed.  The  descendants  of  two  of  these  Earls,  God- 
wine  and  Leofwine,  leave  their  mark  on  the  history  for  some  time 
to  come. 

Beyond  the  Tweed  Malcolm,  king  of  the  Scots,  ruled.  He 
defeated  the  North-humbrians  at  Carham,  and  Cnut  ceded  Lothian 
to  him,  either  doing  so  for  the  first  time  or  repeating  the  act  of 
Eadgar,  if  the  story  of  Eadgar  s  cession  is  true.  At  all  events  the 
king  of  the  Scots  from  this  time  ruled  as  far  south  as  the  Tweed, 
and  acknowledged  Cnut's  superiority.  Cnut  also  became  king  of 
Denmark  by  his  brother's  death,  and  king  of  Norway  by  conquest. 
He  entered  into  friendly  relations  with  Richard  H.,  Duke  of  the 
Normans,  by  marrying  his  sister  Emma,  tlie  widow  of  /Ethelred. 

Cnut  had  thus  made  himself  master  of  a  great  empire,  and  yet, 
Dane  as  he  was,  though  he  treated  Englishmen  and  Danes  as  equals, 
he  gave  his  special  favor  to  Englishmen.  He  restored,  as  men 
said,  the  laws  of  Eadgar — that  is  to  say,  he  kept  peace  and  restored 
order  as  in  the  days  of  Eadgar.  He  reverenced  monks,  and  once 
as  he  was  rowing  on  the  waters  of  the  fens,  he  heard  the  monks  of 
Ely  singing.  He  bade  the  boatmen  row  him  to  the  shore  that  he 
might  listen  to  the  song  of  praise  and  prayer.  He  even  went  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  Rome,  to  humble  himself  in  that  city  which  contained 
the  burial  places  of  the  Apostles  Peter  and  Paul.  Erom  Rome  he 
sent  a  letter  to  his  subjects.  "  I  have  vowed  to  God,"'  he  wrote,  "  to 
live  a  right  life  in  all  things:  to  rule  justlv  and  piously  my  realms 
and  subjects,  and  to  administer  just  judgment  to  all.  If  heretofore 
I  have  done  aught  beyond  what  is  just,  through  headiness  or  negli- 
gence of  youth,  I  am  ready,  with  God's  help,  to  amend  it  utterly.'' 
With  Cnut  these  were  not  mere  words. 

Cnnt  (lied  in  T035.  Godwine  and  the  W'est  Saxons  chose 
Harthacnni,  tb.e  ?on  of  Cnut  and  Emma,  to  take  his  father's  place, 
while  the  north  ;tnd  center,  lieaded  bv  Eeofwine's  son,  Leofric, 
Earl  of  the  ^Mercians,  cliose  Harold,  the  son  of  Cnut  by  an  earlier 
wife  or  concubine.  Cnut's  empire  was,  however,  breaking  up. 
The  Norwegians  chose  Magnus,  a  king  of  their    own    race,    and 


ENGLAND     AND     NORMANDY  61 

1042-1051 

Harthacnut  remained  in  Denmark  to  defend  it  against  the  attacks 
of  Magnus.  As  Harthacnut  still  remained  in  Denmark,  the  West 
Saxons  deposed  him  and  gave  themselves  to  Harold,  since  which 
time  England  has  never  been  divided.  In  1040  Harold  died,  and 
Harthacnut  came  at  last  to  England  to  claim  the  crown.  He 
brought  with  him  a  Danish  fleet,  and  with  his  sailors  and  his  house- 
carls  he  ruled  England  as  a  conquered  land.  He  raised  a  Danegeld 
to  satisfy  his  men,  and  sent  his  house-carls  to  force  the  people  to 
pay  the  heavy  tax.  In  1042  he  died  "  as  he  stood  at  his  drink  "  at 
a  bridal. 

The  English  were  tired  of  foreign  rulers.  "All  folk  chose 
Eadward  king."  Eadvvard,  the  son  of  ^thelred,  though  an 
Englishman  on  his  father's  side,  was  also  the  son  of  the  Norman 
Emma,  and  had  been  brought  up  in  Normandy  from  his  childhood. 
The  Normans  were  now  men  of  French  speech,  and  they  were  more 
polite  and  cultivated  than  Englishmen.  Eadward  filled  his  court 
with  Normans.  He  disliked  the  roughness  of  the  English,  but  in- 
stead of  attempting  to  improve  them  as  the  great  yElfred  had  for- 
merly done,  he  stood  entirely  aloof  from  them.  The  name  of  the 
Confessor  by  which  he  was  afterwards  known  was  given  him  on 
account  of  his  piety,  but  his  piety  was  not  of  that  sort  which  is 
associated  with  active  usefulness.  He  was  fond  of  hunting,  but 
was  not  active  in  any  other  way,  and  he  left  others  to  govern  rather 
than  himself.  For  some  years  the  real  governor  of  England  was 
Earl  Godvvine,  who  ke])t  his  own  earldom  of  Wessex,  and  managed 
to  procure  other  smaller  earldoms  for  his  sons.  As  yet  he  had  no 
competitor  to  fear.  In  1045  he  became  the  king's  fatlier-in-law  ])y 
the  marriage  of  Eadward  with  his  daughter.  Eadward,  however. 
did  his  best  for  his  Norman  favorites,  and  between  Godwine  and 
the  Normans  there  was  no  good-will.  Though  Godwine  was  him- 
self of  fair  repute,  his  eldest  son,  Swegen,  a  ycnmg  man  of  brutal 
nature,  alienated  the  good-will  of  his  countrymen  by  seducing  tlie 
Abbess  of  Leominster,  and  by  murdering  his  c^rasin  Beorn.  God- 
wnne,  in  his  blind  family  affection,  clung  to  his  wicked  son  and 
insisted  on  his  being  allowed  to  retain  his  earldom. 

At  last,  in  105 1,  the  strife  bcUveen  the  king  and  the  earl  broke 
out  openly.  Godwine  refused  to  obey  tlic  king's  orders  and  was 
summoned  to  Gloucester.  Leofric  of  Alcrcia  mediated,  and  it  was 
arranged  that  the  question  should  be  settled  at  a  W'itenagcniot  U>  be 
held  in  London.     In  the  end  Godwine  was  outlawed  and  banisiied 


62  ENGLAND 

1051 

with  all  his  family.  Swegen  went  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem 
and  died  on  the  way  back. 

In  Godwine's  absence  Eadward  received  a  visit  from  the  Duke 
of  the  Normans,  William,  the  bastard  son  of  Duke  Robert  and  the 
daughter  of  a  tanner  of  Falaise.  Robert  was  a  son  of  Richard  II., 
and  William  was  thus  the  grandson  of  the  brother  of  Eadward's 
mother,  Emma.  Such  a  relationship  gave  him  no  title  whatever 
to  the  English  throne,  as  Emma  was  not  descended  from  the 
English  kings,  and  as,  even  if  she  had  been,  no  one  could  be  lawfully 
king  in  England  who  was  not  chosen  by  the  Witenagemot.  Ead- 
ward, however,  had  no  children  or  brothers,  and  though  he  had  no 
right  to  give  away  the  crown,  he  now  promised  William  that  he 
should  succeed  him.  William,  indeed,  was  just  the  man  to  attract 
one  whose  character  was  as  weak  as  Eadward's.  Since  he  received 
the  dukedom  he  had  beaten  down  the  opposition  of  a  fierce  and  dis- 
contended  nobility  at  Val-es-dunes  (1047).  From  that  day  peace 
and  order  prevailed  in  Normandy.  Law  in  Normandy  did  not 
come  as  in  England  from  the  traditions  of  the  shire-moot  or  the 
Witenagemot,  where  men  met  to  consult  together.  It  was  the 
Duke's  law,  and  if  the  Duke  was  a  strong  man  he  kept  peace  in  the 
land.  If  he  was  a  weak  man,  the  lords  fought  against  one  another 
and  plundered  and  oppressed  the  poor.  William  was  strong  and 
wily,  and  it  was  this  combination  of  strength  and  wiliness  which 
enabled  him  to  bear  down  all  opposition. 

An  Englishman,  who  saw  much  of  William  in  after-life,  de- 
clared that,  severe  as  he  was,  he  was  mild  to  good  men  who  loved 
God.  The  Church  was  in  his  days  assuming  a  new  place  in  Europe. 
The  monastic  revival  which  had  originated  at  Cluny  had  led  to 
a  revival  of  the  Papacy.  In  1049,  ^or  the  first  time,  a  Pope,  Leo 
IX.,  traveled  through  Western  Europe,  holding  councils  and 
inflicting  punishments  upon  the  married  clergy  and  upon  priests 
who  took  arms  and  shed  blood.  With  this  improvement  in  disci- 
pline came  a  voluntary  turning  of  the  belter  clergy  to  an  ascetic 
life,  and  increased  devotion  was  accompanied,  as  it  always  was  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  witli  an  increase  of  learning.  William,  who  by 
the  strength  of  liis  will  brought  peace  into  the  state,  also  brought 
men  of  devotion  and  learning  into  the  high  places  of  the  Church. 
His  chief  confidant  was  Lanfranc,  an  Italian  who  had  taken  refuge 
in  the  abbey  of  Bee,  and,  having  l^ecome  its  prior,  had  made  it  the 
central  school  of  Normandy  and  the  parts  around.     With  the  im- 


ENGLAND     AND     NORMANDY  63 

1052-1057 

provement  of  learning  came  the  improvement  of  art,  and  churches 
arose  in  Normantly,  as  in  other  parts  of  Western  Europe,  which 
still  preserved  the  aid  round  arch  derived  from  the  Romans,  though 
both  the  arches  themselves  and  the  columns  on  which  they  were 
borne  were  lighter  and  more  graceful  than  the  heavy  work  which 
had  hitherto  been  employed.  Of  all  this  Englishmen  as  yet  knew 
nothing.  They  went  on  in  their  old  ways,  cut  off  from  the 
European  influences  of  the  time.  It  was  no  wonder  that  Eadward 
yearned  after  the  splendor  and  the  culture  of  the  land  in  which 
he  had  been  brought  up,  or  even  that,  in  defiance  of  English  law, 
he  now  promised  to  Duke  William  the  succession  to  the  English 
crown. 

After  William  had  departed.  Englishmen  became  discontented 
at  Eadward's  increasing  favor  to  the  Norman  strangers.  In  1052 
Godwine  and  his  sons — Swegen  only  excepted — returned  from 
exile.  They  sailed  up  the  Thames  and  landed  at  Southwark. 
The  foreigners  hastily  fled,  and  Eadward  was  unable  to  resist  the 
popular  feeling.  Godwine  was  restored  to  his  earldom,  and  an 
Englishman,  Stigand,  was  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  the 
place  of  Robert  of  Jumieges,  who  escaped  to  the  Continent.  As  it 
was  the  law  of  the  Church  that  a  bishop  once  appointed  could  not 
be  deposed  except  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  offense  was  in 
this  way  given  to  the  Pope.  Godwine  did  not  long  outlive  hi'^ 
restoration.  He  was  struck  down  by  apoplexy  at  the  king's  table  in 
1053.  Harold,  who,  after  Swegen's  death,  was  his  eldest  son, 
succeeded  to  his  earldom  of  Wessex,  and  practically  managed  the 
affairs  of  the  kingdom  in  E^adward's  name. 

Harold  was  a  brave  and  energetic  man,  but  Eadward  preferred 
his  brother  Tostig,  and  on  the  dcatli  of  Siward  appointed  him  Earl 
of  North-humberland.  A  little  later  Gyrth,  another  brother  of 
Harold,  became  Earl  of  East  Anglia,  together  with  Bedfordshire 
and  Oxfordshire,  and  a  fourth  brother,  Eeofwine,  Earl  of  a  district 
formed  of  the  eastern  shires  on  either  side  of  the  Thames.  All  the 
richest  and  most  thickly  populated  j)art  of  England  was  governed 
by  Harold  and  his  brothers.  Mercia  was  the  only  large  earldom 
not  under  their  rule. 

It  became  necessary  to  arrange  for  the  succession  to  the  throne, 
as  Eadward  was  childless,  and  as  Englishnien  were  not  likely  to 
acquiesce  in  his  bequest  to  William.  In  J 057  the  /l^theh'ng  h-^;ul- 
ward,  a  son  of  Eadmund  Ironside,  \\  as  fetched  lv:ick  from  Hungary, 


64  ENGLAND 

1063 

where  he  had  long  lived  in  exile,  and  was  accepted  as  the  heir. 
Eadward,  however,  died  almost  immediately  after  his  arrival.  He 
left  but  one  son,  who  was  far  too  young  to  be  accepted  as  a  king 
for  many  years  to  come.  Naturally  the  thought  arose  of  look- 
ing on  Harold  as  Eadward's  successor.  It  was  contrary  to  all 
custom  to  give  the  throne  to  anyone  not  of  the  royal  line,  but  the 
custom  had  been  necessarily  broken  in  favor  of  Cnut,  the  Danish 
conqueror,  and  it  might  be  better  to  break  it  in  favor  of  an 
English  earl  rather  than  to  place  a  child  on  the  throne,  when  danger 
threatened  from  Normandy.  During  the  remainder  of  Eadward's 
reign  Harold  showed  himself  a  warrior  worthv  of  the  crown.  In 
1063  he  invaded  Wales  and  reduced  it  to  submission.  About  the 
same  time  rearrangements  of  the  earldoms  left  England  ruled 
by  two  great  families.  Eadwine  and  Morkere,  the  grandsons  of 
Leofric,  governed  the  Midlands  and  almost  the  whole  of  North- 
humberland.  Harold  and  his  brothers,  the  sons  of  Godwine, 
governed  the  south  and  the  east.  The  two  houses  had  long  been 
rivals,  and  after  Eadward's  death  there  would  be  no  one  in  the 
country  to  whom  they  could  even  nominally  submit.  Eadward, 
whose  life  was  almost  at  an  end,  was  filled  with  gloomy  forebod- 
ings. His  thoughts,  however,  turned  aside  from  the  contempla- 
tion of  earthly  things,  and  he  was  only  anxious  that  the  great  abbey 
church  of  Westminster,  which  he  had  been  building  hard  by  his 
own  new  palace  on  what  was  then  a  lonelv  place  outside  London, 
should  be  consecrated  before  his  death.  The  church,  afterwards 
superseded  by  the  structure  which  now  stands  there,  was  built  in  the 
new  and  lighter  form  of  round-arched  architecture  which  Eadward 
had  learned  to  admire  from  his  Norman  friends.  It  was  conse- 
crated on  December  28,  1065,  but  the  king  was  too  ill  to  be  present, 
and  on  January  5,  1066,  he  died,  and  was  buried  in  the  church 
which  he  had  founded.  Harold  was  at  once  chosen  king,  and 
crowned  at  Westminster. 

William,  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  his  rival's  coronation,  claimed 
the  crown.  He  was  now  even  mightier  than  he  had  been  when  he 
visited  Eadward.  In  1063  he  had  conquered  ]\laine,  and,  secure  on 
his  southern  frontier,  lie  was  able  to  turn  his  undivided  attention  to 
England.  According  to  the  principles  accepted  in  England,  he 
had  no  right  to  it  whatever;  but  he  contrived  to  put  together  a  good 
many  reasons  wliich  seemed,  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  were  not 
Englishmen,  to  give  him  a  good  case.     In  the  first  place  he  had 


ENGLAND     AND     NORMANDY  65 

1066 

been  selected  by  Eadward  as  his  heir.  In  the  second  place  the 
deprivation  of  Robert  of  Jumieges  was  an  offense  against  the 
Church  law  of  the  Continent,  and  William  was  therefore  able  to 
obtain  from  the  Pope  a  consecrated  banner,  and  to  speak  of  an 
attack  upon  England  as  an  attempt  to  uphold  the  righteous  laws  of 
the  Church.  In  the  third  place,  Harold  had  at  some  former  time 
been  wrecked  upon  the  French  coast,  and  had  been  delivered  up  to 
William,  who  had  refused  to  let  him  go  till  he  had  sworn  solemnly, 
placing  his  hand  on  a  chest  which  contained  the  relics  of  the  most 
holy  Norman  saints,  to  do  some  act,  the  nature  of  which  is  diversely 
related,  but  which  Harold  never  did.  Consequently  William  could 
speak  of  himself  as  going  to  take  vengeance  on  a  perjurer.  With 
some  difficulty  William  persuaded  the  Norman  barons  to  follow 
him,  and  he  attracted  a  mixed  multitude  of  adventurers  from  all 
the  neighboring  nations  by  promising  them  the  plunder  of  Eng- 
land, an  argument  which  everyone  could  understand.  During 
the  whole  of  the  spring  and  the  summer  ships  for  the  invasion  of 
England  were  being  built  in  the  Norman  harbors. 

All  through  the  summer  Harold  was  watching  for  his  rival's 
coming.  The  military  organization  of  England,  however,  was 
inferior  to  that  of  Normandy.  The  Norman  barons  and  their  vas- 
sals were  always  ready  for  war,  and  they  could  support  on  their 
estates  the  foreign  adventurers  who  were  placed  under  tlieir  orders 
till  the  time  of  the  battle  came.  Harold  had  his  house-carls,  the  con- 
stant guard  of  picked  troops  which  had  been  instituted  by  Cnut,  and 
his  thegns,  who,  like  the  Norman  barons,  were  bound  to  serve 
their  lord  in  war.  The  greater  part  of  liis  force,  however,  was 
composed  of  the  peasants  of  the  fyrd,  and  when  September  came 
they  must  needs  be  sent  home  to  attend  to  their  harvest,  which 
seems  to  have  been  late  this  year.  Scarcelv  were  they  gone  when 
Harold  received  news  tliat  his  brother  Tostig,  angry  with  liim  for 
having  consented  to  his  deposition  from  tlie  North-humbrian  earl- 
dom, had  allied  himself  to  Harold  Hardrada,  the  fierce  sea-rover, 
who  was  king  of  Norway,  and  that  tlie  two.  with  a  mighty  host, 
after  wasting  the  Yorkshire  coast,  had  sailed  up  the  Humber.  The 
two  northern  Earls,  Eadwine  and  Morkere,  were  hard  pressed. 
Harold  had  not  long  before  married  tlieir  sister,  and,  whatever 
might  be  the  risk,  he  was  bound  as  tlic  King  of  all  England  to 
aid  them.  Marching  swiftly  northwards  with  his  house-carls  and 
the  thegns  who  joined  him  on  the  wixy,  he  hastened  to  their  succc^-. 


66  ENGLAND 

1066 

On  the  way  worse  tidings  reached  him.  The  Earls  had  been  de- 
feated, and  York  had  agreed  to  submit  to  the  Norsemen.  Harold 
hurried  on  the  faster,  and  came  upon  the  invaders  unawares  as  they 
lay  heedlessly  on  both  sides  of  the  Derwent  at  Stamford  Bridge. 
Those  on  the  western  side,  unprepared  as  they  were,  were  soon 
overpowered.  The  battle  rolled  across  the  Derwent,  and  when  even- 
ing came  Harold  Hardrada,  and  Tostig  himself,  with  the  bulk  of 
the  invaders,  had  been  slain.  For  the  last  time  an  English  king 
overthrew  a  foreign  host  in  battle  on  English  soil. 

Harold  had  shown  what  an  English  king  could  do,  who  fought 
not  for  this  or  that  part  of  the  country,  but  for  all  England.  It 
was  the  lack  of  this  national  spirit  in  Englishmen  which  caused  his 
ruin.  As  Harold  was  feasting  at  York  in  celebration  of  his  victory, 
a  messenger  told  him  of  the  landing  of  the  Norman  host  at  Peven- 
sey.  He  had  saved  Eadwine  and  Morkere  from  destruction,  but 
Eadwine  and  IMorkere  gave  him  no  help  in  return.  He  had  to 
hurry  back  to  defend  Sussex  without  a  single  man  from  the  north 
or  the  Midlands,  except  those  whom  he  collected  on  his  line  of 
march.  The  House  of  Leofric  bore  no  good-will  to  the  House  of 
Godwine.     England  was  a  kingdom  divided  against  itself. 

Harold,  as  soon  as  he  reached  the  point  of  danger,  drew  up 
his  army  on  the  long  hill  of  Senlac  on  which  Battle  Abbey  now 
stands.  On  October  14  William  marclied  forth  to  attack  him. 
The  military  equipment  of  the  Normans  was  better  than  that  of  the 
English.  Where  the  weapons  on  either  side  are  unlike,  battles 
are  decided  by  the  momentum — that  is  to  say.  by  the  combined 
weight  and  speed  of  the  weapons  employed.  The  English  fought 
on  foot  mostly  with  two-handed  axes;  the  Normans  fought  not 
only  on  horseback  with  lances,  but  also  with  infantry,  some  of  them 
being  archers.  A  horse,  the  principal  weapon  of  a  horseman,  has 
more  momentum  than  an  armed  footman,  while  an  arrow  can 
reach  the  object  at  which  it  is  aimed  long  before  a  horse.  Harold, 
however,  had  in  his  favor  the  slope  of  the  hill  up  which  the  Nor- 
mans would  have  to  ride,  and  he  took  advantage  of  the  lie  of  the 
ground  by  posting  his  men  with  their  shields  before  them  on  the 
edge  of  the  hill.  The  position  was  a  strong  one  for  purposes  of 
defense,  but  it  was  not  one  that  made  it  easy  for  Harold  to  change 
his  arrangements  as  the  fortunes  of  the  day  might  need.  William, 
on  the  other  hand,  had  not  only  a  better  armed  force,  but  a  more 
flexible  one.     He  had  to  attack,  and,  versed  as  he  was  in  all  the 


WII.I.IAAI      IIII-:    COXnlKKOR     AM;     111,-     W  1 F  I"     MXrilll-HA    ilKWI'     S1'K(|\I. 
l'kl\II.K(,K>    TO    Till-;    1   ITI/KN.-    <ir    l.n\Iii)\ 

Rcyal    /■..rr/ii/iii;,',     /,rii-/?'n 


ENGLAND     AND     NORMANDY  67 

1068 

operations  of  war,  he  could  move  his  men  from  place  to  place  and 
make  use  of  each  opportunity  as  it  arrived.  The  English  were 
brave  enough,  but  William  was  a  more  intelligent  leader  than 
Harold,  and  his  men  were  better  under  control.  Twice  after  the 
battle  had  begun  the  Norman  horsemen  charged  up  the  hill,  only 
to  be  driven  back.  The  wily  William,  finding  that  the  hill  was  not 
to  be  stormed  by  a  direct  attack,  met  the  difficulty  by  galling  the 
English  with  a  shower  of  arrows  and  ordering  his  left  wing  to 
turn  and  fly.  The  stratagem  was  successful.  Some  of  the  English 
rushed  down  the  hill  in  pursuit.  The  fugitives  faced  round  and 
charged  the  pursuers,  following  them  up  the  slope.  The  English 
on  the  height  were  thus  thrown  into  confusion;  but  they  held  out 
stoutly,  and  as  the  Norman  horsemen  now  in  occupation  of  one 
end  of  the  hill  charged  fiercely  along  its  crest,  they  locked  their 
shields  together  and  fought  desperately  for  life,  if  no  longer  for 
victory.  Slowly  and  steadily  the  Normans  pressed  on.  till  they 
reached  the  spot  where  Harold,  surrounded  by  his  house-carls, 
fought  beneath  his  standard.  There  all  their  attacks  were  in  vain, 
till  William  calling  for  his  bowmen,  bade  them  shoot  their  arrows 
into  the  air.  Down  came  the  arrows  in  showers  upon  the  heads 
of  the  English  warriors,  and  one  of  them  pierced  Harold's  eye, 
stretching  him  lifeless  on  the  ground.  In  a  series  of  representa- 
tions in  worsted  work,  known  as  the  Bayeux  Tapestry,  which  was 
wrought  by  the  needle  of  some  unknown  woman  and  is  now 
exhibited  in  the  museum  of  that  city,  the  scenes  of  the  battle  and  the 
events  preceding  it  are  pictorially  recorded. 

William  had  destroyed  both  the  English  king  and  the  English 
army.  It  is  possible  that  England,  if  united,  might  still  have 
resisted.  The  great  men  at  London  chose  for  their  king  Eadgar 
the  /Etheling,  the  grandson  of  Eadmund  Ironside.  Eadwine  and 
Morkere  were  present  at  the  election,  but  left  London  as  soon 
as  it  vv'as  over.  They  would  look  after  their  own  earldoms ;  they 
would  not  join  others,  as  Harold  had  done,  in  defending  England 
as  a  whole.  Divided  England  would  sooner  or  later  be  a  prey  to 
William.  He  wanted,  however,  not  merely  to  reign  as  conqueror, 
but  to  be  lawfully  elected  as  king,  that  he  might  have  on  his  side 
law  as  well  as  force.  He  first  struck  terror  into  Kent  and  Sussex 
by  ravaging  the  lands  of  all  who  held  out  against  him.  Then  he 
marched  to  the  Thames  and  burnt  Southwark.  He  did  not,  how- 
ever, try  to  force  his  way  into  London,  as  he  wanted  to  induce  the 


68  ENGLAND 

1066 

citizens  to  submit  voluntarily  to  him,  or  at  least  in  a  way  which 
might  seem  voluntary.  He  therefore  marched  westwards,  crossed 
the  Thames  at  Wallingford,  and  wheeled  round  to  Berkhampstead. 
His  presence  there  made  the  Londoners  feel  utterly  isolated.  Even 
if  Eadwine  and  Morkere  wished  to  do  anything  for  them,  they  could 
not  come  from  the  north  or  northwest  without  meeting  William's 
victorious  army.  The  great  m.en  and  citizens  alike  gave  up  all 
thought  of  resistance,  abandoned  Eadgar,  and  promised  to  take 
William  for  their  king.  On  Christmas  Day,  1066,  William  was 
chosen  with  acclamation  in  Eadward's  abbey  at  Westminster,  where 
Harold  had  been  chosen  less  than  a  year  before.  The  Normans 
outside  mistook  the  shouts  of  applause  for  a  tumult  against  their 
Duke,  and  set  fire  to  the  houses  around.  The  English  rushed  out 
to  save  their  property,  and  William,  frightened  for  the  only  time 
in  his  life,  was  left  alone  with  the  priests.  Not  knowing  what  was 
next  to  follow,  he  was  crowned  king  of  the  English  by  Ealdred, 
Archbishop  of  York,  in  an  empty  church,  amid  the  crackling  of 
flames  and  the  shouts  of  men  striving  for  the  mastery. 


PART  II 

THE  NORMAN  AND  ANGEVIN  KINGS 
1066-1087 


Chapter    VII 

WILLIAM    I.     1066— 1087 

LEADING   DATES 

William's  Coronation,  A.D.  1066 — Completion  of  the  Conquest, 
1070 — The  Rising  of  the  Earls,  1075 — The  Gemot  at  Salisbury, 
1086 — Death  of  William  I.,  1087 

THOUGH  at  the  time  when  ^William  was  crowned  he  had 
gained  actual  possession  of  no  more  than  the  southeastern 
part  of  England,  he  claimed  a  right  to  rule  the  whole  as 
lawful  king  of  the  English,  not  merely  by  Eadward's  bequest,  but 
by  election  and  coronation.  In  reality,  he  came  as  a  conqueror, 
while  the  Normans  by  whose  aid  he  gained  the  victory  at  Senlac 
left  their  homes  not  merely  to  turn  their  Duke  into  a  king,  but  also 
to  acquire  lands  and  wealth  for  themselves.  William  could  not 
act  justly  and  kindly  to  his  new  subjects  even  if  he  wished.  What 
he  did  was  to  clothe  real  violence  with  the  appearance  of  law.  He 
gave  out  that  as  he  had  been  the  lawful  king  of  the  English  ever 
since  Eadward's  death,  Harold  and  all  who  fought  under  him  at 
Senlac  had  forfeited  their  lands  by  their  treason  to  himself  as  their 
lawful  king.  These  lands  he  distributed  among  his  Normans.  The 
English  indeed  were  not  entirely  dispossessed.  Sometimes  the  son 
of  a  warrior  who  had  been  slain  was  allowed  to  retain  a  small 
portion  of  his  father's  land.  Sometimes  the  daughter  or  the  widow 
of  one  of  Harold's  comrades  was  compelled  to  marry  a  Norman 
whom  William  wished  to  favor.  Yet,  for  all  that,  a  vast  number 
of  estates  in  the  southern  and  eastern  counties  passed  from  English 
into  Norman  hands.  The  bulk  of  the  population,  the  serfs — or,  as 
they  w^ere  now  called  by  a  Norman  name,  the  villeins — were  not 
affected  by  the  change,  except  so  far  as  they  found  a  foreign  lord 
less  willing  than  a  native  one  to  hearken  to  their  complaints.  The 
changes  which  took  place  were  limited  as  yet  to  a  small  part  of 
England.  In  three  months  after  his  coronation  William  was  still 
without  authority  beyond  an  irregular  line  running  from  the  Wash 

71 


72  ENGLAND 

1067-1069 

to  the  western  border  of  Hampshire,  except  that  he  held  some  out- 
lying posts  in  Herefordshire.  It  is  true  that  Eadwine  and  ^Morkere 
had  acknowledged  him  as  king,  but  they  were  still  practically  inde- 
pendent. Even  where  \\'illiam  actually  ruled  he  allowed  all  Eng- 
lishmen who  had  not  fought  on  Harold's  side  to  keep  their  lands, 
though  he  made  them  redeem  them  by  the  payment  of  a  fine,  on  the 
principle  that  all  lands  in  the  country,  except  those  of  the  Church, 
were  the  king's  lands,  and  that  it  was  right  to  fine  those  who  had 
not  come  to  Senlac  to  help  him  as  their  proper  lord. 

In  ]\Iarch,  1067.  William  returned  to  Normandy.  In  his 
absence  the  Normans  left  behind  in  England,  oppressed  the  English, 
and  were  supported  in  their  oppression  by  the  two  regents  ap- 
pointed to  govern  in  William's  name,  his  half-brother,  Odo,  Bishop 
of  Bayeux,  whom  he  had  made  Earl  of  Kent,  and  William  Fitz- 
Osbern,  Earl  of  Hereford.  In  some  parts  the  English  rose  in 
rebellion.  In  December  William  returned,  and  after  putting  down 
resistance  in  the  southeastern  counties,  set  himself  to  conquer  the 
rest  of  England.  It  took  him  more  than  two  vears  to  complete  his 
task.  Perhaps  he  would  have  failed  even  then  if  the  whole  of  the 
unconquered  part  of  the  country  had  risen  against  him  at  the  same 
time.  Each  district,  however,  resisted  separately,  and  he  was  strong 
enough  to  beat  them  down  one  by  one.  In  the  spring  of  1068  he 
subdued  the  \\'est  to  the  Land's  End.  When  this  had  been  ac- 
complished he  turned  northwards  against  Eadwine  and  Morkere, 
who  had  declared  against  him.  William  soon  frightened  them  into 
submission,  and  seized  on  York  and  all  the  country  to  the  south  of 
York  on  the  eastern  side  of  England.  In  1069  the  English  of  the 
North  rose  once  more  and  summoned  to  tlieir  aid  the  Danes.  They 
burned  and  plundered  York,  but  could  do  no  more.  William 
found  no  army  to  oppose  him.  and  he  not  only  regained  the  lands 
which  he  liad  occupied  the  year  before,  but  added  to  them  the 
whole  country  up  tu  the  Tweed. 

\\'illiam  was  never  cruel  without  an  object,  but  there  was  no 
cruelty  which  he  would  not  commit  if  it  would  serve  his  purpose. 
He  resolved  to  make  all  further  resistance  impossible.  The  \^ale  of 
York,  a  lone  ^'^nd  wide  stretch  of  fertile  ground  running  north- 
vrards  from  the  city  to  the  Tees,  was  laid  waste  by  William's 
orders.  The  men  who  had  joined  in  the  revolt  were  slain.  The 
stored-up  crops,  the  jjIows.  trie  carts,  tlie  oxen  and  sheep  were 
destroyed  by  fire.     Men.   wnmeu.  and  children   dropped  dead   0+ 


WILLIAM    I.  73 

1070-1072 

Starvation.  William's  work  of  conquest  was  almost  over.  Early 
in  1070  he  crossed  the  hills  amid  frost  and  snow,  and  descended 
upon  Chester.  Chester  submitted,  and  with  it  the  shires  on  the 
Welsh  border.     The  whole  of  England  was  at  last  subdued. 

Only  one  serious  attempt  to  revolt  was  afterwards  made, 
but  this  was  no  more  than  a  local  rising.  The  Isle  of  Ely  was  in 
those  days  a  real  island  in  the  midst  of  the  waters  of  the  fens. 
Hereward,  with  a  band  of  followers,  threw  himself  into  the  island, 
and  it  was  only  after  a  year's  attack  that  he  was  driven  out.  When 
the  revolt  was  at  its  height  Eadwine  and  Morkere  fled  from 
William's  court  to  join  the  insurgents.  Eadwine  was  murdered 
by  his  own  attendants.  Morkere  reached  Ely,  and  when  resistance 
was  at  an  end  was  banished  to  Normandy.  No  man  ever  deserved 
less  pity  than  these  two  brothers.  They  had  never  sought  anyone's 
advantage  but  their  own,  and  they  had  been  faithless  to  every 
cause  which  they  had  pretended  to  adopt.  Before  Hereward  was 
overpowered,  Malcolm,  king  of  the  Scots,  ravaged  northern  Eng- 
land, carrying  off  with  him  droves  of  English  slaves.  In  1072 
William,  who  had  by  that  time  subdued  Hereward,  marched  into 
Scotland  as  far  as  the  Tay.  Macolm  submitted  to  him  at  Aber- 
nethy,  and  acknowledged  him  to  be  his  lord.  Malcolm's  acknowl- 
edgment was  only  a  repetition  of  the  acknowledgment  made  by 
his  predecessors,  the  Scottish  kings,  to  Edward  and  Cnut;  but 
William  was  more  powerful  than  Edward  or  Cnut  had  been,  and 
was  likely  to  construe  the  obligation  more  strictly.  William,  having 
conquered  England,  had  now  to  govern  it.  His  first  object  was  to 
keep  the  English  in  subjection,  and  this  he  sought  to  accomplish  in 
three  ways.  In  the  first  ]>lace  he  continued  to  treat  all  who  had 
resisted  him  as  rebels,  confiscating  their  land  and  giving  it  to  some 
Norman  follower.  In  almost  every  district  there  was  at  least  one 
Norman  landowner  who  was  on  the  watch  against  any  attempt  of 
his  English  neighbors  to  revolt,  and  who  knew  that  he  would  lose 
his  land  if  William  lost  his  crown.  In  the  second  place  William 
built  a  castle  in  every  town  of  importance,  which  he  garrisoned 
with  his  own  men.  The  most  notable  example  of  these  castles  is 
the  Tower  of  London.  In  the  third  place,  though  the  diffu- 
sion of  Norman  landown.ers  and  of  William's  castles  made  a  general 
revolt  of  the  English  difficult,  it  did  not  make  it  impossible,  and 
William  took  care  to  have  an  army  always  ready  to  put  down  a 
revolt  if  it  occurred.     No  king  in  those  days  could  have  a  constantly 


74  ENGLAND 

1072 

paid  army,  such  as  exists  in  all  European  countries  at  the  present 
day,  because  there  was  not  much  money  anywhere.  Some  men 
had  land  and  some  men  had  bodily  strength,  and  they  bartered  one 
for  the  other.  The  villein  gave  his  strength  to  plow  and  reap 
for  his  lord,  in  return  for  the  land  which  he  held  from  him.  The 
fighting  man  gave  his  strength  to  his  lord,  to  serve  him  with  his 
horse  and  his  spear,  in  return  for  the  land  which  he  held  from  him. 
This  system,  which  is  known  as  feudal,  had  been  growing  up  in 
England  before  the  Conquest,  but  it  was  perfected  on  the  Conti- 
nent, and  William  brought  it  with  him  in  its  perfected  shape.  The 
warrior  who  served  on  horseback  was  called  a  knight,  and  when 
a  knight  received  land  from  a  lord  on  military  tenure — that  is  to 
say,  on  condition  of  military  service — he  was  called  the  vassal  of 
his  lord.  When  he  became  a  vassal  he  knelt,  and  placing  his  hands 
between  those  of  his  lord,  swore  to  be  his  man.  This  act  was 
called  doing  homage.  The  land  which  he  received  as  sufficient  to 
maintain  him  was  called  a  knight's  fee.  After  this  homage  the 
vassal  was  bound  to  serve  his  lord  in  arms,  this  service  being  the 
rent  payable  for  his  land.  If  the  vassal  broke  his  oath  and  fought 
against  his  lord,  he  was  regarded  as  a  traitor,  or  a  betrayer  of  his 
trust,  and  could  be  turned  out  of  his  land.  The  whole  land  of 
England  being  regarded  as  the  king's,  all  land  was  held  from  the 
king.  Sometimes  the  knights  held  their  fees  directly  from  the 
king  and  did  homage  to  him.  These  knights  were  known  as 
tenants  in  chief  (in  capite),  however  small  their  estates  might  be. 
Usually,  however,  tlie  tenants  in  chief  were  large  landowners, 
to  whom  the  king  had  granted  vast  estates ;  and  these  v"hen  they 
did  homage  engaged  not  merelv  to  fight  for  him  in  person,  but 
to  bring  some  hundreds  of  knights  with  them.  To  enable  them  to 
do  this,  they  had  to  give  out  portions  of  their  land  to  sub-tenants, 
each  engaging  to  bring  himself  and  a  specified  number  of  knights. 
There  might  thus  be  a  regular  chain  of  sub-tenants.  A  engaging 
to  serve  under  B,  B  under  C,  C  under  D,  and  so  on  till  the  tenant- 
in-chief  was  reached,  who  engaged  to  bring  them  all  to  serve  the 
king.  Almost  all  the  larger  tenants-in-chief  were  Normans,  though 
Englishmen  were  still  to  be  found  among  the  sub-tenants,  and 
even  among  the  smaller  tenants-in-chief.  The  whole  body,  how- 
ever, was  preponderantly  Norman  and  William  could  therefore 
depend  upon  it  to  serve  him  as  an  army  in  the  field  in  case  of  an 
English  rising. 


WILLIAM    I.  75 

1072 

William  was  not  afraid  only  of  the  English.  He  had  cause 
to  fear  lest  the  feudal  army,  which  was  to  keep  down  the  English, 
might  be  strong  enough  to  be  turned  against  himself,  and  that  the 
barons — as  the  greater  tenants-in-chief  were  usually  called — might 
set  him  at  naught  as  Eadwine  and  Morkere  had  set  Harold  at 
naught,  and  as  the  Dukes  of  Normandy  had  set  at  naught  the  kings 
of  France.     To  prevent  this  he  adopted  various  contrivances. 

In  the  first  place  he  abolished  the  great  earldoms.  In  most 
counties  there  were  to  be  no  earls  at  all,  and  no  one  was  to  be  earl 
of  more  than  one  county.  There  was  never  again  to  be  an  Earl  of 
the  West  Saxons  like  Godwine,  or  an  Earl  of  the  Mercians  like 
Leofric. 

Moreover,  the  Estates  were  scattered.  Not  only  did  William 
diminish  the  official  authority  of  the  earls,  but  he  also  weakened 
the  territorial  authority  of  the  barons.  Even  when  he  granted 
to  one  man  estates  so  numerous  that  if  they  had  been  close 
together  they  would  have  extended  at  least  over  a  whole  county, 
he  took  care  to  scatter  them  over  England,  allowing  only  a  few  to 
be  held  by  a  single  owner  in  any  one  county.  If,  therefore,  a  great 
baron  took  it  into  his  head  to  levy  war  against  the  king,  he  would 
have  to  collect  his  vassals  from  the  most  distant  counties,  and  his 
intentions  would  thus  be  known  before  they  could  be  put  in  practice. 

Still  more  important  was  W^illiam's  resolution  to  be  the  real 
head  of  the  English  nation.  Ele  had  weakened  it  enough  to  fear  it 
no  longer,^but  he  kept  it  strong  enough  to  use  it,  if  need  came, 
against  the  Norman  barons.  He  won  Englishmen  to  his  side  by  the 
knowledge  that  he  was  ready  to  do  them  justice  whenever  they  were 
wronged,  and  he  could  therefore  venture  to  summon  the  fyrd  when- 
ever he  needed  supj^ort,  without  having  cause  to  fear  that  it  would 
turn  against  him. 

Before  the  Conquest  tiie  English  Church  had  been  altogether 
national.  Its  bishops  had  sat  side  by  side  with  the  ealdormen  or 
earls  in  the  shire-moots,  and  in  the  Witenagemot  itself.  They 
had  been  named,  like  the  ealdormen  or  earls,  by  the  king  with  the 
consent  of  the  Witenagemot.  Ecclesiastical  questions  had  been 
decided  and  ecclesiastical  offenses  punished,  not  by  any  special 
ecclesiastical  court,  but  by  the  shire-moot  or  Witenagemot,  in  which 
the  laity  and  the  clergy  were  both  to  be  found.  William  resolved 
to  change  all  this.  The  bishops  and  abbots  whom  he  found  were 
Englishmen,   and   he   replaced  most  of  them  by  Normans.     Tlie 


76  ENGLAND 

1072 

new  Norman  bishops  and  abbots  were  dependent  on  the  king. 
They  looked  on  the  EngHsh  as  barbarians,  and  would  certainly  not 
support  them  in  any  revolt,  as  their  English  predecessors  might 
have  done.  Thurstan,  indeed,  the  Norman  Abbot  of  Glastonbury, 
was  so  angry  with  his  English  monks  because  they  refused  to 
change  their  style  of  music  that  he  called  in  Norman  archers  to 
shoot  them  down  on  the  steps  of  the  altar.  Such  brutality,  how- 
ever, was  exceptional,  and,  as  a  rule,  even  Norman  bishops  and 
abbots  were  well  disposed  towards  their  English  neighbors,  all  the 
more  because  they  were  not  very  friendly  with  the  Norman  nobles, 
who  often  attempted  to  encroach  on  the  lands  of  the  Church. 
Many  a  king  in  William's  position  would  have  been  content  to 
fill  the  sees  with  creatures  of  his  own,  who  would  have  done  what 
they  were  bidden  and  have  thought  of  no  one's  interest  but  his. 
William  knew,  as  he  had  already  shown  in  Normandy,  that  he 
would  be  far  better  served  if  the  clergy  were  not  only  dependent 
on  himself  but  deserving  the  respect  of  others.  He  made  his  old 
friend  Lanfranc  Arclibishop  of  Canterbury.  Lanfranc  had, 
like  William,  the  mind  of  a  ruler,  and  under  him  bishops  and 
abbots  were  appointed  who  enforced  discipline.  The  monks  were 
compelled  to  keep  the  rules  of  their  order,  the  canons  of  cathedrals 
were  forced  to  send  avvav  their  wives,  and  though  the  married 
clergy  in  the  country  were  allowed  to  keep  theirs,  orders  were 
given  that  in  future  no  priest  should  marry.  Everywhere  the 
Church  gave  signs  of  new  vigor.  The  monasteries  became  again 
the  seats  of  study  and  learning.  The  sees  of  bishops  were  trans- 
ferred from  villages  to  populous  towns,  as  when  the  Bishop  of 
Dorchester,  in  Oxfordshire,  migrated  to  Lincoln,  and  the  Bishop 
of  Thetford  to  Norwich.  New  churches  were  built  and  the  old 
ones  restored  after  tlie  new  Continental  style,  which  is  known  in 
England  as  Norman,  and  whicJi  Eadward  liad  introduced  in  his 
abbey  of  Westminster.  The  Churcli,  thiough  made  dependent  on 
William,  was  independent,  so  far  as  its  spiritual  rights  were  con- 
cerned, of  the  civil  courts.  Ecclesiastical  matters  were  discussed, 
not  in  the  Witenagemot,  but  in  a  Cluirch  synod,  and,  in  course  of 
time,  punishments  were  inflicted  by  Church  courts  on  ecclesiastical 
offenders.  The  power  of  William  was  strengthened  Ijy  the  change. 
That  power  rested  on  three  supports — the  Norman  conquerors,  the 
English  nation,  and  tlie  Church,  and  each  one  of  these  three  had 
reason  to  distrust  the  other  two. 


WILLIAM    I.  77 

107S 

The  strength  which  Wilham  had  acquired  showed  itself  in 
his  bearing  towards  the  Pope.  In  1073  Archdeacon  Hildebrand, 
who  for  some  years  had  been  more  powerful  at  Rome  than  the 
Popes  themselves,  himself  became  Pope  under  the  name  of  Gregory 
VII.  Gregory  was  as  stern  a  ruler  of  the  Church  as  William  was 
of  the  State.  His  object  was  to  moderate  the  cruelty  and  sinful- 
ness of  the  feudal  warriors  of  Europe  by  making  the  Church  a 
light  to  guide  the  world  to  piety  and  self-denial.  He  was  an 
uncompromising  champion  of  the  Cluniac  reforms,  which  demanded 
celibacy,  and  refraining  from  simony.  A  third  demand  was  added 
later,  that  bishops  and  abbots  should  not  receive  from  laymen  the 
ring  and  staff  which  were  the  signs  of  their  authority — the  ring 
as  the  symbol  of  marriage  to  their  churches ;  the  staff  or  crozier, 
in  the  shape  of  a  shepherd's  crook,  as  the  symbol  of  their  pastoral 
authority.  The  Church,  in  fact,  was  to  be  governed  by  its  own 
laws  in  perfect  independence,  that  it  might  become  more  pure 
itself,  and  thus  capable  of  setting  a  better  example  to  the  laity. 
As  might  have  been  expected,  though  the  internal  condition  of  the 
Church  was  greatly  improved,  yet  when  Gregory  attempted  entirely 
to  free  ecclesiastics  from  the  influence  and  authority  of  the  State, 
he  found  himself  involved  in  endless  quarrels,  as  with  the 
Emperor  Henry  IV. 

It  is  remarkable  that  such  a  Pope  as  Gregory  never  came  into 
conflict  with  William.  William  appointed  bishops  and  abbots  by 
giving  them  investiture,  as  the  presenting  of  the  ring  and  staff  was 
called.  He  declared  that  no  Pope  should  be  obeyed  in  England 
who  was  not  acknowledged  by  liimself,  that  no  papal  bulls  or 
letters  should  have  any  force  till  he  b.ad  allowed  them,  and  that  the 
decrees  of  an  ecclesiastical  S3aiod  should  bind  no  one  till  he  had  con- 
firmed them.  When,  at  a  later  time,  Gregory  required  William 
to  do  homage  to  the  see  of  Rome,  William  refused,  t)n  the  ground 
that  homage  had  never  been  rendered  by  his  predecessors.  To 
all  this  Gregory  submitted.  No  doubt  Gregory  was  i)rudent  in 
not  provoking  William's  anger;  Ijut  that  he  slKJuld  have  refrained 
from  even  finding  fault  with  AVilliam  may  perhaps  be  set  down  to 
the  credit  of  his  honesty.  He  claimed  to  make  himself  the  master 
of  kings  because  as  a  rule  they  did  not  care  to  advance  the  purity 
of  the  Church.  William  did  care  to  advance  it.  He  chose 
virtuous  and  learned  bishops,  and  defended  the  clergy  against  ag- 
gression from  without  and  corruption  within.     Gregory  may  weJl 


78  ENGLAND 

1075 

have  been  content  to  leave  power  over  the  Church  in  the  hands  of 
a  king  who  ruled  it  in  such  a  fashion. 

Of  the  three  classes  of  men  over  which  William  ruled,  the 
great  Norman  barons  imagined  themselves  to  be  the  strongest,  and 
were  most  inclined  to  throw  off  his  yoke.  The  chief  feature  of  the 
reigns  of  William  and  of  his  successors  for  three  generations  was 
the  struggle  which  scarcely  ever  ceased  between  the  Norman  barons 
on  the  one  side  and  the  king  supported  by  the  English  and  the 
clergy  on  the  other.  It  was  to  the  advantage  of  the  king  that 
he  had  not  to  contend  against  the  whole  of  the  Normans.  Nor- 
mans with  small  estates  clung  for  support,  like  their  English  neigh- 
tors,  to  the  crown.  The  first  of  many  risings  of  the  barons  took 
place  in  1075.  Roger,  Earl  of  Hereford,  and  Ralph  Warder,  Earl 
of  Norfolk,  plotted  a  rising  against  William  and  the  revivals  of  the 
old  independent  earldoms.  They  took  arms  and  were  beaten. 
Ralph  fled  the  country,  and  Roger  was  condemned  to  perpetual 
imprisonment.  His  followers  were  blinded  or  had  their  feet  cut 
off.  It  was  the  Xorman  custom  not  to  put  criminals  to  death. 
To  this  rule,  however.  William  made  one  exception.  Waltheof, 
the  last  earl  of  purely  English  race,  though  he  had  listened  to  the 
plottings  of  the  conspirators,  had  revealed  all  that  he  knew  to 
William.  His  wife,  Judith,  a  niece  of  the  Conqueror,  accused  him 
of  actual  treason,  and  he  was  beheaded  at  Winchester.  By  the 
English  he  was  regarded  as  a  martyr,  and  it  was  probably  his 
popularity  among  them  which  made  \\'illiam  resolve  upon  his 
death. 

Only  once  did  William  cause  misery  among  his  subjects 
for  the  sake  of  his  own  enjoyment.  Many  kings  before  him  had 
taken  pleasure  in  hunting,  but  \\'illiam  was  the  first  who  claimed 
the  right  of  hunting  over  large  tracts  of  country  exclusively  for 
himself.  He  made,  as  the  chronicler  says.  "  mickle  deer-frith  " — a 
tract,  that  is  to  say,  in  which  the  deer  might  have  peace.  He  for- 
bade, in  short,  all  men.  except  those  to  whom  he  gave  permission, 
to  hunt  within  the  limits  of  the  royal  forests.  In  the  southwest 
of  Hampshire,  near  his  favorite  abode  at  Winchester,  he  enlarged 
the  New  Forest.  The  soil  is  poor,  and  it  can  never  have  been 
covered  by  cultivated  fields,  but  here  and  there,  by  the  sides  of 
streams,  there  were  scattered  hamlets,  and  these  were  destroyed 
and  the  dwellers  in  them  driven  off  bv  William's  orders.  Tradition 
told  how  the  New  Forest  was  accursed  for  William's  family.    In  his 


WILLIAM    I.  79 

1085 

own  lifetime  a  son  and  a  grandson  of  his  were  cut  off  within  it 
by  unknown  hands,  probably  falling  before  the  vengeance  of  some 
who  had  lost  home  and  substance  through  the  creation  of  the 
Forest,  and  in  due  time  another  son,  who  succeeded  him  on  the 
throne,  was  to  meet  with  a  similar  fate. 

It  was  to  William's  credit  that  his  government  was  a  strong 
one.  In  William's  days  life  and  property  and  female  honor  were 
under  the  protection  of  a  king  who  knew  how  to  make  himself 
obeyed.  Strong  government,  however,  is  always  expensive,  and 
William  and  his  officers  were  always  ready  with  an  excuse  for  get- 
ting money.  "...  They  reared  up  unright  tolls,  and  many  other 
unright  things  they  did  that  are  hard  to  reckon."  Other  men,  in 
short,  must  observe  the  law;  William's  government  was  a  law  to 
itself.  It  was,  however,  a  law,  and  not  a  mere  scramble  for  money. 
Though  there  were  no  Danish  invaders  now,  William  continued 
to  levy  the  Danegeld,  and  he  had  rents  and  payments  due  to  him 
in  many  quarters  which  had  been  due  to  his  predecessors.  In 
order  to  make  his  exactions  more  complete  and  more  regular,  he 
resolved  to  have  set  down  the  amount  of  taxable  property  in  the 
realm  that  his  full  rights  might  be  known,  and  in  1085,  "  lie  sent 
over  all  England  into  ilk  shire  his  men,  and  let  them  find  out  how 
many  hundred  hides  were  in  the  shire,  or  what  the  king  himself 
had  of  land  or  cattle  in  the  land,  or  whilk  rights  he  ought  to  have. 
Eke  he  let  write  how  mickle  of  land  his  archbishops  had, 
and  his  bishops,  and  his  abbots  and  his  earls,  and  what  or  how 
mickle  ilk  man  had  that  landholder  was  in  England  in  land  and  in 
cattle,  and  how  mickle  fee  it  was  worth.  So  very  narrowly  he  let 
speer  it  out  that  there  was  not  a  single  hide  nor  a  3Mr(l  of  land,  nor 
so  much  as — it  is  a  shame  to  tell,  though  he  thought  it  no  shame 
to  do — an  ox  nor  a  cow  nor  a  swine  was  left  that  was  not  set  in 
his  writ."  The  clironicler  wlio  vrrote  these  words  was  an  English 
monk  of  Peterborough.  Englishmen  -were  shocked  by  the  new 
regularity  of  taxation.  They  could  hardly  be  expected  to  under- 
stand the  advantages  of  a  government  strong  enough  through 
regular  taxation  to  put  down  the  resistance  of  rebellious  earls  at 
home  and  to  defy  invasion  from  abroad.  I'he  result  of  the  in- 
quiries of  the  king's  commissioners  was  cm1)odied  in  Domesday 
Book,  so  called  because  it  was  no  more  possible  to  appeal  from  it 
than  from  the  Last  Judgment. 

Though  William  was  himself  ihe  true  ruler  of  England,  he 


80  ENGLAND 

T086 

kept  up  the  practice  of  his  predecessors  in  summoning  the  Witen- 
agemot  from  time  to  time.  In  his  days,  however,  the  name  of  the 
Witenagemot  was  changed  into  that  of  the  Great  Council,  and,  to  a 
sHght  extent,  it  changed  its  nature  with  its  namct  The  members 
of  the  Witenagemot  had  attended  because  they  were  officially  con- 
nected with  the  king,  being  ealdormen  or  bishops  or  thegns  serving 
in  some  way  under  him.  Members  of  the  Great  Council  attended 
because  they  held  land  in  chief  from  the  king.  The  difference, 
however,  was  greater  in  appearance  than  in  reality.  No  doubt 
men  who  held  very  small  estates  in  chief  might,  if  they  pleased, 
come  to  the  Great  Council,  and  if  they  had  done  so  the  Great 
Council  would  have  been  much  more  numerously  attended  than 
the  Witenagemot  had  been.  The  poorer  tenants-in-chief,  however, 
found  that  it  was  not  only  too  troublesome  and  expensive  to  make 
the  journey  at  a  time  when  all  long  journeys  had  to  be  made  on 
horseback,  but  that  when  they  arrived  their  wishes  were  disre- 
garded. They  therefore  stayed  at  home,  so  that  the  Great  Council 
was  regularly  attended  only  by  the  bishops,  the  abbots  of  the  larger 
abbeys,  and  certain  great  landowners  who  were  known  as  barons. 
In  this  way  the  Great  Council  became  a  council  of  the  wealthy 
landowners,  as  the  Witenagemot  had  been,  though  the  two  assem- 
blies were  formed  on  different  principles. 

In  1086,  after  Domesday  Book  had  been  finished,  William 
summoned  an  unusually  numerous  assembly,  known  as  the  Great 
Gemot,  to  meet  at  Salisbury.  At  this  not  only  the  tenants-in-chief 
appeared,  but  also  all  those  who  held  lands  from  them  as  sub- 
tenants. "  There  came  to  him,"  wrote  the  chronicler,  "  .  .  .  all 
the  landowning  men  there  were  over  all  England,  whose  soever 
men  they  were,  and  all  bowed  down  before  him  and  became  his 
men,  and  swore  oaths  of  fealty  to  him.  that  they  would  be  faithful 
to  him  against  all  other  men."  It  was  this  oath  which  marked  the 
difference  between  English  and  Continental  feudalism,  though  they 
were  now  in  other  respects  alike.  On  the  Continent  each  tenant 
swore  to  be  faithful  to  his  lord,  but  only  the  lords  who  held 
directly  from  the  crown  swore  to  be  faithful  to  the  king.  The 
consequence  was  that  when  a  lord  rebelled  against  the  king,  his 
tenants  followed  their  lord  and  not  the  king.  In  England  the 
tenants  swore  to  forsake  their  lord  and  to  serve  the  king  against 
him  if  he  forsook  his  duty  to  the  king.  Nor  was  this  all.  ]\Iany 
men   break   their   oaths.     William,   however,    was   strong   enough 


WILLIAM    I.  81 

1087 

in  England  to  punish  those  who  broke  their  oaths  to  him,  while 
the  king  of  France  was  seldom  strong  enough  to  punish  those 
who  broke  their  oaths  to  him. 

The  oath  taken  at  Salisbury  was  the  completion  of  William's 
work  in  England.  To  contemporaries  he  appeared  as  a  foreign 
conqueror,  and  often  as  a  harsh  and  despotic  ruler.  Later  genera- 
tions could  recognize  that  his  supreme  merit  was  that  he  made 
England  one.  He  did  not  die  in  England.  In  1087  he  fought 
with  his  lord,  the  king  of  France,  Philip  I.  In  anger  at  a  jest 
of  Philip's  he  set  fire  to  Mantes.  As  he  rode  amid  the  burning 
houses  his  horse  shied  and  threw  him  forward  on  the  pommel  of 
his  saddle.  He  was  now  corpulent  and  the  injury  proved  fatal. 
On  September  9  he  died.  When  the  body  was  carried  to  Caen  for 
burial  in  the  abbey  of  St.  Stephen,  which  William  himself  had 
reared,  a  knight  stepped  forward  and  claimed  as  his  own  the 
ground  in  which  the  grave  had  been  dug.  It  had  been  taken,  he 
said,  by  William  from  his  father.  "  In  the  name  of  God,"'  he 
cried,  "  I  forbid  that  the  body  of  the  robber  be  covered  with  my 
mold,  or  that  he  be  buried  within  the  bounds  of  my  inheritance." 
The  bystanders  acknowledged  the  truth  of  his  accusation,  and  paid 
the  price  demanded. 


Chapter   VIII 

WILLIAM    IL     1087— I  lOO 

LEADING    DATES 

Accession  of  William  II.,  A.D.  1087 — Norman  Rebellion  Against 
William  II.,  1088 — Anselm,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  1093 — The 
Council  of  Rockingham,  and  the  First  Crusade,  1095 — Conquest  of 
Jerusalem  by  the  Crusaders,  1099 — Death  of  William  II.,  1100 

IN  Normandy  the  Conqueror  was  succeeded  by  his  eldest  son, 
Robert.  Robert  was  sluggish  and  incapable,  and  his  father 
had  expressed  a  wish  that  England,  newly  conquered  and  hard 
to  control,  should  be  ruled  by  his  more  energetic  second  son, 
William.  To  the  third  son,  Henry,  he  gave  a  sum  of  money. 
There  was  as  yet  no  settled  rule  of  succession  to  the  English  crown, 
and  William  at  once  crossed  the  sea  and  was  crowned  king  of  the 
English  at  Westminster,  by  Lanfranc.  William  Rufus,  or  the  Red 
King,  as  men  called  him,  feared  not  God  nor  regarded  man.  Yet 
the  English  rallied  round  him,  because  they  knew  that  he  was 
strong-willed,  and  because  they  needed  a  king  who  would  keep  the 
Norman  barons  from  oppressing  them.  For  that  very  reason  the 
more  turbulent  of  the  Norman  barons  declared  for  Robert,  who 
would  be  too  lazy  to  keep  them  in  order.  In  the  spring  of  1088 
they  broke  into  rebellion  in  his  name.  \Wlliam  called  the  English 
people  to  his  help.  He  would  not,  he  said,  wring  money  from  his 
subjects  or  exercise  cruelty  in  defense  of  his  hunting  grounds.  On 
this  the  English  rallied  round  him.  At  the  head  of  a  great  army 
he  marched  to  attack  the  rebels,  and  finally  laid  siege  to  Rochester, 
vv'hich  was  held  against  him  by  his  uncle  Odo,  Bishop  of  Bayeux, 
whom  he  had  released  from  the  impris.)nment  in  which  the  Con- 
queror had  kept  him.  William  called  upon  yet  greater  numbers  of 
the  English  to  come  to  his  help.  Everyone,  he  declared,  who  failed 
him  now  should  be  known  forever  by  the  shameful  name  of 
Xithiug,  or  worthless.  The  English  came  in  crowds.  When  at 
last  Odo  surrendered,  the  English  pleaded  tliat  no  mercy  should 
be  shown  him.     "Halters,  bring  halters!"  they  cried;  "hang  up 

82 


WILLIAM    II.  83 

1086 

the  traitor  bishop  and  his  accompHces  on  the  gibbet."  William, 
however,  spared  him,  but  banished  him  forever  from  England. 

William  had  crushed  the  Norman  rebels  with  English  aid. 
When  the  victory  was  won  he  turned  against  those  who  had 
helped  him.  It  was  not  that  he  oppressed  the  English  because  they 
were  English,  but  that  he  oppressed  English  and  Normans  alike, 
though  the  English,  being  the  weaker,  felt  his  cruelty  most.  He 
broke  aJJ  his  promises.  He  gathered  round  him  mercenary  soldiers 
from  all  lands  to  enforce  his  will.  He  hanged  murderers  and 
robbers,  but  he  himself  was  the  worst  of  robbers.  William  allowed 
no  law  to  be  pleaded  against  his  own  will.  His  life,  and  the  life 
of  his  courtiers,  was  passed  in  the  foulest  vice.  He  was  as  irre- 
ligious as  he  was  vicious.  It  was  in  especial  defiance  of  the  Chris- 
tian sentiment  of  the  time  that  he  encouraged  the  Jews,  who  had 
begun  to  come  into  England  in  his  father's  days,  to  come  in 
greater  numbers.  They  grew  rich  as  money-lenders,  and  William 
protected  them  against  their  debtors,  exacting  a  high  price  for  his 
protection.     His   mouth   was   filled   with   outrageous  blasphemies. 

The  chief  minister  of  the  Red  King  v^'as  Ranulf  Flambard, 
whom  he  ultimately  made  Bishop  of  Durham.  He  was  one  of 
the  clerks  of  the  king's  chapel.  The  word  "clerk''  properly  sig- 
nified a  member  of  the  clergy.  The  onlv  way  in  wliich  men  could 
work  with  their  brains  instead  of  with  their  hands  was  by  becom- 
ing clerks,  the  majority  of  whom,  however,  only  entered  the  lower 
orders,  without  any  intention  of  becoming  priests  or  even  deacons. 
Few,  except  clerks,  could  read  or  write,  and  whatever  work 
demanded  intelligence  naturally  fell  into  their  hands.  They  acted 
as  physicians  or  lawyers,  kept  accounts,  and  wrote  letters.  The 
clerks  of  the  king's  chapel  were  the  king's  secretaries  and  men  of 
business. 

Of  all  the  clerks  Ranulf  Flambard  was  the  most  un- 
scrupulous; therefore  he  rose  into  the  greatest  favor.  The  first 
William  had  appointed  high  officers,  known  as  Justiciars,  to  act 
in  his  name  from  time  to  time  when  he  was  absent  from  England, 
or  was  from  any  cause  unable  to  be  present  wlien  impcn-tant  business 
was  transacted.  Flambard  was  appointed  Justiciar  by  tlie  second 
William,  and  in  his  hands  the  office  Ijecame  permanent.  The 
Justiciar  was  now  the  king's  chief  minister,  acting  in  his  name 
whether  he  was  present  or  absent.  Flambard  used  his  power  to 
gather  wealth  for  the  king  on  every  side. 


84  ENGLAND 

1088-1089 

It  was  Flambard  who  systematized,  if  he  did  not  invent,  the 
doctrine  that  the  king  was  to  profit  by  his  position  as  supreme  land- 
lord. In  practice  this  meant  he  exacted  to  the  full  the  consequences 
of  feudal  tenure.  If  a  man  died  who  held  land  by  knight  service 
from  the  crown,  leaving  a  son  who  was  a  minor,  the  boy  became 
the  ward  of  the  king,  who  took  the  profits  of  his  lands  till  he  was 
twenty-one,  and  forced  him  to  pay  a  relief  or  fine  for  taking  them 
into  his  own  hands  when  he  attained  his  majority.  If  the  land  fell 
to  an  heiress  the  king  claimed  the  right  of  marrying  her  to  whom 
he  would,  or  of  requiring  of  her  a  sum  of  money  for  permission 
to  take  a  husband  at  her  own  choice,  or,  as  was  usually  the  case,  at 
the  choice  of  her  relations.  Under  special  circumstances  the  king 
exacted  aids  from  his  tenants-in-chief.  If  he  were  taken  prisoner 
they  had  to  pay  to  ransom  him  from  captivity.  When  he  knighted 
his  eldest  son  or  married  his  eldest  daughter  they  had  to  contribute 
to  the  expense.  It  is  true  that  this  was  in  accordance  with  the 
principle  of  feudality.  Neither  a  boy  nor  a  woman  could  render 
service  in  the  field,  and  it  was  therefore  only  fair  that  the  king- 
should  hold  the  lands  at  times  when  no  service  was  rendered  to  him 
for  them ;  and  it  was  also  fair  that  the  dependents  should  come  to 
their  lord's  help  in  times  of  special  need,  especially  as  all  that  the 
king  took  from  them  they  in  turn  took  from  their  own  sub-tenants. 
Flambard,  however,  did  not  content  himself  with  a  moderately 
harsh  exaction  of  these  feudal  dues.  The  grievance  against  him 
was  that  he  so  stripped  and  exhausted  the  land  belonging  to  the 
king's  wards  as  to  make  it  almost  worthless,  and  then  demanded 
reliefs  so  enormous  that  when  the  estate  had  at  last  been  restored, 
all  its  value  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  king,  ^^'hen  a  bishop 
or  an  abbot  died,  the  king  appointed  no  successor,  and  appropriated 
the  revenues  of  the  vacant  see  or  monasterv  till  someone  chose  to 
buy  the  office  from  him.  The  king  alone  grew  rich,  while  his 
vassals  were  impoverished. 

In  1089  Lanfranc  died,  and  the  archbishopric  of  Canterbury 
was  then  left  vacant  for  nearly  four  years.  The  Archloishop  of 
Canterbury  was  more  than  the  first  of  English  bishops.  He  was 
not  only  tlie  maintainer  of  ecclesiastical  discii)line,  but  also  the 
mouthpiece  uf  the  English  people  when  th.ey  had  complaints  to 
make  to  the  king.  .Men  turned  their  thoughts  to  Anselm,  the 
Abbot  of  Bee.  Anselm  was  a  stranger  from  Aosta,  on  the  Italian 
side  of  the  Alps.     He  was  the  most  learned  man  of  the  age,  and 


WILLIAM    II.  85 

1093-1095 

had  striven  to  justify  the  theology  of  the  day  by  rational  arguments. 
He  was  as  righteous  as  he  was  learned,  and  as  gentle  as  he  was 
righteous.  Tender  to  man  and  woman,  he  had  what  was  in  those 
days  a  rare  tenderness  to  animals,  and  had  caused  astonishment 
by  saving  a  hunted  hare  from  its  pursuers.  In  1092  the  king's 
vassals  assembled  in  the  Great  Council  urged  William  to  choose 
a  successor  to  Lanfranc.  In  the  spring  of  1093  William  fell  sick. 
Believing  himself  to  be  a  dying  man,  he  promised  to  amend  his 
life,  and  named  Anselm  archbishop.  On  his  refusal  to  accept  the 
nomination,  Anselm  was  dragged  to  the  king's  bedside,  and  the 
pastoral  staff,  the  symbol  of  the  pastoral  office  of  a  bishop,  was 
forced  into  his  hands  by  the  bystanders. 

To  this  well-meant  violence  Anselm  submitted  unwillingl3^ 
He  was,  he  said,  a  weak  old  sheep  to  be  yoked  with  an  untamed 
bull  to  draw  the  plow  of  the  English  Church.  Yet,  gentle  as 
he  was,  he  was  possessed  of  indomitable  courage  in  resistance  to 
evil.  William  recovered,  and  returned  to  his  blasphemy  and  his 
tyranny.  In  vain  Anselm  warned  him  against  his  sins.  A  fresh 
object  of  dispute  soon  arose  between  the  king  and  the  new  arch- 
bishop. Two  Popes  claimed  the  obedience  of  Christendom.  An- 
selm declared  that  Urban  II.  was  the  true  Pope,  and  that  he  would 
obey  none  other.  William  asserted  tliat  his  father  had  laid  down  a 
rule  that  no  Pope  should  be  acknowledged  in  England  without  the 
king's  assent,  and  he  proposed  to  act  upon  it  by  acknowledging 
neither.  His  object  was,  perhaps,  to  prevent  the  enforcement  of 
ecclesiastical  discipline  by  temporarily  getting  rid  of  the  papal 
authority.  Anselm  wanted  the  authority  of  the  Pope  to  check 
vice  and  disorder.  The  question  was  set  aside  for  a  time,  but  in 
1095  Anselm,  tired  of  witnessing  William's  wicked  actions,  asked 
leave  to  go  to  Rome  to  felcli  from  Urban  the  pallium,  a  kind  of 
scarf  given  by  the  Pope  to  archbislio])s  in  recognition  of  their 
office.  William  replied  that  he  did  not  acknowledge  Urban  as 
Pope.  A  Great  Council  was  summoned  to  Rockingham  to  discuss 
the  question.  The  lay  barons,  wlio  liked  to  see  the  king  resisted, 
were  on  Anselm's  side.  The  bishops,  many  of  whom  were 
creatures  of  William,  appointed  from  among  his  clerks,  took  the 
side  of  the  king.  Anselm  stated  liis  case  firmly  and  moderately, 
and  then,  caring  nothing  for  the  angry  king,  retired  into  the  chapel 
and  went  quietly  to  sleep.  The  king,  finding  that  the  barons  would 
give  him  no  support,  was  unable  to  punisli  Anselm.     Two  years 


86  ENGLAND 

1091-1095 

later,  in  1097,  Anselm  betook  himself  to  Rome,  and  William  at 
once  seized  on  his  estates. 

Normandy  under  Robert  was  even  worse  off  than  England 
under  William.  Robert  was  too  easy-tempered  to  bring  anyone 
to  justice.  The  land  was  full  of  violence.  Robefrt's  own  life  was 
vicious  and  wasteful,  and  he  was  soon  in  debt.  He  sold  the 
Cotentin  and  the  territory  of  Avranches  to  his  youngest  brother, 
Henry.  Henry  was  cool-headed  and  prudent,  and  he  kept  order 
in  his  new  possession  better  than  either  of  his  elder  brothers  would 
have  done.  The  brothers  coveted  the  well-ordered  land,  and  in 
109 1  they  marched  together  against  Henry,  who  was  in  the  end 
forced  to  surrender.  In  1095  Henry  was  again  in  Normandy,  and 
driving  out  the  cruel  Lord  of  Domfront  ruled  its  people  with  justice, 
and  soon  recovered  the  possessions  from  which  his  brothers  had 
driven  him. 

William's  attention  was  at  this  time  drawn  to  the  North. 
Early  in  his  reign  he  annexed  Cumberland,  and  had  secured  it 
against  the  Scots  by  fortifying  Carlisle,  which  had  been  desolate 
since  the  Danish  invasion  in  the  reign  of  ^^Ifred.  ]\Ialcolm,  king 
of  the  Scots,  was  a  rude  warrior  who  had  been  tamed  into  an 
outward  show  of  piety  by  his  saintly  wife,  ?\Iargaret,  the  sister 
of  Eadgar  the  /Etheling.  In  1093  Malcolm  burst  into  Northum- 
berland, plundering  and  burning,  till  an  Englishman  slew  him  at 
Alnwick.  Queen  Margaret  died  broken-hearted  at  the  news,  and 
was  before  long  counted  as  a  saint.  For  the  moment  the  Scottish 
Celts  were  weary  of  the  English  queen  and  her  English  ways. 
They  set  up  ^lalcolm's  brother,  Donald  Bane,  as  their  king,  refusing 
to  be  governed  by  any  of  }.Iargaret's  sons.  Donald  at  once  "  drave 
out  all  the  English  that  before  were  witli  King  ^Malcolm."'  In  1094 
Duncan,  ^Margaret's  stepson,  gained  the  crown  from  Donald  with 
the  aid  of  a  troop  of  English  and  Norman  followers.  The  Celts 
soon  drove  out  his  followers,  and  alter  a  while  they  slew  him  and 
restored  Donald. 

William  had  as  yet  too  much  to  do  at  home  to  interfere  further 
in  Scotland.  Tlie  Norman  barons  hated  him,  and  in  1095  Robert 
of  Mowbray,  Earl  of  Northumberland,  refused  obedience.  William 
at  once  marched  against  him,  and  look  from  him  the  new  castle 
which  he  had  l)uilt  in  1080,  and  which  has  ever  since  been  known 
as  Newcastle-on-Tvne.  Robert  liekl  out  lone:  in  his  strong-  for- 
tress  of  Bamborough,  which  was  only  taken  at  last  by  fraud.     He 


WILLIAM    II.  87 

1095-1100 

was  condemned  to  a  lifelong  imprisonment.  Mowbray's  rebellion, 
like  the  conspiracy  of  the  earls  against  the  Conqueror,  shows  how 
eagerly  the  Norman  barons  longed  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  the  king, 
and  how  readily  Englishmen  and  the  less  powerful  Normans  sup- 
ported even  a  tyrannical  king  rather  than  allow  the  barons  to  have 
their  way. 

These  petty  wars  were  interrupted  by  a  call  to  arms  from  the 
Pope.  For  centuries  Christians  had  made  pilgrimages  to  Beth- 
lehem and  Jerusalem,  the  holy  places  where  their  Lord  had  been 
born  and  had  been  crucified.  The  Holy  Land  was  now  under  the 
dominion  of  the  Alohamm'edan  Turks,  who  either  put  the  pilgrims 
to  death  or  subjected  them  to  torture  and  ill-usage.  Li  1095 
Pope  Urban  IL  came  to  Clement  to  appeal  to  the  Christians  of  the 
West  to  set  out  on  a  Crusade — a  war  of  the  Cross — to  deliver  the 
Holy  City  from  the  infidel.  The  first  Crusaders  under  Peter  the 
Hermit  perished  on  the  way.  A  better  equipped  body  of  knights 
and  nobles  set  out  later  under  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  and  in  1099  ^^^^ 
Holy  City  was  taken  l^y  storm. 

Robert  was  among  the  Crusaders.  To  raise  money  for  his 
expedition  he  pledged  Normandy  to  his  brother  William.  Wilham 
had  no  wish  to  take  part  in  a  holy  war,  but  he  Avas  ready  to  make 
profit  out  of  those  who  did.  Normandy  was  the  better  for  the 
change.  It  is  true  that  William  oppressed  it  himself,  but  he  saved 
the  people  from  the  worse  oppression  of  the  barons. 

The  remaining  years  of  William's  reign  were  years  of  varying 
success.  An  English  force  set  up  Eadgar,  the  son  of  ]\Ialcolm 
and  Margaret,  as  king  of  the  Scots,  and  Eadgar  consented  to  hold 
his  crown  as  William's  vassal.  William's  attempts  to  reduce  the 
Welsh  to  submission  ended  in  failure,  and  he  was  obliged  to  con- 
tent himself  with  hemming  them  in  with  castles.  He  liad  trouble 
also  with  the  province  of  Aiaine  in  Normandy. 

On  August  2,  1 100,  tlie  Red  King  went  out  to  hunt  in  the 
New  Forest.  In  the  evening  liis  body  was  found  pierced  by  an 
arrow.  Who  his  slayer  was  is  unknown.  The  blow  may  have 
been  accidental.  It  is  more  likely  to  ha\-e  been  intentional.  In 
every  part  of  England  were  men  who  had  good  cause  to  hate 
William,  and  nowhere  were  his  enemies  in  greater  numbers  than 
round  the  New  Forest. 


Chapter    IX 

HENRY   L,    1 100— 1 135.     STEPHEN,  1 135— 1 154 

LEADING    DATES 

The  Accession  of  Henry  I.,  A.D.  1 100— Battle  of  Tinchebrai, 
1106 — Death  of  Henry  I.  and  Accession  of  Stephen,  1135 — The  Civil 
War,  1139 — Treaty  of  Wallingford,  1153 — Death  of  Stepue:;,  1154 

WHEN  the  news  spread  that  the  Red  King  had  l)een  slain 
in  the  New  Forest,  his  younger  brother,  Henry,  hastened 
to  Winchester,  where  he  was  chosen  king  by  the  barons 
who  happened  to  be  there.  At  his  coronation  at  Westminster  he 
swore  to  undo  all  the  evil  of  his  brother's  reign.  The  name  by 
which  he  came  to  be  known — the  Lion  of  Justice — shows  how  well 
he  kept  his  promise.  He  maintained  order  as  his  father  had  done, 
and  his  brother  had  not  done.  Flambard,  the  wicked  minister  of 
the  Red  King,  was  imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  and  Anselm.  the  good 
archbishop,  recalled  to  England.  Henry's  chief  strength  lay  in  the 
support  of  the  English.  To  please  them  he  married  Eadgyth,  tlie 
daughter  of  Alalcolm  and  Margaret,  the  descendant  through  her 
mother  of  the  old  English  kings.  Through  Eadgyth  the  blood  of 
Alfred  and  Ecgberht  was  transmitted  to  the  later  kings.  It  was, 
however,  necessary  that  she  should  take  another  name.  Everyone 
at  Henry's  court  talked  French,  and  "  Eadgyth  "  was  unpronounce- 
able in  French.  The  new  queen  was  therefore  known  as  ^latilda, 
or  Maud.  The  English  called  her  the  good  queen.  The  Normans 
mocked  her  husband  and  herself  by  giving  them  the  English  nick- 
names of  Godric  and  Godgifu. 

One  danger  at  least  Henry  had  to  face.  Tlie  Norman  barons 
yearned  after  the  weak  rule  of  Robert,  who  was  again  in  possession 
of  Normandy.  Flambard.  having  escaped  from  prison,  fled  to 
Normandy,  and  urged  Robert  to  claim  England  as  the  heritage  of 
the  eldest  son  of  the  Conqueror.  Robert  listened  to  the  tempter 
and  sailed  for  England.     When  he  landed  at  Dorchester  he  found 

W8 


HENRY    I.  — STEPHEN  89 

1102-1106 

that  the  Church  and  the  English  had  ralHed  to  Henry.  Robert's 
position  was  hopeless,  and  he  made  a  treaty  with  his  brother,  aban- 
doning all  claim  to  the  crown. 

Henry  knew  that  the  great  barons  wished  well  to  Robert,  and 
on  one  pretext  or  another  he  stripped  most  of  them  of  power. 
Robert  of  Belleme,  the  strongest  and  wickedest  of  them  all,  rose 
in  revolt.  After  capturing  many  of  his  castles,  Henry  laid  siege 
to  his  great  fortress  at  Bridgenorth.  The  barons  who  served  under 
Henry  urged  him  to  spare  a  rebel  who  was  one  of  their  own  class. 
The  Englishmen  and  the  inferior  Norman  knights  thought  other- 
wise, Bridgenorth  was  taken,  and  Robert  of  Belleme,  having  been 
stripped  of  his  English  land,  was  sent  off  to  Normandy.  Henry 
was  now,  in  very  truth,  king  of  the  English.  "  Rejoice,  King 
Henry,"  ran  a  popular  song,  "  and  give  thanks  to  the  Lord  God, 
because  thou  art  a  free  king  since  thou  hast  overthrown  Robert  of 
Belleme,  and  hast  driven  him  from  the  borders  of  thy  kingdom." 
Never  again  during  Henry's  reign  did  the  great  Norman  lords  dare 
to  lift  hand  against  him. 

It  was  impossible  for  Henry  to  avoid  interference  in  Nor- 
mandy. Many  of  his  vassals  in  England  possessed  lands  in  Nor- 
mandy as  well,  where  they  were  exposed  to  the  violence  of  Robert 
of  Belleme  and  of  others  who  had  been  expelled  from  England. 
The  Duke  of  the  Normans  would  do  nothing  to  keep  the  peace, 
and  Henry  crossed  the  sea  to  protect  his  own  injured  subjects. 
Duke  Robert  naturally  resisted  him,  and  at  last,  in  1106,  a  great 
battle  was  fought  at  Tinchebrai,  in  which  Robert  was  utterly  de- 
feated. Duke  Robert  was  kept  for  the  remainder  of  his  life  a 
prisoner  in  Cardiff  Castle,  where  he  died  after  an  imprisonment  of 
twenty-eight  years.  Henry  became  Duke  of  the  Normans  as  well 
as  king  of  the  English,  and  all  Normandy  was  the  better  for  the 
change.  Robert  of  Belleme  was  thrown  into  prison,  and  the  cruel 
oppressor  thus  shared  the  fate  of  the  weak  ruler  whose  remissness 
had  made  his  oppressions  possible. 

Though  Anselm  had  done  everything  in  his  power  to  support 
Henry  against  Robert  of  Belleme,  he  was  himself  engaged  in  a  dis- 
pute with  the  king  which  lasted  for  some  years.  A  bishop  in 
Anselnrs  time  was  not  only  a  great  Church  officer,  whose  duty  it 
was  to  maintain  a  high  standard  of  religion  and  morality  among 
the  clergy.  He  was  also  one  of  the  king's  barons,  because  he  was 
possessed  of  large  estates,  and  was  therefore  bound  like  any  other 


90  ENGLAND 

1106-1107 

baron  to  send  knights  to  the  king  when  they  were  needed.  Conse- 
quently, when  Anselm  became  archbishop  he  had  not  only  received 
investiture  from  William  II.  by  accepting  from  him  the  ring  and 
the  staff  which  were  the  signs  of  ecclesiastical  authority,  but  also 
did  homage,  thus  acknowledging  himself  to  be  the  king's  man,  and 
obliging  himself,  not  indeed  to  fight  for  him  in  person,  but  to  send 
knights  to  fight  under  his  orders.  When,  however,  Henry  came 
to  the  throne  and  asked  Anselm  to  repeat  the  homage  which  he  had 
done  to  William,  Anselm  not  only  refused  himself  to  comply  with 
the  king's  request,  but  also  refused  to  consecrate  newly-chosen 
bishops  who  had  received  investiture  from  Henry.  During  the 
time  of  his  exile  Anselm  had  taken  part  in  a  council  of  the  Church, 
in  which  bishops  and  abbots  had  been  forbidden  by  the  Pope  and  the 
council  either  to  receive  investiture  from  laymen  or  to  do  homage 
to  them.  These  decrees  had  not  been  issued  merely  to  serve  the  pur- 
pose of  Papal  ambition.  At  that  time  all  zealous  ecclesiastics  thought 
that  the  only  way  to  stop  the  violence  of  kings  in  their  dealings 
with  the  Church  was  to  make  the  Church  entirely  independent. 
Though  the  dispute  was  a  hot  one,  it  was  carried  on  without  any 
of  the  violence  which  had  characterized  the  dispute  between  Anselm 
and  the  Red  King,  and  it  ended  in  a  compromise.  Henry  aban- 
doned all  claim  to  give  the  ring  and  the  pastoral  staff"  which  were 
the  signs  of  a  bishop's  or  an  abbot's  spiritual  jurisdiction,  while 
Anselm  consented  to  allow  the  nev.'  bishop  or  abbot  to  render  the 
homage  which  was  the  sign  of  his  readiness  to  employ  all  his  tem- 
poral wealth  and  power  on  the  king's  behalf.  The  bishop  was 
to  be  chosen  by  the  chapter  of  his  cathedral,  the  abbot  by  the  monks 
of  his  abbey,  but  the  election  was  to  take  place  in  the  king's  presence, 
thus  giving  him  influence  over  their  choice.  Whether  this  settle- 
ment would  work  in  favor  of  the  king  or  the  clergy  depended  on 
the  character  of  the  kings  and  the  clergy.  If  the  kings  were  as 
riotous  as  the  Red  King  and  the  clergy  as  self-denying  as  Anselm, 
the  clergy  would  grow  strong  in  spite  of  these  arrangements.  If 
the  kings  were  as  just  and  wise  as  Henry,  and  the  clergy  as  wicked 
as  Ralph  Flambard,  all  advantage  would  be  on  the  side  of  the  king. 
After  the  defeat  of  the  Norman  barons  the  Great  Council  ceased 
for  a  time  to  have  any  important  influence  on  the  government. 
Henry  was  practically  an  absolute  king,  and  it  was  well  that  he 
should  be  so,  as  the  country  wanted  order  more  than  discussion. 
Henry,  however,  loved  to  exercise  absolute  power  in  an  orderly 


HENRY    I. —  STEPHEN  91 

1107-1135 

way,  and  he  chose  for  his  chief  minister  Roger,  whom  he  made 
Bishop  of  SaHsbury.  Roger  had  first  attracted  his  notice  when 
he  was  going  out  hunting,  by  saying  mass  in  a  shorter  time  than 
any  other  priest,  but  he  retained  his  favor  by  the  order  and  system 
which  he  introduced  into  the  government.  A  special  body  of  offi- 
cials and  councilors  was  selected  by  the  king — perhaps  a  similar 
body  had  been  selected  by  his  predecessor — to  sit  in  judgment  over 
cases  in  which  tenants-in-chief  were  concerned,  as  well  as  over  other 
cases  which  were,  for  one  reason  or  another,  transferred  to  it  from 
the  Baronial  Courts.  This  council  or  committee  was  called  the 
Curia  Regis  (the  King's  Court).  The  members  of  this  Curia 
Regis  met  also  in  the  Exchequer,  so  called  from  the  chequered  cloth 
which  covered  the  table  at  which  they  sat.  They  were  then  known 
as  Barons  of  the  Exchequer,  and  controlled  the  receipts  and  out- 
goings of  the  treasury.  The  Justiciar  presided  in  both  the  Curia 
Regis  and  the  Exchequer.  Among  those  who  took  part  in  these 
proceedings  was  the  Chancellor,  who  was  then  a  secretary  and  not 
a  judge,  as  well  as  other  superior  officers  of  the  king.  A  regular 
system  of  finance  was  introduced,  and  a  regular  system  of  justice 
accompanied  it.  At  last  the  king  determined  to  send  some  of  the 
judges  of  his  court  to  go  on  circuit  into  distant  parts  of  the  kingdom. 
These  itinerant  Justices  (Justitiarii  crraiilcs)  brought  the  royal 
power  into  connection  with  the  local  courts.  Their  business  was 
of  a  very  miscellaneous  character.  They  not  only  heard  the  cases 
in  which  the  king  was  concerned — the  pleas  of  the  crown,  as  they 
were  called — but  they  made  assessments  for  purposes  of  taxation, 
listened  to  complaints,  and  conveyed  the  king's  wishes  to  his  people. 

Though  Henry's  severe  discipline  was  not  liked,  yet  the  law 
and  order  which  he  maintained  told  on  the  prosperity  of  the  coun- 
try, and  the  trade  of  London  flourished  so  much  as  to  attract  citizens 
from  Normandy  to  settle  in  it.  Flemings,  too,  trained  in  habits  of 
industry,  came  in  crowds,  and  with  the  view  of  providing  a  bulwark 
against  the  Welsh,  Henry  settled  a  colony  of  them  in  South  Pem- 
brokeshire, which  has  since  been  known  as  the  Little  England  beyond 
Wales.  The  foreigners  were  not  popular,  but  the  Jews,  to  whom 
Henry  continued  the  protection  which  William  had  given  them,  were 
more  unpopular  still. 

In  the  midst  of  this  busy  life  the  Benedictine  monasteries  were 
still  harbors  of  refuge  for  all  who  did  not  care  to  fight  or  trade. 
They  were  now  indeed  wealthier  than  they  had  once  been,  as  gifts, 


92  ENGLAND 

1107-1135 

usually  of  land,  had  been  made  to  the  monks  by  those  who  rever- 
enced their  piety.  Sometimes  the  gifts  took  a  shape  which  after- 
wards caused  no  little  evil.  Landowners  who  had  churches  on  their 
lands  often  gave  to  a  monastery  the  tithes  which  had  hitherto  been 
paid  for  the  support  of  the  parish  priest,  and  the  monastery  stepped 
into  the  place  of  the  parish  priest,  sending  a  vicar  to  act  for  it  in  the 
performance  of  its  new  duties.  As  the  monks  themselves  grew 
richer  they  grew  less  ascetic.  Their  life,  however,  was  not  spent  in 
idleness.  They  cared  for  the  poor,  kept  a  school  for  the  children, 
and  managed  their  own  property.  Some  of  their  numbers  studied 
and  wrote,  and  our  knowledge  of  the  history  of  these  times  is 
mainly  owing  to  monastic  writers.  When  Henry  L  came  to  the 
throne  the  Chronicle  was  still  being  written  in  the  English  tongue 
by  the  monks  of  Worcester,  and  for  some  years  after  his  death  was 
still  carried  on  at  Peterborough.  The  best  historical  compositions 
were,  however,  in  Latin,  the  language  understood  by  the  clergy  over 
all  Western  Europe.  Among  the  authors  of  these  Latin  works, 
the  foremost  was  William  of  Malmesbury. 

Useful  as  the  Benedictines  were,  there  were  some  monks  who 
complained  that  the  extreme  self-denial  of  their  founder,  St.  Bene- 
dict, was  no  longer  to  be  met  with,  and  the  complainants  had  lately 
originated  a  new  order,  called  the  Cistercian.  The  Cistercians 
made  their  appearance  in  England  in  1128.  Their  buildings  and 
churches  were  simpler  than  those  of  the  Benedictines,  and  their  life 
more  austere.  They  refused  to  receive  gifts  of  tithes  lest  they 
should  impoverish  tlie  parish  clergy.  They  loved  to  make  their 
homes  in  solitary  places  far  from  the  haunts  of  men,  while  the 
Benedictines  had  either  planted  themselves  in  towns  or  had  allowed 
towns  to  grow  up  round  their  monasteries. 

Henry,  in  consequerice  of  the  possession  of  Normandy,  had 
been  frequently  involved  in  war  with  France.  In  these  wars 
Henry  was  usually  successful,  and  at  last,  in  1127,  his  rival  in  Nor- 
mandy was  killed,  and  Henry  freed  from  danger.  His  own  son, 
also  named  A\'illiam,  had  already  been  drowned  on  the  voyage  be- 
tween Normandy  and  England  in  1120.  It  is  said  that  no  man 
dared  tell  Henry  that  his  son  was  drowned,  and  that  at  last  a  little 
child  was  sent  to  inform  him  of  his  misfortune. 

Henry  had  many  illegitimate  children,  but  after  William's 
death  the  only  lawful  child  left  to  him  was  Matilda.  She  had 
been  married  as  a  child  to  the  Emperor  Henry  V.,  but  her  husband 


HENRY    I.  — STEPHEN  9S 

1135-1138 

had  died  before  she  was  grown  up,  and  she  then  returned  to  her 
father,  as  the  Empress  Matilda.  There  had  never  been  a  queen 
of  England,  and  it  would  have  been  very  hard  for  a  woman  to  rule 
in  those  times  of  constant  war  and  bloodshed.  Yet  Henry  per- 
suaded the  barons  to  swear  to  accept  her  as  their  future  sovereign. 
He  then  married  her  to  Geoffrey,  Count  of  Anjou,  who  came  of  a 
brave  and  active  race,  and  whose  lands,  which  lay  to  the  south  of 
Normandy,  would  enlarge  the  French  possessions  of  Henry's  de- 
scendants. In  1 135  Henry  died.  The  great  merit  of  his  English 
government  was  that  he  forsook  his  brother's  evil  ways  of  violence, 
and  maintained  peace  by  erecting  a  regular  administrative  system, 
which  kept  down  the  outrages  of  the  barons.  One  of  the  English 
chroniclers  in  recording  his  death  prayed  that  God  might  give 
him  the  peace  that  he  loved. 

Among  the  barons  who  had  sworn  to  obey  Matilda  was  Stephen 
of  Blois,  a  son  of  the  Conqueror's  daughter  Adela,  and  a  nephew 
of  Henry  I.  As  soon  as  Henry's  death  was  known  Stephen  made 
his  way  to  London,  where  he  was  joyfully  received  as  king.  The 
London  citizens  felt  that  their  chief  interests  lay  in  the  maintenance 
of  peace,  and  they  thought  that  a  man  would  be  more  likely  than 
a  woman  to  secure  order.  The  barons  chose  Stephen  king  at  Win- 
chester, where  his  brother,  Henry  of  Blois,  was  the  bishop.  Shortly 
afterwards  some  of  these  very  barons  rose  against  him,  but  their 
insurrection  was  soon  repressed.  More  formidable  was  the  hostility 
of  David,  king  of  the  Scots.  David  was  closely  connected  with  the 
family  of  Henry  L,  his  sister  having  been  Henry's  wife,  the  Em- 
press Matilda  being  consequently  his  niece.  He  also  held  in  right 
of  his  own  wife  the  earldom  of  Huntingdon.  Under  the  pretext  of 
taking  up  Matilda's  cause  he  broke  into  the  north  of  England.  In 
1 137  Stephen  drove  David  back.  In  1138  David  reappeared  and 
the  battle  which  ensued  has  been  known  as  the  battle  of  the  Stand- 
ard. The  Scots  were  completely  defeated,  but  Stephen,  in  spite  of 
the  victory  gained  for  him,  found  himself  obliged  to  buy  peace  at  a 
heavy  price.  He  agreed  that  David's  son,  Henry,  should  hold 
Northumberland,  with  the  exception  of  the  fortresses  of  Bam- 
borough  and  Newcastle,  as  a  fief  of  the  English  crown.  David 
himself  was  also  allowed  to  keep  Cumberland  without  doing 
homage. 

It  would  have  been  well  for  Stephen  if  he  had  learned  from  the 
men  of  the  North  that  his  strength  lay  in  rallying  the  English  people 


94.  ENGLAND 

1138-1139 

round  him  against  the  great  barons,  as  the  Red  King  and  Henry  I. 

had  done  when  their  right  to  the  crown  had  been  challenged  by 
Robert.  Instead  of  this,  he  brought  over  mercenaries  from  Flanders, 
and  squandered  treasure  and  lands  upon  his  favorites  so  as  to  have 
little  left  for  the  hour  of  need.  He  made  friends  easily,  but  he 
made  enemies  no  less  easily.  One  of  the  most  powerful  of  the 
barons  was  Robert,  Earl  of  Gloucester,  an  illegitimate  son  of  Henry 
I.,  who  held  the  strong  fortress  of  Bristol,  and  whose  power  ex- 
tended over  both  sides  of  the  lower  course  of  the  Severn.  In  1138 
Stephen,  wdio  distrusted  him,  ordered  his  castles  to  be  seized. 
Robert  at  once  declared  his  half-sister  Matilda  to  be  the  lawful 
queen,  and  a  terrible  civil  war  began.  Robert's  garrison  at  Bristol 
was  a  terror  to  all  the  country  round.  He,  too,  gathered  foreign 
mercenaries,  who  knew  not  what  pit}^  was.  Other  barons  imitated 
Robert's  example,  fighting  only  for  themselves  whether  they  nomi- 
nally took  the  part  of  Stephen  or  of  ]\Iatilda,  and  the  southern  and 
midland  counties  of  England  were  preyed  upon  by  the  garrisons  of 
their  castles. 

Evil  as  were  the  men  who  fought  on  either  side,  it  was  to 
Stephen  and  not  to  ^^datilda  and  Robert  that  men  as  yet  looked  to 
restore  order.  The  port  towns.  London,  Yarmouth  and  Lynn,  clung 
to  him  to  the  last.  L'nfortunately  Stephen  did  not  know  how  to 
make  good  use  of  his  advantages.  The  clergy,  like  the  traders, 
had  always  been  in  favor  of  order.  Some  of  them,  with  the  Jus- 
ticiar, Roger,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  at  their  head,  had  organized  the 
Exchecjuer  of  Henry  I.,  had  gathered  in  the  payments  due  to  the 
crown,  or  had  acted  as  judges.  Yet  with  all  their  zeal  in  the  service 
of  the  crown,  they  had  not  omitted  to  provide  for  their  own  inter- 
ests. Roger  in  particular  had  been  insatiable  in  the  pursuit  of 
wealth  for  himself  and  of  promotion  for  his  family.  In  1139 
Stephen,  rightly  or  wrongly,  threw  him  into  prison  with  his  son 
and  Alexander  Lincoln.  Every  priest  of  England  turned  against 
Stephen.  His  own  brother,  Henry,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  de- 
clared against  him.  and  Stephen  was  obliged  to  do  penance.  The 
administration  of  tlie  Exchecjuer  was  shattered,  and  though  it  was 
not  altogether  destroyed,  and  money  was  brought  to  it  for  the 
king's  use  even  in  tlie  worst  times,  Stephen's  financial  resources 
were  from  liencefortli  sadly  diminished. 

The  war  now  lapsed  into  slieer  anarchy.  The  barons  on  either 
side  broke  loose  fr^ni  all  restraint.     ''  They  fouglit  amongst  them- 


HENRY    I. —  STEPHEN  95 

1139-1148 

selves  with  deadly  hatred ;  they  spoiled  the  fairest  lands  with  fire 
and  rapine;  in  what  had  been  the  most  fertile  of  counties  they 
destroyed  almost  all  the  provision  of  bread."  All  goods  and  money 
they  carried  off,  and  if  they  suspected  any  man  to  have  concealed 
treasure  they  tortured  him  to  oblige  him  to  confess  where  it  was. 
"  They  hanged  up  men  by  the  feet  and  smoked  them  with  foul 
smoke ;  some  were  hanged  up  by  their  thumbs,  others  by  their  head, 
and  coats  of  mail  were  hung  on  to  their  feet.  Many  thousands 
they  starved  with  hunger.  .  .  .  Men  said  openly  that  Christ  and 
His  saints  were  asleep." 

In  the  autumn  of  1139  Matilda  appeared  in  England,  and  in 
1 141  there  was  a  battle  at  Lincoln,  in  which  Stephen  was  taken 
prisoner.  Henry  of  Winchester  acknowledged  Matilda  as  queen, 
and  all  England  submitted  to  her,  London  giving  way  most 
reluctantly.  Her  rule  did  not  last  long.  She  was  as  much  too 
harsh  as  Stephen  was  too  good-natured.  She  seized  the  lands 
of  the  Church,  and  ordered  the  Londoners  to  pay  a  heavy  fine 
for  having  supported  Steplien.  On  this  the  Londoners  rang  their 
bells,  and  the  citizens  in  arms  swarmed  out  of  their  houses  "  like 
bees  out  of  a  hive."  Matilda  fled  to  Winchester  before  them. 
Bishop  Henry  then  turned  against  her.  Robert  of  Gloucester  was 
taken  prisoner,  and  after  awhile  Matilda  was  obliged  to  set  free 
King  Stephen  in  exchange  for  her  brother.  Figliting  continued  for 
some  time.  On  all  sides  men  were  longing  for  peace.  The  fields 
were  untilled  because  no  man  could  tell  wlio  would  reap  the  harvest. 
Thousands  perished  of  starvation.  H  peace  there  was  to  be,  it  could 
only  come  by  Steplien's  victory.  It  was  now  known  that  Matilda 
was  even  less  fit  to  govern  than  Stephen.  Stephen  took  one  castle 
after  another.  In  1147  Earl  Robert  died,  and  in  1148  Matilda  gave 
up  the  struggle  and  left  I'Lngland. 

While  Matilda  had  been  losing  England  bicr  husband  had  been 
conquering  Normandy,  and  for  a  little  while  it  seemed  possible  that 
England  and  Normandy  would  be  separated ;  ICngland  remaining 
under  Stephen  and  his  heirs,  and  Normandy  united  with  Anjou 
under  the  Angevin  Geoffrey  and  his  descendants.  That  the  separa- 
tion did  not  yet  take  place  vvas  partly  owing  to  the  different  character 
of  tlie  two  heirs.  Stephen's  son,  Eustace,  was  rough  and  overbear- 
ing. Geoffrey's  son,  Henry,  was  sb.rewd  and  prudent.  Henry  had 
already  been  in  England  v>'lien  he  was  still  quite  young,  and  had 
learned  something  of  Englisli  affairs   from   his  uncle,   Robert  of 


96  ENGLAND 

1149-1154 

Gloucester.  He  returned  to  his  father  in  1147,  and  in  1149  Geoffrey 
gave  up  to  him  the  duchy  of  Normandy.  He  was  then  sent  to  try 
his  fortune  in  England  in  his  mother's  stead,  but  he  was  only  a  boy 
of  sixteen,  and  too  young  to  cope  with  Stephen.  In  1150  he  aban- 
doned the  struggle  for  a  time.  In  his  absence  Stephen  had  still 
rebels  to  put  down  and  castles  to  besiege,  but  he  had  the  greater 
part  of  the  kingdom  at  his  back,  and  if  Henry  had  continued  to 
leave  him  alone  he  would  probably  have  reduced  all  his  enemies  to 
submission. 

In  1 1 50  Geoffrey  died,  and  Henry  became  Count  of  Anjou 
as  well  as  Duke  of  Normandy.  Before  long  he  acquired  a  much 
wider  territory  than  either  Anjou  or  Normandy.  Louis  VII.  of 
France  had  to  wife  Eleanor,  the  Duchess  of  Aquitaine,  and  through 
her  had  added  to  his  own  scanty  dominions  the  whole  of  the  lands 
between  the  Loire  and  the  Pyrenees.  Louis,  believing  that  she  was 
unfaithful  to  him.  had  divorced  her  on  the  pretext  that  she  was 
too  near  of  kin.  Henry  was  not  squeamish  about  the  character  of 
so  great  an  heiress,  and  in  1152  married  the  Duchess  of  Aquitaine 
for  the  sake  of  her  lands.  Thus  strengthened,  he  again  returned 
to  England.  He  was  now  a  young  man  of  nineteen ;  his  vigor 
was  as  great  as  that  of  Stephen,  and  his  skill  greater.  He  won 
fortress  after  fortress.  Before  the  end  of  1153  Eustace  died  and 
Stephen  had  no  motive  for  prolonging  the  strife  if  his  personal  in- 
terests could  be  saved.  It  was  arranged  by  the  treaty  of  Walling- 
ford  that  Stephen  should  retain  the  crown  for  life,  and  that  Henry 
should  be  his  heir.  The  castles  which  had  sprung  up  during  the 
civil  war  without  the  license  of  the  king — the  "adulterine  castles," 
as  they  were  called — and  there  were  no  less  than  356  of  them — were 
to  be  destroyed,  and  order  and  good  government  were  to  return. 
For  five  months  Henrv  remained  in  England.  The  robber  barons 
could  not  hold  out  against  the  two  rivals  now  united.  Many  of  the 
castles  were  demolished,  and  "  such  good  peace  as  never  was  here  " 
was  established.  In  T154  Stephen  died,  and  young  Henry  ruled 
England  in  his  own  name. 


Chapter   X 

HENRY    II.     1154—1189 

LEADING   DATES 

Accession  of  Henry  II.,  A.D.  1154 — ^Thomas,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
BURYj  1 1 62 — The  Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  1164 — Murder  of 
Archbishop  Thomas,  1172 — The  Assize  of  Arms,  1181 — Fall  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  1187 — Death  of  Henry  II.,  1189 

HENRY  II.  was  but  twenty-one  when  he  returned,  after 
Stephen's  death,  to  govern  England.  He  had  before  him 
the  difficult  task  of  establishing  order  where  anarchy 
had  prevailed,  but  it  was  a  task  for  which  he  was  especially  suited. 
His  frame  was  strong  and  thick-set,  and  he  was  as  active  as  he  was 
strong.  His  restlessness  was  the  dismay  of  his  courtiers.  Eager 
to  see  everything  for  himself,  and  having  to  rule  a  territory  extend- 
ing from  the  Pyrenees  to  the  Scottish  border,  he  was  always  on  the 
move.  His  followers  were  not  allowed  to  know  till  he  started 
in  the  morning  where  he  intended  to  sleep  at  night,  and  he  frequently 
changed  his  mind  even  after  he  had  set  out.  He  was  as  busy  with 
his  mind  as  he  was  with  his  body,  as  fond  of  a  book  as  of  a  horse, 
and  ready  to  chat  with  anyone  of  whatever  rank.  Even  when  he 
was  at  mass  he  either  drew  pictures  to  amuse  himself  or  conversed 
in  whispers  with  his  neighbors.  His  ceaseless  energy  was  com- 
bined witli  a  strong  will,  a  clear  perception  of  the  limits  beyond 
which  action  would  be  unwise,  a  good  eye  for  ability  in  others,  and 
a  power  of  utilizing  their  ability  in  his  own  sen-ice.  On  the  Con- 
tinent his  sagacity  appeared  in  his  resolution  to  be  content  with  his 
dominions  which  he  had  acquired  vrithout  making  further  conquests. 
In  England  his  main  object  was  the  same  as  that  of  his  predecessors, 
to  establish  the  king's  authority  over  tlie  great  barons.  What  espe- 
cially distinguished  him  was  his  clear  perception  of  the  truth  that 
he  could  only  succeed  by  securing,  not  merely  the  passive  good-will, 
but  the  active  cooperation  of  those  who,  whether  they  were  of 
Norman  or  of  English  descent,  were  inferior  in  wealth  and  position 
to  the  great  barons. 

97 


98  ENGLAND 

1154-1162 

Henry's  first  year  was  spent  in  completing  the  work  which  he 
had  begun  after  the  treaty  of  Walhngford.  He  sent  Stephen's 
mercenaries  over  the  sea  and  completed  the  destruction  of  the 
"  adulterine  castles."  One  great  rebel  after  another  was  forced  to 
submit  and  have  his  strong  walls  pulled  down.  There  were  to  be 
no  more  dens  of  robbers  in  England,  but  all  men  w^ere  to  obey  the 
king  and  the  law.  What  castles  remiained  were  the  king's,  and  as 
long  as  they  were  his  rebellions  would  not  be  likely  to  be  successful. 
Henry  even  regained  from  Malcolm  IV.,  king  of  the  Scots,  North- 
umberland and  Cumberland,  which  had  been  surrendered  by 
Stephen.  In  his  government  Henry  did  his  best  to  carry  out  the 
plans  of  his  grandfather,  Henry  I.  It  was  perhaps  because  he 
was  afraid  that  one  Justiciar  would  be  too  powerful,  that 
he  appointed  two,  Richard  De  Lucy  and  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  to 
see  that  justice  was  executed  and  the  government  maintained 
whether  the  king  were  absent  or  present.  The  old  Bishop  Nigel 
of  Ely  was  reappointed  Treasurer,  and  presided  over  the  Exchequer 
at  Westminster.  Thomas  of  London,  known  in  later  times  by  the 
name  of  Becket,  an  active  and  vigorous  man,  fifteen  years  older 
than  the  king,  who  had  been  ordained  a  deacon,  but  had  nothing 
clerical  about  him  except  the  name,  was  made  Chancellor.  Thomas 
was  the  king's  chosen  friend,  and  the  two  together  delighted  in 
the  work  of  restoring  order.  Thomas  liked  sumptuous  living,  and 
the  magnificence  of  his  housekeeping  and  of  his  feasts  w-as  the  talk 
of  the  whole  country.  Yet  though  he  laughed  and  jested  in  the 
midst  of  his  grandeur,  he  kept  himself  from  every  kind  of  vice. 

It  was  principally  with  Thomas  the  Chancellor  that  Henry 
consulted  as  to  the  best  means  of  establishing  his  authority.  He 
resolved  not  only  to  renew  but  to  extend  the  administrative  system 
of  Henry  I.  The  danger  which  threatened  him  came  from  the 
great  barons,  and  as  the  great  barons  were  as  dangerous  to  the 
lesser  ones  and  to  the  bulk  of  the  people  as  they  were  to  the  king, 
Henry  was  able  to  strengthen  himself  by  winning  the  affections 
of  the  people.  Feudality  in  itself  was  only  a  method  of  owning 
land ;  but  it  was  always  threatening  to  pass  into  a  method  of  gov- 
ernment. In  France  the  great  feudal  lords  ruled  their  own  ter- 
ritories with  very  little  regard  for  the  wishes  of  the  king,  and  the 
smaller  feudal  lords  had  their  own  courts  in  which  they  hanged  and 
imprisoned  their  villeins.  In  Stephen's  time  an  attempt  had  been 
made  to  introduce  this  system  into  England,  with  evil  consequences 


HENRY    II.  99 

1154-1162 

both  to  king  and  people.  Before  the  Conquest  great  landowners 
had  often  received  permission  from  the  king  to  exercise  criminal 
jurisdiction  in  the  Manor  Courts  on  their  own  estates,  while  the 
vast  extent  of  their  landed  property  gave  them  a  preponderant  voice 
in  the  proceedings  of  the  shire-moots  now  known  by  the  Normans 
as  County  Courts.  Henry  resolved  to  attack  the  evil  at  both  ends : 
in  the  first  place,  to  make  the  barons  support  the  king's  government 
instead  of  setting  up  their  own ;  in  the  second  place,  to  weaken  the 
Manor  and  County  Courts  and  to  strengthen  courts  directly  pro- 
ceeding from  himself. 

Henry  in  the  early  years  of  his  reign  revived  the  importance 
of  the  Great  Council,  taking  care  that  it  should  be  attended  not 
only  by  the  great  barons,  but  by  vassals  holding  smaller  estates, 
and  therefore  more  dependent  on  himself.  He  summoned  the 
Great  Council  oftener  than  his  predecessors  had  done.  In  this  way 
even  the  greater  barons  got  the  habit  of  sharing  in  the  government 
of  England  as  a  whole,  instead  of  seeking  to  split  up  the  country, 
as  France  was  split  up,  into  different  districts,  each  of  which  might 
be  governed  by  one  of  themselves.  It  was  in  consequence  of  the 
increasing  habit  of  consulting  with  the  king  that  the  Great  Council, 
after  many  changes,  ultimately  grew  into  the  modern  Parliament. 
It  was  of  no  less  importance  that  Henry  II.  strengthened  the  Curia 
Regis,  which  had  been  established  in  the  reign  of  Henry  I.  to 
collect  the  king's  revenue,  to  give  him  political  advice,  and  to 
judge  as  many  questions  as  it  could  possibly  get  hold  of.  It  was 
especially  by  doing  justice  that  the  Curia  Regis  was  likely  to  acquire 
strength,  and  the  strength  of  the  Curia  Regis  was  in  reality  the 
strength  of  the  king. 

If  Henry  was  to  carry  out  justice  everywhere  it  would  be 
necessary  for  him  to  weaken  still  further  the  power  of  the  barons. 
He  reintroduced  a  plan  which  had  been  first  adopted  by  his  grand- 
father, which  had  tlie  double  merit  of  strengthening  the  king  upon 
the  Continent  and  of  weakening  the  barons  in  England.  Henry 
needed  an  army  to  defend  his  continental  possessions  against  the 
king  of  France.  Tlie  fyrd,  or  general  levy  of  Englishmen,  was  not 
bound  to  fight  except  at  home,  and  thougii  the  feudal  vassals  were 
liable  to  serve  abroad,  they  could  onh/  be  made  to  serve  for  forty 
days  in  the  year,  which  was  too  short  a  time  for  Henry's  purposes. 
He  accordingly  came  to  an  agreement  with  his  vassals.  The 
owner  of  every  knight's  fee  was  to  pay  a  sum  of  money  known  as 


100  ENGLAND 

1154-1162 

scutage  (shield-money)  in  lieu  of  service.  Both  parties  gained  by 
the  arrangement.  The  king  got  money  with  which  he  paid  mer- 
cenaries abroad,  who  would  fight  for  him  all  the  year  round,  and 
the  vassal  escaped  the  onerous  duty  of  fighting  in  quarrels  in  which 
he  took  no  interest.  Indirectly  the  change  weakened  the  feudal 
vassals,  because  they  had  now  less  opportunity  than  before  of 
acquiring  a  military  training  in  actual  war. 

Henry,  who  meditated  great  judicial  reforms,  foresaw  that  the 
clergy  would  be  an  obstacle  in  his  way.  He  was  eager  to  establish 
one  law  for  his  whole  kingdom,  and  the  clergy,  having  been  ex- 
empted by  the  Conqueror  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  ordinary  law 
courts  in  all  ecclesiastical  matters,  had,  during  the  anarchy  of 
Stephen's  reign,  encroached  on  the  royal  authority,  and  claimed  to 
be  responsible,  even  in  criminal  cases,  only  to  the  ecclesiastical 
courts,  which  were  unable  to  inflict  the  penalty  of  death,  so  that  a 
clerk  who  committed  a  murder  could  not  be  hanged  like  other  mur- 
derers. As  large  numbers  of  clerks  were  only  in  the  lower  orders, 
and  as  many  of  them  had  only  taken  those  orders  to  escape  from 
the  hardships  of  lay  life,  their  morals  were  often  no  better  than 
those  of  their  lay  neighbors.  A  vacancy  occurring  in  the  arch- 
bishopric of  Canterbury,  Henry,  who  wished  to  make  these  clerks 
punishable  by  his  own  courts,  thought  that  the  arrangement  would 
easily  be  effected  if  Thomas,  who  had  hitherto  been  active  as  a 
reformer  in  his  service,  were  archbishop  as  well  as  Chancellor.  It 
was  in  vain  that  Thomas  remonstrated.  "  I  warn  you."  he  said 
to  Henry,  "  that  if  such  a  thing  should  be,  our  friendship  would 
soon  turn  to  bitter  hate."  Henry  persisted  in  spite  of  the  warning, 
and  Thomas  became  archbishop. 

The  first  act  of  the  new  archbishop  was  to  surrender  his  chan- 
cellorship. He  was  unable,  he  said,  to  serve  two  masters.  It  is 
not  difficult  to  understand  his  motives.  The  Church,  as  the  best 
men  of  the  twelfth  century  believed,  was  divinely  instituted  for  the 
guidance  of  the  world.  It  was  but  a  short  step  for  the  nobler  spirits 
among  the  clergy  to  hold  it  necessary  that,  in  order  to  secure  the 
due  performance  of  such  exalted  duties,  the  clerg}'  should  be  ex- 
empted from  the  so-called  justice  of  laymen,  which  was  often  only 
another  name  for  tyranny,  even  if  the  exemption  led  to  the  infliction 
upon  wicked  clerks  of  lesser  punishments  than  were  mete.  In  this 
way  the  clergy  would  unconsciously  fall  into  the  frame  of  mind 
which  might  lead  them  to  imagine  it  more  to  the  honor  of  God  that 


HENRY    II.  101 

1162-116«» 

a  wicked  clerk  should  be  insufficiently  punished  than  that  he  should 
be  punished  by  a  layman.  Of  all  men  Archbishop  Thomas  was  the 
most  likely  to  fall  into  this  mistake.  He  was,  as  Chancellor,  prone 
to  magnify  his  office,  and  to  think  more  of  being-  the  originator  of 
great  reforms  than  of  the  great  reforms  themselves.  As  archbishop 
he  would  also  be  sure  to  magnify  his  office,  and  to  think  less,  as 
Anselm  would  have  thought,  of  reconciling  the  true  interests  of  the 
kingdom  with  the  true  interests  of  the  Church,  than  of  making  the 
archbishop's  authority  the  center  of  stirring  movement,  and  of  rais- 
ing the  Church,  of  which  he  was  the  highest  embodiment  in  Eng- 
land, to  a  position  above  the  power  of  the  king.  All  this  he  would 
do  with  a  great,  if  not  complete,  sincerity.  He  would  feel  that  he 
was  himself  the  greater  man  because  he  believed  that  he  was  fight- 
ing in  the  cause  of  God. 

Between  a  king  eager  to  assert  the  right  of  the  crown  and  an 
archbishop  eager  to  assert  the  rights  of  the  clergy  a  quarrel  could 
not  be  long  deferred.  Thomas's  first  stand,  however,  was  on  behalf 
of  the  whole  country.  At  a  Great  Council  at  Woodstock  he  resisted 
the  king's  resolution  to  levy  the  old  tax  of  Danegeld,  and  in  conse- 
quence Danegeld  was  never  levied  again.  Henry  had  for  some  tmie 
been  displeased  because,  without  consulting  him,  the  archbishop 
had  seized  upon  lands  which  he  claimed  as  the  property  of  the  see 
of  Canterbury,  and  had  excommunicated  one  of  the  king's  tenants. 
Then  a  clerk  who  had  committed  a  rape  and  a  murder  had  been 
acquitted  in  an  ecclesiastical  court.  On  this,  Henry  called  on  the 
bishops  to  promise  to  obey  the  customs  of  tlie  realm.  Thomas, 
being  told  that  the  king  merely  wanted  a  verbal  promise  to  save  his 
dignity,  with  some  reluctance  consented.  He  soon  found  that  he 
had  been  tricked.  In  1164  Henry  summoned  a  Great  Council  to 
meet  at  Clarendon,  and  directed  some  of  the  oldest  of  his  barons 
to  set  down  in  writing  the  customs  observed  by  his  grandfather. 
Their  report  was  intended  to  settle  all  disputed  points  between  the 
king  and  the  clergy  and  was  drav.-n  up  under  sixteen  heads  known  as 
the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon.  The  most  important  of  them  de- 
clared that  beneficed  clergy  should  not  leave  the  realm  without  the 
king's  leave;  that  no  tenant-in-chief  of  the  king  should  be 
excommunicated  without  the  king's  knov^dedge ;  that  no  villein 
should  be  ordained  without  his  lord's  consent;  that  a  criminous 
clerk  should  be  sent  to  the  ecclesiastical  court  for  trial,  and  that 
after  he  had  been  there  convicted  or  had  pleaded  guilty  the  Church 


102  ENGLAND 

1164 

should  deprive  him  and  leave  him  to  the  lay  court  for  further  punish- 
ment. It  was  for  the  Curia  Regis  to  determine  what  matters  were 
properly  to  be  decided  by  the  ecclesiastical  courts ;  and  no  appeal  to 
Rome  was  to  be  allowed  without  its  permission.  To  all  this 
Thomas  was  violently  opposed,  maintaining  that  the  sentence  of 
deprivation,  which  was  all  that  an  ecclesiastical  court  was  em- 
powered to  inflict,  was  so  terrible,  that  one  who  had  incurred  it 
ought  not  to  be  sentenced  to  any  further  penalty  by  a  lay  court. 
After  six  days'  struggle  he  left  the  Council,  refusing  to  assent  to 
the  Constitutions. 

Unluckily  for  himself,  Henry  could  not  be  content  firmly  and 
quietly  to  enforce  the  law  as  it  had  been  declared  at  Clarendon.  He 
had  in  his  character  much  of  the  orderly  spirit  of  his  grandfather, 
Henry  I.,  but  he  had  also  something  of  the  violence  of  his  great- 
uncle,  William  II.  A  certain  John  the  Marshal  had  a  suit  against 
the  archbishop,  and  when  the  archbishop  refused  to  plead  in  a  lay 
court,  the  king's  council  sentenced  him  to  a  fine  of  500/.  Then 
Henry  summoned  the  archbishop  to  his  castle  at  Northampton  to 
give  an  account  of  all  the  money  which,  when  he  was  Chancellor, 
he  had  received  from  tlie  king — a  claim  which  is  said  to  have 
amounted  to  30,000/,  a  sum  equal  in  the  money  of  those  days  to  not 
much  less  than  400,000/  now.  Thomas,  with  the  crucifix  in  his 
hand,  awaited  in  the  hall  the  decision  of  Henry,  who  with  the 
council  was  discussing  his  fate  in  an  upper  chamber.  When  the 
Justiciar  came  out  to  tell  him  that  he  had  been  declared  a  traitor  he 
refused  to  listen,  and  placed  himself  under  the  Pope's  prottction. 
Hot  words  were  bandied  on  either  side  as  he  walked  out  of  the 
hall.  "  This  is  a  fearful  day,"  said  one  of  his  attendants.  "  The 
Day  of  Judgment,"  replied  Thomas,  "  will  be  more  fearful." 
Thomas  made  his  way  to  the  coast  and  fled  to  France.  Henry  in  his 
wrath  banished  no  less  than  four  hundred  of  the  archbishop's  kins- 
men and  friends.  Thomas  found  less  help  in  France  than  he  had 
expected.  There  were  once  more  two  rival  Popes — Alexander  III., 
who  was  acknowledged  by  the  greater  part  of  the  clergy  and  by 
the  kings  of  England  and  France,  and  Calixtus  III.,  who  had  been 
set  up  by  the  Emperor  Frederick  Barbarossa.  Alexander  was  too 
much  afraid  lest  Henry  should  take  the  part  of  Calixtus  to  be  very 
eager  in  supporting  Thomas.  He  therefore  did  his  best  to  effect 
a  reconciliation  between  Thomas  and  Henry,  but  for  some  years 
his  efforts  were  of  no  avail. 


HENRY    II.  103 

1165 

Henry,  being  temporarily  disembarrassed  of  Thomas's  rivalry, 
was  able  to  devote  his  time  to  carrying  out  still  further  the  judicial 
organization  of  the  country.  In  1166  he  held  a  Great  Council  at 
Clarendon,  and  with  its  approval  issued  a  set  of  decrees  known  as 
the  Assize  of  Clarendon.  By  this  assize  full  force  was  given  to  a 
change  which  had  for  some  time  been  grov/ing  in  the  judicial  sys- 
tem. The  old  English  way  of  dealing  with  criminals  had  been  by 
calling  on  an  accused  person  to  swear  to  his  own  innocence  and  to 
bring  compurgators  to  swear  that  his  oath  was  true.  If  the  ac- 
cused failed  to  find  compurgators  he  was  sent  to  the  ordeal.  Ac- 
cording to  the  new  way  there  was  to  be  in  each  county  juries  con- 
sisting of  twelve  men  of  the  hundred  and  of  four  from  each  town- 
ship in  it  to  present  offenses — felonies,  murders,  and  robberies — and 
to  accuse  persons  on  common  report.  They  were  sworn  to  speak 
the  truth,  so  that  their  charges  were  known  as  verdicts  (rere  dicta). 
No  compurgators  v/ere  allowed,  but  the  accused,  after  his  offense 
had  been  presented,  had  to  go  to  the  ordeal,  and  even  if  he  succeeded 
in  this  he  was,  if  his  character  was  notoriously  bad,  to  abjure  the 
realm — that  is  to  say,  to  be  banished,  swearing  never  to  return. 
If  he  came  back  he  was  held  to  be  an  outlaw,  and  might  be  put  to 
death  without  mercy  by  anyone. 

A  very  similar  system  to  that  which  was  thus  adopted  in  crim- 
inal cases  had  already  in  the  early  part  of  Henry's  reign  been  widely 
extended  in  civil  cases.  When,  before  the  Conquest,  disputes  oc- 
curred among  the  English  as  to  the  possession  of  property,  each 
party  swore  to  the  justice  of  his  own  case,  brought  compurgators, 
and  summoned  witnesses  to  declare  in  his  favor.  There  was, 
however,  no  method  of  cross-examination,  and  if  the  hundred  or 
shire  court  was  still  unsatisfied,  it  had  recourse  to  the  ordeal.  The 
Normans  introduced  the  system  of  trial  by  battle,  under  the  belief 
that  God  would  intervene  to  give  victory  to  the  litigant  whose 
cause  was  just.  This  latter  system,  however,  had  never  been  popular 
with  the  English,  and  Henry  favored  another  which  had  been  in 
existence  in  Normandy  before  the  Conquest,  and  was  fairly  suited 
to  English  habits.  This  was  the  system  of  recognitions.  Any 
freeholder  who  had  been  dispossessed  of  his  land  might  apply  to 
the  Curia  Regis,  and  the  Curia  Regis  ordered  the  sheriff  of  the 
county  in  which  was  the  land  in  dispute  to  select  four  knights  of 
that  county,  by  whom  twelve  knights  were  chosen  to  serve  as 
Recognitors.     It  was  the  business  of  these  Recognitors  to  find  out 


104  ENGLAND 

1166 

either  by  their  own  knowledge  or  by  private  inquiry  the  truth  of 
the  matter.  If  they  were  unanimous  their  verdict  was  accepted  as 
final.  If  not,  other  knights  were  added  to  them,  and  when  at  last 
twelve  were  found  agreeing,  their  agreement  was  held  to  settle  the 
question. 

Thus,  while  in  criminal  cases  the  local  knowledge  of  sworn 
accusers  was  treated  as  satisfactory  evidence  of  guilt,  in  civil  cases 
a  system  was  growing  up  in  which  is  to  be  traced  the  germ  of  the 
modern  jury.  The  Recognitors  did  not  indeed  hear  evidence  in 
public  or  become  judges  of  the  fact,  like  the  modern  jury ;  they  were 
rather  sworn  witnesses,  allowed  to  form  an  opinion  not  merely, 
like  modern  witnesses,  on  what  they  had  actually  seen  or  heard,  but 
also  on  what  they  could  gather  by  private  inquiry. 

To  carry  out  this  system  Henry  renewed  his  grandfather's 
experiment  of  sending  members  of  the  Curia  Regis  as  itinerant 
justices  visiting  the  counties.  They  held  what  they  called  the  pleas 
of  the  crown — that  is  to  say,  trials  which  were  brought  before 
the  king's  judges  instead  of  being  tried  either  in  the  county  courts 
or  the  manorial  courts.  Both  these  judges  and  the  king  had  every 
interest  in  getting  as  much  business  before  their  courts  as  possible. 
Offenders  were  fined  and  suitors  had  to  pay  fees,  and  the  best 
chance  of  increasing  these  profits  was  to  attract  suitors  by  adminis- 
tering justice  better  than  the  local  courts.  The  more  thronged  were 
the  king's  courts,  the  more  rich  and  powerful  he  became.  The  con- 
sequent growth  of  the  influence  of  the  itinerant  justices  was  no 
doubt  offensive  to  the  lords  of  the  manor,  and  especially  to  the 
greater  landowners,  as  diminishing  their  importance,  and  calling 
them  to  account  whenever  they  attempted  to  encroach  on  their  less 
powerful  neighbors. 

It  was  not  long  before  Henry  discovered  another  way  of 
diminishing  the  power  of  the  barons.  In  the  early  part  of  his 
reign  the  sheriffs  of  the  counties  were  still  selected  from  the  great 
landowners,  and  the  sheriff  was  not  merely  the  collector  of  the 
king's  revenue  in  his  country,  but  had,  since  the  Conquest,  assumed 
a  new  importance  in  the  county  court,  over  which  in  the  older  times 
the  ealdorman  or  earl  and  the  bishop  had  presided.  Since  the 
Conquest  the  bishop,  having  a  court  of  his  own  for  ecclesiastical 
matters,  had  ceased  to  take  part  in  its  proceedings,  and  the  earl's 
authority,  which  had  been  much  lessened  after  the  Conquest,  had 
now  disappeared.     The  sheriff,   therefore,   was  left  alone  at  the 


HENRY    II.  105 

1170 

head  of  the  county  court,  and  when  the  new  system  of  trial  grew 
up  he  as  well  as  the  itinerant  justices  was  allowed  to  receive  the 
presentments  of  juries.  When,  in  the  spring  of  1170,  the  king 
returned  to  England,  after  an  absence  of  four  years,  he  held  a  strict 
inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  them  all,  and  deposed  twenty  of  them. 
In  many  cases,  no  doubt,  the  sheriffs  had  done  things  to  displease 
Henry,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  blow  thus  struck  at  the 
sheriffs  was,  in  the  main,  aimed  at  the  great  nobility.  The  suc- 
cessors of  those  turned  out  were  of  lower  rank,  and  therefore  more 
submissive.  From  this  time  it  was  accepted  by  the  kings  of  England 
as  a  principle  of  government  that  no  great  noble  should  serve  as 
sheriff. 

Henry  knew  well  that  the  great  nobles  were  indignant,  and 
that  it  was  possible  that  they  might  rise  against  him,  as  at  one  time 
or  another  they  had  risen  against  every  king  since  the  Conquest. 
He  knew  too  that  his  predecessors  had  found  their  strongest  support 
against  the  nobles  in  the  Church,  and  that  the  Church  was  no  longer 
unanimously  on  his  side.  He  could  indeed  count  upon  all  the 
bishops  save  one.  Bishops  who  were  or  had  been  his  officials, 
bishops  envious  of  Thomas  or  afraid  of  himself,  were  all  at  his 
disposal,  but  they  brought  him  no  popular  strength.  Thomas  alone 
among  them  had  a  hold  on  the  imagination  of  the  people  through 
his  austerities  and  his  daring.  Moreover,  as  the  champion  of  the 
clergy,  he  was  regarded  as  being  also  the  champion  of  the  people, 
from  whose  ranks  the  clergy  were  recruited. 

At  the  moment  of  Henrv's  return  to  England  he  had  special 
need  of  the  Church.  He  wished  the  kingdom  of  England  to  pass 
at  his  death  to  his  eldest  son,  Henry,  and  since  the  Conquest  no 
eldest  son  had  ever  succeeded  his  father  on  the  throne.  He  there- 
fore determined  to  adopt  a  plan  which  had  succeeded  with  the  kings 
of  France,  of  having  the  young  Henry  chosen  and  crowned  in  his 
own  lifetime,  so  that  when  he  died  he  might  be  ready  to  step  into 
his  father's  place.  Young  Henry  was  chosen,  and  on  June  14,  1170, 
he  was  crowned  by  Roger,  Archbishop  of  York ;  but  on  the  day  be- 
fore the  coronation  Roger  received  from  Thomas  a  notice  of  his 
excommunication  of  all  bishops  taking  part  in  the  ceremony,  on 
the  ground  that  it  belonged  only  to  an  Archbisliop  of  Canterbury 
to  crown  a  king,  and  thus  excommunication  had  been  ratified  by 
the  Pope.  It  was  therefore  possible  that  the  whole  ceremony  might 
go  for  nothing. 


106  ENGLAND 

1170 

To  obviate  this  danger  Henry  again  sought  to  make  peace  with 
Thomas.  An  agreement  was  come  to  on  the  vague  terms  that  the 
past  should  be  forgotten  on  both  sides.  Henry  perhaps  hoped  that 
when  Thomas  was  once  again  in  England  he  would  be  too  wise 
to  rake  up  the  question  of  his  claim  to  crown  the  king.  If  it  was 
so  he  was  soon  disappointed.  On  December  i,  1170,  Thomas 
landed  at  Sandwich  and  rode  to  Canterbury  amid  the  shouts  of 
the  people.  He  refused  to  release  from  excommunication  the 
bishops  who  had  taken  part  in  young  Henry's  coronation  unless 
they  would  first  give  him  satisfaction  for  the  wrong  done  to  the 
see  of  Canterbury,  thus  showing  that  he  had  forgotten  nothing. 

The  aggrieved  bishops  at  once  crossed  the  sea  to  lay  their  com- 
plaint before  Henry.  "  What  a  parcel  of  fools  and  dastards,"  cried 
Henry  impatiently,  "  have  I  nourished  in  my  house,  that  none  of 
them  can  be  found  to  avenge  me  on  one  upstart  clerk !"  Four  of  his 
knights  took  him  at  his  word,  and  started  in  all  haste  for  Canter- 
bur3^  The  archbishop  before  their  arrival  had  given  fresh  offense 
in  a  cause  more  righteous  than  that  of  his  quarrel  with  the  bishops. 
Ranulf  de  Broc  and  others  who  had  had  the  custody  of  the  lands 
in  his  absence  refused  to  surrender  them,  robbed  him  of  his  goods, 
and  maltreated  his  followers.  On  Christmas  Day  he  excommuni- 
cated them  and  repeated  the  excommunication  of  the  bishops.  On 
December  29  the  four  knights  sought  him  out.  They  do  not  seem 
at  first  to  have  intended  to  do  him  bodily  harm.  The  excommuni- 
cation of  the  king's  servants  before  the  king  had  been  consulted 
was  a  breach  of  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  and  they  bade  him, 
in  the  king's  name,  to  leave  the  kingdom.  After  a  hot  altercation 
the  knights  retired  to  arm  themselves.  The  archbishop  was  per- 
suaded by  his  followers  to  take  refuge  in  the  church.  In  rushed 
the  knights  crying,  "Where  is  the  traitor?  Where  is  the  arch- 
bishop?" "Behold  me,"  replied  Thomas,  "  no  traitor,  but  a  priest 
of  God."  The  assailants  strove  to  lay  hands  upon  him.  He  strug- 
gled and  cast  forth  angry  words  upon  them.  In  the  madness  of 
their  wrath  they  struck  him  to  the  ground  and  slew  him  as  he  lay. 

Archbishop  Thomas  did  not  die  as  a  martyr  for  any  high  or 
sacred  cause.  He  was  not  a  martyr  for  the  faith,  like  those  who 
had  been  throvv^i  to  the  lions  by  the  Roman  emperors.  He  was  not 
a  martyr  for  righteousness.  He  was  a  martyr  for  the  privileges 
of  his  order  and  of  his  see.  Yet  if  he  sank  below  the  level  of  the 
great  martyrs,  he  did  not  sink  to  that  lowest  stage  at  which  men  cry 


HENRY    II.  107 

1171-1172 

out  for  the  preservation  of  their  privileges,  after  those  privileges 
have  ceased  to  benefit  any  but  themselves.'  The  sympathy  of  the 
mass  of  the  population  shows  the  persistence  of  a  widespread  belief 
that  in  maintaining  the  privileges  of  the  clergy  Thomas  was  main- 
taining the  rights  of  the  protectors  of  the  poor.  This  sentiment 
was  only  strengthened  by  his  murder.  All  through  Europe  the 
news  was  received  with  a  burst  of  indignation.  Of  that  indigna- 
tion the  Pope  made  himself  the  mouthpiece.  In  the  summer  of  1 171 
two  Papal  legates  appeared  in  Normandy  to  excommunicate  Henry 
unless  he  was  able  to  convince  them  that  he  was  guiltless  of  the  mur- 
der. Henry  was  too  cautious  to  abide  their  coming.  He  crossed 
first  to  England  and  then  to  Ireland,  resolving  to  have  something 
to  offer  the  Pope  which  might  put  him  in  a  better  humor. 

In  the  domain  of  art,  Ireland  was  inferior  to  no  European  na- 
tion. In  political  development  it  lagged  far  behind.  Tribe  warred 
with  tribe  and  chief  with  chief.  The  Church  was  as  disorganized 
as  the  State,  and  there  was  little  discipline  exercised  outside  the 
monasteries.  For  some  time  the  Popes  and  the  Archbishops  of 
Canterbury  had  been  anxious  to  establish  a  better  regulated  Church 
system,  and  in  11 54  Adrian  IV. — the  only  Englishman  v.-ho  was 
ever  Pope — hoping  that  Henry  would  bring  the  Irish  Church  under 
Papal  order,  had  made  him  a  present  of  Ireland,  on  the  ground 
that  all  islands  belonged  to  the  Pope. 

Henry,  however,  had  too  much  to  do  during  the  earlier  years 
of  his  reign  to  think  of  conquering  Ireland.  In  1166  the  chief  of 
Leinster  appealed  to  Henry  for  aid.  Henry  gave  him  leave  to  carry 
over  to  Ireland  any  English  knights  whom  he  could  persuade  to 
help  him.  Several  went  and  were  victorious,  but  the  rule  of  these 
knights  was  a  rule  of  cruelty  and  violence,  and,  wl:at  was  more, 
it  might  well  become  dangerous  to  Henry  himself.  When  Henry 
landed  in  Ireland  in  1171  he  set  himself  to  restore  order.  The  Irish 
and  the  invaders  both  acknowledged  him  because  they  dared  not 
resist  him.  He  gathered  a  synod  of  the  clergy  at  Casliel,  arranged 
for  the  future  discipline  of  the  Churcii.  and  showed  the  Pope  that 
his  friendship  was  worth  having.  Unhappily  ht  could  not  remain 
long  in  Ireland,  and  when  he  left  it  the  old  anarchy  and  \-iolence 
blazed  up  again.  Though  Henry  had  not  served  Ireland,  he  had 
gained  his  own  personal  ends. 

In  the  spring  of  11 72  Henry  was  back  in  Normandy.  The 
Englisli  barons  were  longing  to  take  ad-zantage  of  his  quarrel  with 


108  ENGLAND 

1172-1181 

the  Church,  and  his  only  chance  of  resisting  them  was  to  propitiate 
the  Church.  He  met  the  Papal  legates,  swore  that  he  was  inno- 
cent of  the  death  of  Thomas,  and  renounced  the  Constitutions  of 
Clarendon.  He  then  proceeded  to  pacify  Louis  VIL,  whose 
daughter  was  married  to  the  younger  Henry,  by  having  the  boy  re- 
crowned  in  due  form.  Young  Henry  was  a  foolish  lad,  and  took 
it  into  his  head  that  because  he  had  been  crowned  his  father's  reign 
was  at  an  end.  In  1173  he  fled  for  support  to  his  father-in-law 
and  persuaded  him  to  take  up  his  cause.  The  great  English 
barons  of  the  north  and  center  rose  in  insurrection,  and  William  the 
Lion,  king  of  the  Scots,  joined  them.  De  Lucy,  the  Justiciar,  stood 
up  for  Henry ;  but,  though  he  gained  ground,  the  war  was  still  rag- 
ing in  the  following  year,  1174.  In  the  spring  of  that  year  the 
rebels  were  gaining  the  upper  hand,  and  the  younger  Henry  was 
preparing  to  come  to  their  help.  In  July  the  elder  Henry  landed  in 
England.  For  the  first  and  only  time  in  his  life  he  brought  to 
England  the  mercenaries  who  were  paid  with  the  scutage  money. 
At  Canterbury  he  visited  the  tomb  of  Thomas,  now  acknowledged 
as  a  martyr,  spent  the  whole  night  in  prayer  and  tears,  and  on  the 
next  morning  was,  at  his  own  request,  scourged  by  the  monks  as 
a  token  of  his  penitence.  That  night  he  was  awakened  by  a  mes- 
senger with  good  news.  Ranulf  de  Glanvile  had  won  for  him  a 
great  victory  at  Alnwick,  had  dispersed  the  barons'  host,  and  had 
taken  prisoner  the  Scottish  king.  About  the  same  time  the  fleet 
which  was  to  bring  his  son  over  was  dispersed  by  a  storm.  Within 
a  few  weeks  the  whole  rebellion  was  at  an  end.  It  was  the  last  time 
that  the  barons  ventured  to  strive  with  the  king  till  the  time  came 
when  they  had  the  people  and  the  Church  on  their  side.  William 
the  Lion  was  carried  to  Xormandy,  where,  by  the  treaty  of  Falaise, 
he  acknowledged  himself  the  vassal  of  the  king  of  England  for 
the  whole  of  Scotland. 

In  September,  11 74,  there  was  a  general  peace.  In  1181  Henry 
issued  the  Assize  of  Arms,  organizing  the  old  fyrd  in  a  more 
serviceable  wav.  Every  English  freeman  was  bound  by  it  to  find 
arms  of  a  kind  suitable  to  his  property,  that  he  might  be  ready  to 
defend  the  realm  against  rebels  or  invaders.  The  Assize  of  Arms 
is  the  strongest  possible  evidence  as  to  the  real  nature  of  Henry's 
government.  He  had  long  ago  sent  back  to  the  Continent  the 
mercenaries  wiiom  he  had  brought  with  him  in  the  peril  of  1174, 
and  he  now  intrusted  himself  not  to  a  paid  standing  army,  but  to 


HENRY    II.  109 

1172-1185 

the  whole  body  of  EngHsh  freemen.  He  was  in  truth,  king  of  the 
EngHsh  not  merely  because  he  ruled  over  them,  but  because  they 
were  ready  to  rally  round  him  in  arms  against  those  barons  whose 
ancestors  had  worked  such  evil  in  the  da3^s  of  Stephen.  England 
was  not  to  be  given  over  either  to  baronial  anarchy  or  to  military 
despotism. 

In  England  Henry  ruled  as  a  national  king  over  a  nation 
which,  at  least,  preferred  his  government  to  that  of  the  barons. 
The  old  division  between  English  and  Norman  was  dying  out,  and 
though  the  upper  classes,  for  the  most  part,  still  spoke  French, 
intermarriages  had  been  so  frequent  that  there  were  few  among 
them  who  had  not  some  English  ancestors  and  who  did  not  under- 
stand the  English  language.  Henry  was  even  strong  enough  to 
regain  much  that  he  had  surrendered  when  he  abandoned  the  Con- 
stitutions of  Clarendon.  In  his  continental  possessions  there  was 
no  such  unity.  The  inhabitants  of  each  province  were  tenacious 
of  their  own  laws  and  customs,  and  this  was  especially  the  case 
with  the  rnen  of  Aquitaine.  Henry,  in  1172,  having  appointed  his 
eldest  son,  Henry,  as  the  future  ruler  of  Normandy  and  Anjou  as 
well  as  of  England,  gave  to  his  second  son,  Richard,  the  immediate 
possession  of  Eleanor's  duchy  of  Aquitaine.  In  1181  he  provided 
for  his  third  son,  Geoffrey,  by  a  marriage  with  Constance,  the 
heiress  of  Brittany,  over  which  country  he  claimed  a  feudal 
superiority  as  Duke  of  the  Normans.  Yet,  though  he  gave  away 
so  much  to  his  sons,  he  wished  to  keep  the  actual  control  over 
them  all.  The  arrangement  did  not  turn  out  well.  He  had  set 
no  good  example  of  domestic  peace.  His  sons  knew  that  he  had 
married  their  mother  for  the  sake  of  her  lands,  that  he  had  subse- 
quently thrown  her  into  prison  and  had  been  faithless  to  her  with  a 
succession  of  mistresses.  Besides  this,  they  were  torn  away  from 
him  by  the  influence  of  the  meii  whom  they  were  set  to  rule.  John, 
the  fourth  son,  who  Vv'as  named  Lackland  from  having  no  territory 
assigned  to  him,  was,  as  yet,  too  young  to  be  troublesome.  Both 
Richard  and  Geoft'rey  had  taken  part  with  their  brother  Henry  in 
the  great  revolt  of  1173.  In  1177  they  were  again  quarreling 
with  their  father  and  with  each  other.  Henry  loved  his  children, 
and  could  never  bring  himself  to  make  war  very  seriously  against 
them.  Henry  died  young  in  1183,  and  Geoffrey  in  1185.  Ricl-i- 
ard  was  now  the  heir  of  all  his  father's  lands,  from  the  Tweec 
to  the  Pyrenees.      Henry  made  an  effort  to  provide  for  John  in 


110  ENGLAND 

1185-1189 

Ireland,  and  in  1185  he  sent  the  youth — now  eighteen  years  old — 
to  Dublin  to  rule  as  king  of  Ireland.  John  soon  showed  his  in- 
competence. Before  the  end  of  the  year  his  father  was  obliged  to 
recall  him. 

The  divisions  in  Henry's  family  were  stirred  up  afresh  by 
the  new  king  of  France,  Philip  II.,  who  had  succeeded  his  father, 
Louis  VII.,  in  1179.  Philip  was  resolved  to  enlarge  his  narrow 
dominions  at  the  expense  of  Plenry.  He  was  Llenry's  feudal  lord, 
and  he  was  crafty  enough  to  know  that  by  assisting  Henry's  sons 
he  might  be  able  to  convert  his  nominal  lordship  into  a  real  power. 
News,  however,  arrived  in  the  midst  of  the  strife  which  for  a 
little  time  put  an  end  to  the  discords  of  men  and  peoples.  The 
Latin  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  was  attacked  by  the  Mohammedan 
warrior  Saladin,  who  in  1187  took  Jerusalem  and  almost  every 
city  still  held  by  the  Christians  in  the  East.  Tyre  alone  held  out, 
and  that,  too,  would  be  lost  unless  help  came  speedily. 

For  a  moment  the  rulers  of  the  West  were  shocked  at  the 
tidings  from  the  East.  In  1188  Philip,  Henry,  and  Richard  had 
taken  the  cross  as  the  sign  of  their  resolution  to  recover  the  Holy 
City  from  the  infidel.  To  enable  him  to  meet  the  expenses  of  a 
war  in  the  East,  Henry  imposed  upon  England  a  new  tax  of  a 
tenth  part  of  all  movable  property,  which  is  known  as  the  Saladin 
tithe,  but  in  a  few  months  those  who  were  pledged  to  go  on  the 
crusade  were  fighting  with  one  another — first  Henry  and  Richard 
against  Philip,  and  then  Philip  and  Richard  against  Henry.  At 
last,  in  1 189,  Henry,  beaten  in  war,  was  forced  to  submit  to  Philip's 
terms,  receiving  in  return  a  list  of  those  of  his  own  barons  who 
had  engaged  to  support  Richard  against  his  father.  The  list 
reached  him  when  he  was  at  Chinon,  ill  and  worn  out.  The  first 
name  on  it  was  that  of  his  favorite  son  John.  The  old  man 
turned  his  face  to  the  wall.  "  Let  things  go  now  as  they  will," 
he  cried  bitterly.  "  I  care  no  more  for  myself  or  for  the  world." 
After  a  few  days  of  suft'ering  he  died.  The  last  words  which 
passed  his  lips  were,  "  Shame,  shame  upon  a  conquered  king." 

The  wisest  and  most  powerful  ruler  can  only  assist  the  forces 
of  nature  ;  he  cannot  work  against  them.  Those  who  merely 
glance  at  a  map  in  which  tlie  political  divisions  of  France  are 
marked  as  they  existed  in  Henry's  reign,  cannot  but  wonder  that 
Plenry  did  not  make  himself  master  of  the  small  territory  which 
was  directly  governed,  in  turn,  by  Louis  VII.  and  Philip  II.     A 


HENRY    II.  Ill 

1189 

careful  study  of  the  political  conditions  of  his  reign  shows,  how- 
ever, that  he  was  not  really  strong  enough  to  do  anything  of  the 
kind.  His  own  power  on  the  Continent  was  purely  feudal,  and 
he  held  authority  over  his  vassals  there  because  they  had  personally 
done  homage  to  him.  Henry,  however,  had  also  done  homage  to 
the  king  of  France,  and  did  not  venture,  even  if  he  made  war  upon 
his  lord,  the  king  of  France,  to  push  matters  to  extremities  against 
him,  lest  his  sons  as  his  own  vassals  might  push  matters  to  ex- 
tremities against  himself.  He  could  not,  in  short,  expel  the  king 
of  France  from  Paris,  lest  he  should  provoke  his  own  vassals  to 
follow  his  examples  of  insubordination  and  expel  him  from 
Bordeaux  or  Rouen.  Aloreover,  Henry  had  too  much  to  do  in 
England  to  give  himself  heart  and  soul  to  continental  affairs, 
while  the  king  of  France,  on  the  contrary,  who  had  no  foreign 
possessions,  and  was  always  at  his  post,  would  be  the  first  to  profit 
by  a  national  French  feeling  whenever  such  a  feeling  arose.  Eng- 
land under  Henry  II.  was  already  grov^'ing  more  united  and  more 
national.  The  crown  which  Henry  derived  from  the  Conqueror 
was  national  as  well  as  feudal.  Henry,  like  his  predecessors,  had 
two  strings  to  his  bow.  On  the  one  hand  he  could  call  upon  his 
vassals  to  be  faithful  to  him  because  they  had  sworn  homage  to 
him,  while  he  himself,  as  far  as  England  was  concerned,  had 
sworn  homage  to  no  one.  On  the  other  hand,  he  could  rally 
round  him  the  national  forces.  To  do  this  lie  must  do  justice  and 
gain  the  good-will  of  the  people  at  large.  It  was  this  that  he  had 
attempted  to  do,  by  sending  judges  round  the  country  and  by 
improving  the  law,  by  establishing  scutage  to  weaken  the  power 
of  the  barons,  and  by  strengthening  the  national  forces  by  the 
Assize  of  Arms.  No  doubt  he  had  little  thanks  for  his  pains. 
Men  could  feel  the  weight  of  his  arm  and  could  complain  of  the 
heavy  fines  exacted  in  his  courts  of  justice.  It  was  only  a  later 
generation,  which  enjo3^ed  the  benefits  of  his  hard  discipline,  which 
understood  how  much  England  owed  to  him. 


Chapter    XI 

RICHARD    I.     1 189— 1 199 

LEADING    DATES 

Accession  of  Richard  I.,  A.D.  1189 — Richard's  Return  to  England 
FROM  THE   Crusade,   i  194— Death  of  Richard  I.,   1199 

RICHARD  was  accepted  without  dispute  as  the  master  of 
the  whole  of  the  Angevin  dominions.  He  was  a  warrior, 
-  not  a  statesman.  Impulsive  in  his  generosity,  he  was  also 
impulsive  in  his  passions.  Having  determined  to  embark  on  the 
crusade,  he  came  to  England  eager  to  raise  money  for  its  expenses. 
With  this  object  he  not  only  sold  offices  to  those  who  wished  to 
buy  them,  and  the  right  of  leaving  office  to  those  who  wished  to 
retire,  but  also,  with  the  Pope's  consent,  sold  leave  to  remain  at 
home  to  those  who  had  taken  the  cross.  Regardless  of  the  dis- 
tant future,  he  abandoned  for  money  to  William  the  Lion  the 
treaty  of  Falaise,  in  which  William  had  engaged  to  do  homage  to 
the  English  king. 

To  secure  order  during  his  absence  Richard  appointed  two 
Justiciars — Hugh  of  Puiset,  Bishop  of  Durham,  and  William  of 
Longchamps,  Bishop  of  Ely.  At  the  same  time  he  attempted  to 
conciliate  all  who  were  likely  to  be  dangerous  by  making  them 
lavish  grants  of  land,  especially  giving  what  was  practically  royal 
authority  over  five  shires  to  his  brother  John.  Such  an  arrange- 
ment was  not  likely  to  last.  Before  the  end  of  1189  Richard 
crossed  to  the  Continent.  Scarcely  was  he  gone  when  the  popu- 
lace in  many  towns  turned  savagely  on  the  Jews  and  massacred 
ihem  in  crowds.  The  Jews  lived  by  money-lending,  and  money- 
lenders are  never  popular.  In  York  they  took  refuge  in  the  castle, 
and  when  all  hope  of  defending  themselves  failed,  slew  their  wives 
and  children,  set  fire  to  the  castle,  and  perished  in  the  flames. 
The  Justiciars  were  too  much  occupied  with  their  own  cjuarrels 
to  heed  such  matters.  Hugh  was  a  stately  and  magnificent  prelate. 
William  was  lame  and  misshapen,  quick  of  wit  and  unscrupulous. 

112 


RICHARD    I.  113 

1191-1194 

In  a  few  weeks  he  had  deprived  his  rival  of  all  authority.  His 
own  power  did  not  last  long.  He  had  a  sharp  tongue,  and  did 
not  hesitate  to  let  all  men,  great  and  small,  know  how  meanly  he 
thought  of  them.  Those  whom  he  despised  found  a  leader  in  John, 
who  was  anxious  to  succeed  his  brother,  and  thought  that  it  might 
some  day  be  useful  to  have  made  himself  popular  in  England.  In 
the  autumn  of  1191  William  of  Longchamps  was  driven  out  of 
the  country. 

Richard  threw  his  whole  heart — his  lion's  heart,  as  men 
called  it — into  the  crusade.  Alike  by  sea  and  by  land,  he  knew 
better  than  any  other  leader  of  his  age  how  to  direct  the  operations 
of  war.  He  was  too  impetuous  to  guard  himself  against  the  in- 
trigues and  personal  rancor  of  his  fellow-crusaders.  His  own 
vigor  greatly  contributed  to  the  fall  of  Acre  and  twice  he  brought 
the  crusading  host  to  within  eight  miles  of  the  Holy  City.  Each 
time  he  was  driven  to  retreat  by  the  crusaders  failing  to  support 
him. 

In  1 192  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  return  home.  Ene- 
mies were  watching  for  him  on  every  shore.  Landing  at  the  head 
of  the  Adriatic,  he  attempted  to  make  his  way  in  disguise  through 
Germany.  He  was  captured  and  delivered  up  to  the  Emperor, 
Henry  VII.  The  imprisonment  of  Richard  was  joyful  news  to 
Philip  of  France,  and  John.  John  did  his  best  to  get  into  his 
hands  all  the  English  and  Continental  dominions  of  his  brother. 
His  meanness  was,  however,  by  this  time  well  known,  and  he  was 
repelled  on  all  sides.  At  last,  in  1193,  the  emperor  consented  to 
let  Richard  go  on  payment  of  what  was  then  the  enormous  ransom 
of  150,000  marks,  or  100,000/.  "  Beware."  wrote  Philip  to  John, 
"  the  devil  is  loose  again."  Philip  and  John  tried  to  bribe  the 
emperor  to  keep  his  prisoner,  but  in  February,  1194,  Richard  was 
liberated,  and  set  out  for  England. 

Before  Richard  reappeared  in  England  each  tenant-in-chief 
had  to  pay  the  aid  which  was  due  to  deliver  his  lord  from  prison, 
but  this  was  far  from  being  enough.  Besides  all  kinds  of 
irregular  expedients  the  DanegeUl  had  been  practically  revived, 
and  to  it  was  now  given  the  name  of  carucage,  a  tax  of 
two  shillings  on  every  plow-land.  Another  tax  of  a  fourili  part 
of  all  movable  goods  had  also  been  imp(j.se(l,  for  which  a  precedent 
had  been  set  by  Henry  II.  when  he  levied  the  Saiaciin  tithe. 
Richard   had   now   to  gather  in   what  was   left  unpaid   of  these 


114  ENGLAND 

1194-1198 

charges.  Yet  so  hated  was  John  that  Richard  was  welcomed 
with  every  appearance  of  joy,  and  John  thought  it  prudent  to  sub- 
mit to  his  brother.  Phihp,  however,  was  still  an  open  enemy,  and 
as  soon  as  Richard  had  gathered  in  all  the  money  that  he  could 
raise  in  England  he  left  the  country  never  to  return.  On  the 
Continent  he  could  best  defend  himself  against  Philip,  and,  besides 
this,  Richard  was  at  home  in  sunny  Aquitaine,  and  had  no  liking 
for  his  English  realm. 

For  four  years  the  administration  of  England  was  in  the 
hands  of  a  new  Justiciar,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Hubert 
Walter.  He  was  a  statesman  of  the  school  of  Henry  H.,  and  he 
carried  the  jury  system  further  than  Henry  had  done.  The 
immense  increase  of  taxation  rendered  it  the  more  necessary  to 
guard  against  unfairness,  and  Hubert  Walter  placed  the  selection 
of  the  juries  of  presentment  in  the  hands  of  four  knights  in 
every  shire,  who,  as  is  probable,  were  chosen  by  the  freeholders 
in  the  County  Court,  instead  of  being  named  by  the  sheriff. 
This  was  a  further  step  in  the  direction  of  allowing  the 
counties  to  manage  their  own  affairs,  and  a  still  greater  one  was 
taken  by  the  frequent  employment  of  juries  in  the  assessment  of 
the  taxes  paid  within  the  county,  so  as  to  enable  them  to  take  a 
prominent  part  in  its  financial  as  well  as  in  its  judicial  business. 
In  1 198  there  was  taken  a  new  survey  of  England  for  taxable  pur- 
poses, and  again  elected  juries  v^^ere  employed  to  make  the  returns. 

Archbishop  Hubert's  administration  marks  a  great  advance 
in  constitutional  progress,  though  it  is  probable  that  his  motive 
was  only  to  raise  money  more  readily.  The  main  constitutional 
problem  of  the  Norman  and  Angevin  reigns  was  how  to  bring  the 
national  organization  of  the  king's  officials  into  close  and  con- 
stant intercourse  with  the  local  organization  of  the  counties. 
Henry  I.  and  Henry  II.  had  attacked  the  problem  on  one  side  by 
sending  the  judges  round  the  country  to  carry  the  king's  wishes 
and  commands  to  each  separate  county.  It  still  remained  to  devise 
a  scheme  by  which  the  wishes  and  complaints  of  the  counties  could 
be  brought  to  the  king.  Hubert  Walter  did  not  contrive  that  this 
should  be  done,  but  he  made  it  easy  to  be  done  in  the  next  genera- 
tion, because  before  he  left  office  he  had  increased  the  powers  of 
the  juries  in  each  county  and  had  accustomed  them  to  deal  inde- 
pendently with  all  the  local  matters  in  which  the  king  and  the 
county  were  both   interested.     It  only   remained    to    bring  these 


RICHARD    I.  115 

1199 

juries  together  in  one  place  where  they  might  join  in  making  the 
king  aware  of  the  wishes  and  complaints  of  all  counties  alike. 
When  this  had  been  accomplished  there  would,  for  the  first  time, 
be  a  representative  assembly  in  England. 

It  was  not  only  Richard's  love  for  his  old  home  which  fixed 
him  on  the  Continent.  He  knew  that  the  weakest  part  of  his 
dominions  was  there.  His  lands  beyond  sea  had  no  natural  unity. 
Normans  did  not  love  Angevins,  neither  did  Angevins  love  the 
men  of  Poitou  or  Guienne.  Philip  was  willingly  obeyed  in  his 
own  dominions,  and  he  had  all  the  advantage  which  his  title  of 
king  of  the  French  could  give  him.  Richard  fought  desperately, 
and  for  the  most  part  successfully,  against  the  French  king,  and 
formed  alliances  with  all  who  were  opposed  to  him.  In  1199  he 
died,  being  shot  with  an  arrow. 

During  the  forty-five  years  of  the  reigns  of  Richard  and  his 
father  the  chief  feature  of  English  history  is  the  growth  of  the 
power  of  the  state.  There  was  more  justice  and  order,  and  also 
more  taxation,  at  the  end  of  the  period  than  at  the  beginning. 
During  the  same  period  the  influence  of  the  Church  grew  less. 
The  character  of  Thomas's  resistance  to  the  king  was  lower  than 
that  of  Anselm,  and  not  long  after  Thomas's  murder  Henry  indi- 
rectly regained  the  power  which  he  had  lost,  and  filled  the  sees  with 
officials  and  dependents  who  cared  little  for  the  higher  aims  of 
religion.  The  evil  consequences  of  making  the  Church  dependent 
on  the  king  were  at  least  as  great  as  those  of  freeing  the  political 
and  social  life  of  the  clergy  from  the  control  of  the  State.  Even 
monasticism  ceased  to  afford  a  strong  example  of  self-denial.  The 
very  Cistercians,  who  had  begun  so  well,  had  fallen  from  their 
original  purity.  They  were  now  owners  of  immense  tracts  of 
pasture-land,  and  their  keenness  in  money-making  had  become 
notorious.  They  exercised  great  influence,  but  it  was  the  influence 
of  great  landlords,  not  the  influence  of  ascetics. 

The  decay  of  asceticism  was  to  some  extent  brought  about  by 
the  opening  of  new  careers  into  which  energetic  men  might  throw 
themselves.  They  were  needed  as  judges,  as  administrators,  as 
councilors.  A  vigorous  literature  sprung  up  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  XL,  but  at  the  end  of  the  reign  most  of  it  was  connected  with 
the  court  rather  than  with  the  monasteries.  Henry's  Justiciar, 
Ranulf  de  Glanvile,  wrote  the  first  English  law-book.  His 
Treasurer,  Richard  Fitz-Nigel,  set  forth  in  the  "  Dialogus  de  Scac- 


116  ENGLAND 

1154-1199 

cario  "  the  methods  of  his  financial  administration,  and  also  pro- 
duced "  The  Deeds  of  King  Henry  and  King  Richard."  William 
of  Newburgh,  indeed,  the  best  historian  of  these  reigns,  wrote  in 
a  small  Yorkshire  monastery,  but  Roger  of  Hoveden  and  Ralph 
de  Diceto  pursued  their  historical  work  under  the  influence  of  the 
court.  Still  more  striking  is  the  universality  of  the  intellectual 
inquisitiveness  of  Walter  Map.  Giraldus  Cambrensis  again,  or 
Gerald  of  Wales,  wrote  on  all  sorts  of  subjects  with  shrewd  humor 
and  extensive  knowledge. 

There  was  already  in  England  a  place  where  learning  was 
cherished  for  its  own  sake.  For  some  time  there  had  been  grow- 
ing up  on  the  Continent  gatherings  for  the  increase  of  learning, 
which  ultimately  were  known  as  universities,  or  corporations  of 
teachers  and  scholars.  One  at  Bologna  had  devoted  itself  to  the 
study  of  the  civil  or  Roman  law.  Another  at  Paris  gave  itself  to 
the  spread  of  all  the  knowledge  of  the  time.  In  these  early  uni- 
versities there  were  no  colleges.  Lads,  very  poor  for  the  most 
part,  flocked  to  the  teachers  and  lodged  themselves  as  best  they 
could.  Such  a  university,  though  the  name  was  not  used  till  later, 
had  been  gradually  forming  at  Oxford.  Its  origin  and  early  his- 
tory is  obscure,  but  in  1186  Giraldus,  wishing  to  find  a  cultivated 
audience  for  his  new  book  on  the  topography  of  Ireland,  read  it 
aloud  at  Oxford,  where,  as  he  tells  us,  "  the  clergy  in  England 
chiefly  flourished  and  excelled  in  clerkly  lore."  It  appears  that 
there  were  already  separate  faculties  or  branches  of  study,  and 
persons  recognized  as  doctors  or  teachers  in  all  of  them. 

Intellectual  progress  was  accompanied  by  material  progress. 
In  the  country  the  old  system  of  cultivation  by  the  labor  service  of 
villein-tenants  still  prevailed,  but  in  many  parts  the  service  had 
been  commuted,  either  for  a  money  payment  or  for  payments  in 
kind,  such  as  payments  of  a  fixed  number  of  eggs  or  fowls,  or  of 
a  fixed  quantity  of  honey  or  straw.  Greater  progress  was  made 
in  the  towns.  At  the  time  of  the  Conquest  there  were  about  eighty 
towns  in  England,  most  of  them  no  larger  than  villages.  The 
largest  towns  after  London  were  Winchester,  Bristol,  Norwich, 
York,  and  Lincoln,  but  even  these  had  not  a  population  much 
above  7,000  apiece.  In  the  smaller  towns  trade  was  sufficiently 
provided  for  by  the  establishment  of  a  market  to  which  country 
people  brought  their  grain  or  their  cattle,  and  where  they  pro- 
vided themselves  in  turn  with  such  rude  household  necessaries  as 


RICHARD    I.  117 

1154-1199 

they  required.  Even  before  the  Conquest  port  towns  had  grown 
up  on  the  coast,  but  foreign  trade  was  shght,  imports  being  almost 
entirely  confined  to  luxuries  for  the  rich.  The  order  introduced 
by  the  Normans  and  the  connection  between  England  and  the 
king's  continental  possessions  was  followed  by  an  increase  of  trade, 
and  there  arose  in  each  of  the  larger  towns  a  corporation  which 
was  known  as  the  Merchant  Gild,  and  which  was,  in  some  in- 
stances at  least,  only  a  development  of  an  older  association  existing 
in  the  times  before  the  Conquest.  No  one  except  the  brothers  of 
the  Merchant  Gild  was  allowed  to  trade  in  any  article  except  food, 
but  anyone  living  in  the  town  might  become  a  brother  on  payment 
of  a  settled  fee.  The  first  Merchant  Gild  known  was  constituted 
in  1093.  A  little  later,  Henry  I.  granted  charters  to  some  of  the 
towns,  conferring  on  them  the  right  of  managing  their  own  affairs ; 
and  his  example  was  followed,  in  far  greater  profusion,  by  Henry 
II.  and  Richard  I.  Though  the  organization  of  the  Merchant  Gild 
was  originally  distinct  from  the  organization  of  the  town,  and  the 
two  were  in  theory  kept  apart,  the  Merchant  Gild,  to  which  most 
of  the  townsmen  belonged,  usually  encroached  upon  the  authorities 
of  the  town,  regulated  trade  to  its  own  advantage,  and  practically 
controlled  the  choice  of  officers,  the  principal  officer  being  usually 
styled  an  Alderman,  with  power  to  keep  order  and  generally  to 
provide  for  the  well-being  of  the  place.  In  this  way  the  trades- 
men and  merchants  of  the  towns  prepared  themselves  unconsciously 
for  the  time  when  they  would  be  called  on  to  take  part  in  managing 
the  affairs  of  the  country.  Even  in  these  early  times,  however, 
the  artisans  in  some  of  the  trades  attempted  to  combine  together. 

Of  all  the  towns  London  had  been  growing  most  rapidly  in 
wealth  and  population,  and  during  the  troubles  in  whicli  John  had 
been  pitted  against  William  of  Longchamps  it  had  secured  the 
right  of  being  governed  by  a  i\layor  and  Aldermen  of  its  own, 
instead  of  being  placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  King's  sheriff. 
The  Mayor  and  Aldermen,  however,  did  not  represent  all  the 
townsmen.  In  London,  though  there  is  no  evidence  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  Merchant  Gild,  th.ere  was  a  corporation  composed  of  the 
wealthier  traders,  by  which  the  city  was  governed.  The  Mayor 
and  Aldermen  were  chosen  out  of  this  corporation,  as  were  the 
juries  elected  to  assess  the  taxes.  Artisans  soon  came  to  believe 
that  these  juries  dealt  unfairly  with  the  poor.  One  of  the  Alder- 
men, William  Longbeard,  made  himself  the  mouthpiece  of  their 


118  ENGLAND 

1154-1199 

complaints  and  stirred  them  up  against  the  rest.  Hubert  Walter 
sent  a  messenger  to  seize  him,  but  WilHam  Longbeard  slew  the 
messenger  and  fled  into  the  church  of  Mary-at-Bow.  Here,  ac- 
cording to  the  ideas  of  his  age,  he  should  have  been  safe,  as  every 
church  was  considered  to  be  a  sanctuary  in  which  no  criminal  could 
be  arrested.  Hubert  Walter,  however,  came  in  person  to  seize 
him,  set  the  church  on  fire,  and  had  him  dragged  out.  William 
Longbeard  was  first  stabbed,  and  then  tried  and  hanged,  and  for 
the  time  the  rich  tradesmen  had  their  way  against  the  poorer 
artisans. 

Even  in  the  most  flourishing  towns  the  houses  were  still 
mostly  of  wood  or  rubble  covered  with  thatch,  and  only  here  and 
there  was  to  be  found  a  house  of  stone.  So  slight,  indeed,  were 
the  ordinary  buildings,  that  it  was  provided  by  the  Assize  of 
Clarendon  that  the  houses  of  certain  offenders  should  be  carried 
outside  the  town  and  burned.  Here  and  there,  however,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  so-called  Jews'  house  at  Lincoln,  stone  houses  were 
erected.  In  the  larger  houses  the  arrangements  were  much  as  they 
had  been  before  the  Conquest,  the  large  hall  being  still  the  most 
conspicuous  part,  though  another  apartment,  known  as  the  solar, 
to  which  an  ascent  was  made  by  steps  from  the  outside,  and  which 
served  as  a  sitting-room  for  the  master  of  the  house,  had  usually 
been  added.  The  castles  reared  by  the  king  or  the  barons  were 
built  for  defense  alone,  and  it  was  in  the  great  cathedrals  and 
churches  that  the  skill  of  the  architect  was  shown.  An  enormous 
number  of  parish  churches  of  stone  were  raised  by  Norman  build- 
ers to  supersede  earlier  buildings  of  wood.  For  some  time  the 
round-arched  Norman  architecture  which  had  been  introduced  by 
Eadward  the  Confessor  was  alone  followed.  Gradually  the 
pointed  arch  of  Gothic  architecture  took  its  place,  and  after  a  period 
of  transition  the  graceful  style  now  known  as  Early  English  was 
first  used  on  a  large  scale  in  1192  in  the  choir  of  the  cathedral  of 
Lincola 


PART    III 

THE   GROWTH   OF  THE    PARLIAMENTARY 
CONSTITUTION.    1199—1399 


Chapter    XII 

JOHN.     1 199 — 1216 

LEADING    DATES 

Accession  of  John,  A.D.  1199 — Loss  of  Normandy,  1204 — England 
Under  an  Interdict,  1208 — Magna  Carta,  1215 — Death  of  John, 
1216 

/4  FTER  Richard's  death  there  were  Hving  but  two  descend- 
/-\  ants  of  Henry  11.  in  the  male  hne — John,  Richard's  only 
JL  3l  surviving  brother,  and  Arthur,  the  young-  son  of  John's 
elder  brother,  Geoffrey.  The  English  barons  had  to  make  their 
choice  between  uncle  and  nephew,  and  they  preferred  the  grown 
man  to  the  child.  It  was  the  last  time  when  that  principle 
of  election  was  confessedly  acted  on.  Archbishop  Hubert 
in  announcing  the  result  used  words  which  seem  strange  now: 
"  Forasmuch,"  he  declared  to  the  people  assembled  to  wit- 
ness John's  coronation,  "  as  we  see  him  to  be  prudent  and 
vigorous,  we  all,  after  invoking  the  Holy  Spirit's  grace,  for 
his  merits  no  less  than  his  royal  blood,  have  with  one  con- 
sent chosen  him  for  our  king,"  In  reality,  John  was  of  all  men 
most  unworthy.  He  was  without  dispute  the  worst  of  the  English 
kings.  Like  William  II.  he  feared  not  God  nor  regarded  man. 
Though  William  indeed  was  more  vicious  in  his  private  life,  John's 
violence  and  tyranny  in  public  life  was  as  great  as  William's,  and  he 
added  a  meanness  and  frivolity  which  sank  him  far  below  him. 

On  the  Continent  John  had  a  difficult  game  to  play.  Nor- 
mandy and  Aquitaine  submitted  to  him,  but  Anjou  and  its  dependent 
territories  declared  for  Arthur.  Philip  II.  now  supported  Arthur, 
but  in  1200  peace  was  made.  Philip  acknowledged  John  as  Rich- 
ard's heir,  but  forced  him  in  return  to  pay  a  heavy  sum  of  money, 
and  to  make  other  concessions.  John  did  not  know  how  to  make 
use  of  the  time  of  rest  which  he  had  gained,  and  next  fell  into 
trouble  in  Poitou.  The  Poitevin  barons  appealed  to  Philip  as 
John's  over-lord,  and  in  1202  Pliilip  summoned  John  to  answer 
their    complaints    before    his    peers.       John    not    only    did    not 

121 


122  ENGLAND 

1202-1209 

appear,  but  made  no  excuse  for  his  absence;  and  Philip  after- 
wards pretended  that  the  peers  had  condemned  him  to 
forfeit  his  lands.  After  this  Philip,  in  alliance  with  Arthur, 
invaded  Normandy.  John's  aged  mother,  Eleanor,  defended 
it  until  John  came  to  her  help  and  captured  Arthur.  The 
latter  died  in  1203,  and,  it  is  said,  by  his  uncle's  own  hands. 
The  murderer  was  the  first  to  suffer  from  the  crime.  Philip  at  once 
invaded  Normandy.  The  Norman  barons  had  long  ceased  to 
respect  John,  and  very  few  of  them  would  do  anything  to  help 
him.  Philip  took  castle  after  castle.  John  was  incapable  of  sus- 
tained effort,  and  now  looked  sluggishly  on.  Normandy,  Maine, 
An>ou,  and  Touraine,  together  with  part  of  Poitou,  had  submitted 
to  Philip  before  the  end  of  1204. 

It  was  not  owing  to  John's  vigor  that  Aquitaine  was  not  lost 
as  well  as  Normandy  and  Anjou.  Philip  had  justified  his  attack  on 
John  as  being  John's  feudal  lord,  and  as  being  therefore  bound  to 
take  the  part  of  John's  vassals  whom  he  had  injured.  Hitherto  the 
power  of  the  king  over  his  great  vassals,  which  had  been  strong  in 
England,  had  been  weak  in  France.  Philip  made  it  strong  in  Nor- 
mandy and  Anjou  because  he  had  the  support  there  of  the  vassals 
of  John.  Normans  and  Angevins  had  been  growing  more  like  the 
Frenchmen  of  Paris.  Their  language,  manners,  and  characters 
were  similar.  In  Aquitaine  it  was  otherwise.  The  language  and 
manners  there,  though  much  nearer  to  those  of  the  French  than  they 
were  to  those  of  the  English,  differed  considerably  from  the  language 
and  manners  of  the  Frenchmen,  Normans,  and  Angevins.  What 
the  men  of  Aquitaine  really  wanted  was  independence.  They  there- 
fore now  clung  to  John  against  Philip  as  they  had  clung  to  Richard 
against  Henry  II.  They  resisted  Henry  II.  because  Henry  II.  ruled 
in  Anjou  and  Normandy,  and  they  wished  to  be  free  from  any 
connection  with  Anjou  and  Normandy.  They  resisted  Philip 
because  Philip  now  ruled  in  Anjou  and  Normandy.  They  were  not 
afraid  of  John  any  longer,  because  they  thought  that  now  that 
England  alone  was  left  to  him,  he  would  be  too  far  off  to  interfere 
with  them. 

In  England  John  had  caused  much  discontent  by  the  heavy 
taxation  which  he  imposed,  not  with  the  regularity  of  Henry  II. 
and  Hubert  Walter,  but  with  unfair  inequality.  In  1205  Archbishop 
Hubert  Walter  died.  The  right  of  choosing  a  new  archbishop  lay 
with  the  monks  of  the  monastery  of  Christchurch  at  Canterbury,  of 


JOHN  123 

1205-1208 

which  every  archbishop,  as  the  successor  of  St.  Augustine,  was  the 
abbot.  This  right,  however,  had  long  been  exercised  only  accord- 
ing to  the  wish  of  the  king,  who  practically  named  the  archbishop. 
This  time  the  monks,  without  asking  John's  leave,  hurriedly  chose 
their  subprior  Reginald,  and  sent  him  off  with  a  party  of  monks 
to  Rome,  to  obtain  the  sanction  of  the  Pope.  Reginald  was  directed 
to  say  nothing  of  his  election  till  he  reached  Rome ;  but  he  was  a 
vain  man,  and  had  no  sooner  reached  the  Continent  than  he  babbled 
about  his  own  dignity  as  an  archbishop.  When  John  heard  this, 
he  bade  the  monks  choose  the  Bishop  of  Norwich,  John  de  Grey,  the 
king's  treasurer;  and  the  monks,  thoroughly  frightened,  chose  him 
as  if  they  had  not  already  made  their  election.  John  had.  however, 
forgotten  to  consult  the  bishops  of  the  province  of  Canterbury,  who 
had  always  been  consulted  by  his  father  and  brother,  and  they  too 
sent  messengers  to  the  Pope  to  complain  of  the  king. 

The  Pope  was  Innocent  III.,  who  at  once  determined  that  John 
must  not  name  bishops  whose  only  merit  was  that  they  were  good 
state  officials.  Being  an  able  man,  he  soon  discovered  that  Reginald 
was  a  fool.  He  therefore  in  1206  sent  for  a  fresh  deputation  of 
monks,  and,  as  soon  as  they  arrived  in  Rome,  bade  them  make  a 
new  choice  in  the  name  of  their  monastery.  At  Innocent's  sug- 
gestion they  chose  Stephen  Langton,  one  of  the  most  pious  and 
learned  men  of  the  day,  whose  greatness  of  character  was  hardly 
suspected  by  anyone  at  the  time. 

The  choice  of  an  archbishop  in  opposition  to  the  king  was 
undoubtedly  something  new.  The  archbishopric  of  Canterbury  was 
a  great  national  office,  and  a  king  as  skillful  as  Henry  II.  would 
probably  have  succeeded  in  refusing  to  allow  it  to  be  disposed  of  by 
the  Pope  and  a  small  party  of  monks.  John  was  unworthy  to  be  tlie 
champion  of  any  cause  whatever.  In  1207,  after  an  angry  corre- 
spondence with  Innocence,  he  drove  the  monks  of  Christchurch  out 
of  the  kingdom.  Innocence  in  reply  threatened  England  with  an 
interdict,  and  in  the  spring  of  1208  the  interdict  was  published. 

An  interdict  carried  with  it  the  suppression  of  all  the  sacra- 
ments of  the  Church  except  those  of  baptism  and  extreme  unction. 
Even  these  were  only  to  be  received  in  private.  No  words  of  solemn 
import  were  pronounced  at  the  burial  of  the  dead.  The  churches 
were  all  closed,  and  to  the  men  of  that  time  the  closing  of  the 
church-doors  was  like  the  closing  of  the  very  gate  of  heaven.  In 
the  choice  of  the  punishment  inflicted  there  was  some  sign  that  the 


124  ENGLAND 

1208-1213 

Papacy  was  hardly  as  strong  in  the  thirteenth  as  it  had  been  in  the 
eleventh  century.  Gregory  VII.  had  smitten  down  kings  by  per- 
sonal excommunication ;  Innocent  III.  found  it  necessary  to  stir  up 
resistance  against  the  king  by  inflicting  suiTi^rings  on  the  people. 
Yet  there  is  no  evidence  of  any  indignation  against  the  Pope.  The 
clergy  rallied  almost  as  one  man  round  Innocent.  John,  taking  no 
heed  of  the  popular  feeling,  seized  the  property  of  the  clergy  who 
obeyed  the  interdict.  Yet  he  was  not  without  fear  lest  the  barons 
should  join  the  clergy  against  him,  and  to  keep  them  in  obedience 
he  compelled  them  to  intrust  to  him  their  eldest  sons  as  hostages. 
In  1209  Innocent  excommunicated  John  himself.  John  cared 
nothing  for  being  excluded  from  the  services  of  the  Churcli,  but 
he  knew  that  if  the  excommunication  were  published  in  England 
few  would  venture  to  sit  at  table  with  him,  or  even  to  speak  with 
him.  For  some  time  he  kept  it  out  of  the  country,  but  it  became 
known  that  it  had  been  pronounced  at  Rome,  and  even  his  own 
dependents  began  to  avoid  his  company.  He  feared  lest  the  barons 
whom  he  had  wearied  with  heavy  fines  and  taxes  might  turn  against 
him,  and  he  needed  large  sums  of  money  to  defend  himself  against 
them.  First  he  turned  on  the  Jews,  then  the  abbots  and  the  wealthy 
Cistercians.  In  121 1  some  of  the  barons  declared  against  John,  but 
they  were  driven  from  the  country,  and  those  who  remained  were 
harshly  treated.  Some  of  their  sons  who  had  been  taken  as  hostages 
were  hanged  or  starved  to  death.  In  12 12  Innocent's  patience 
came  to  an  end,  and  he  announced  that  he  would  depose  John  if  he 
still  refused  to  give  w^ay,  and  would  transfer  his  crown  to  his  old 
enemy,  Philip  II.  The  English  clergy  and  barons  w^ere  not  likely 
to  oppose  the  change.  Philip  gathered  a  great  army  in  France  to 
make  good  the  claim  which  he  expected  Innocent  to  give  him. 
John,  indeed,  was  not  entirely  without  resource.  The  Emperor 
Otto  IV.  was  John's  sister's  son,  and  as  he  too  had  been  excommuni- 
cated by  Innocent,  he  made  common  cause  with  John  against  Philip. 
Early  in  12 13  John  gathered  an  army  of  60,000  men  to  resist  Philip's 
landing,  and  if  Otto  with  his  Germans  were  to  attack  France  from 
the  east,  a  French  army  would  hardly  venture  to  cross  into  England, 
unless  indeed  it  had  no  serious  resistance  to  fear.  John,  however, 
knew  well  that  he  could  not  depend  on  his  own  army.  Many  men 
in  the  host  hated  him  bitterly,  and  he  feared  deposition,  and  per- 
haps death,  at  the  hands  of  those  whom  he  had  summoned  to  his 
help. 


JOHN  125 

1213 

Under  these  circumstances  John  preferred  submission  to  the 
Pope  to  submission  to  Philip  or  his  own  barons.  He  invited  Pan- 
dulf,  the  Pope's  representative,  to  Dover.  He  swore  to  admit 
Stephen  Langton  as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  to  restore  to  their 
rights  all  those  of  the  clergy  or  laity  whom  he  had  banished,  and  to 
give  back  the  money  which  he  had  wrongfully  exacted.  Two  days 
later  he  knelt  before  Pandulf  and  did  homage  to  the  Pope  for 
England  and  Ireland.  He  was  no  longer  to  be  an  independent  king 
but  the  Pope's  vassal.  In  token  of  his  vassalage  he  agreed  that  he 
and  his  successors  should  pay  to  Innocent  and  his  successors  i,ooo 
marks  a  year,  each  mark  being  equal  to  13^.  4c?.,  or  two-thirds  of  a 
pound.  Innocent  had  reached  his  aim  as  far  as  John  was  con- 
cerned. In  his  eyes  the  Papacy  was  not  merely  the  guide  of  the 
Church,  it  was  an  institution  for  controlling  kings  and  forcing  them 
to  act  in  accordance  with  the  orders  of  the  Popes.  It  remained  to 
be  seen  whether  the  Popes'  orders  would  always  be  unselfish,  and 
whether  the  English  barons  and  clergy  would  submit  to  them  as 
readily  as  did  this  most  miserable  of  English  kings. 

At  first  John  seemed  to  have  gained  all  that  he  wanted  by  sub- 
mission. Pandulf  bade  Philip  abandon  all  thought  of  invading 
England,  and  when  Philip  refused  to  obey,  John's  fleet  fell  upon  the 
French  fleet  off  the  coast  of  Flanders  and  destroyed  it.  John  even 
proposed  to  land  with  an  army  in  Poitou  and  to  reconquer  Nor- 
mandy and  Anjou.  His  subjects  thought  that  he  ought  to  begin  by 
fulfilling  his  engagements  to  them.  John  having  received  absolution, 
summoned  four  men  from  each  county  to  meet  at  St.  Albans  to 
assess  the  damages  of  the  clergy  which  he  had  bound  himself  to 
make  good.  The  meeting  thus  summoned  was  the  germ  of  the 
future  House  of  Commons.  It  was  not  a  national  political  assem- 
bly, but  it  was  a  national  jury  gathered  together  into  one  place. 
The  exiled  barons  were  recalled,  and  John  now  hoped  that  his  vas- 
sals would  follow  him  to  Poitou.  They  refused  to  do  so,  alleging 
their  poverty.  They  had  in  fact,  no  interest  in  regaining  Normandy 
and  Anjou  for  John,  for  thev  cared  for  England  alone.  John 
turned  furiously  on  the  barons,  and  was  only  hindered  from  attack- 
ing them  by  the  new  Archbishop,  who  threater.ed  to  excommunicate 
everyone  who  took  arms  against  them.  It  was  time  for  all  English- 
men who  loved  law  and  order  to  resist  John.  Stephen  Langton 
])ut  himself  at  the  head  of  the  movement,  and  at  a  great  assembly 
at  St.  Paul's  produced  a  charter  of  Henry  I.,  by  which  the  king  had 


126  ENGLAND 

1214 

promised  to  put  an  end  to  the  tyranny  of  the  Red  King,  and  declared 
amid  general  applause  that  it  must  be  renewed  by  John.  It  was 
a  memorable  scene.  Up  to  this  time  it  had  been  necessary  for  the 
clergy  and  the  people  to  support  the  king  against  the  tyranny  of 
the  barons.  Now  the  clergy  and  people  offered  their  support  to  the 
barons  against  the  tyranny  of  the  king.  John  had  merely  the  Pope 
on  his  side.  Innocent's  view  of  the  situation  was  very  simple. 
John  was  to  obey  the  Pope,  and  all  John's  subjects  were  to 
obey  John.  A  Papal  delegate  arrived  in  England,  fixed  the  sum 
which  John  was  to  pay  to  the  clergy,  and  refused  to  listen  to  the 
complaints  of  those  who  thought  themselves  defrauded. 

In  12 14  John  succeeded  in  carrying  his  barons  and  their  vassals 
across  the  sea.  With  one  army  he  landed  at  Rochelle,  and  recovered 
what  had  been  lost  to  him  on  the  south  of  the  Loire,  but  failed  to 
make  any  permanent  conquests  to  the  north  of  that  river.  Another 
army,  under  John's  illegitimate  brother,  the  Earl  of  Salisbury, 
joined  the  Emperor  Otto  in  an  attack  on  Philip  from  the  north. 
The  united  force  of  Germans  and  English  was,  however,  routed  by 
Philip  at  Bouvines,  in  Flanders.  "  Since  I  have  been  reconciled  to 
God,"  cried  John,  when  he  heard  the  news,  "  and  submitted  to  the 
Roman  Church,  nothing  has  gone  well  with  me."  He  made  a  truce 
with  Philip,  and  temporarily  renounced  all  claims  to  the  lands  to 
the  north  of  the  Loire. 

When  John  returned  he  called  upon  all  his  vassals  who  had 
remained  at  home  to  pay  an  exorbitant  scutage.  In  reply  they  met 
at  Bury  St.  Edmunds.  The  charter  of  Henry  I.,  which  had  been 
produced  at  St.  Paul's  the  year  before,  was  again  read,  and  all  pres- 
ent swore  to  force  John  to  accept  it  as  the  rule  of  his  own  govern- 
ment. John  asked  for  delay,  and  attempted  to  divide  his  antagonists 
by  offering  to  the  clergy  the  right  of  free  election  to  bishoprics  and 
abbacies.  Then  he  turned  against  the  barons.  Early  in  12 15  he 
brought  over  a  large  force  of  foreign  mercenaries,  and  persuaded 
the  Pope  to  threaten  the  barons  with  excommunication.  His  attempt 
was  defeated  by  the  constancy  of  Stephen  Langton.  The  demands 
of  the  barons  were  placed  in  writing  by  the  archbishop,  and,  on 
John's  refusal  to  accept  them,  an  army  was  formed  to  force  them  on 
the  king.  The  army  of  God  and  the  Holy  Church,  as  it  was  called, 
grew  rapidly.  London  admitted  it  within  its  walls,  and  the  acces- 
sion of  London  to  the  cause  of  the  barons  was  a  sign  that  the 
traders  of  England  were  of  one  mind  with  the  barons  and  the  clergy. 


K1X(;  jDiiN  ox  THK  FiKi.il  ny  KrN\i\ii:pK  ci  ix  I'lK  M :  X( ;  TiiK  .-;kkat  ni  \ktkk 


JOHN  127 

1215 

John  found  that  their  force  was  superior  to  his  own,  and  at  Runni- 
mede  on  June  15,  1215,  confirmed  with  his  hand  and  seal  the  articles 
of  the  barons,  with  the  full  intention  of  breaking  his  engagement 
as  soon  as  he  should  be  strong  enough  to  do  so. 

Magna  Cartas  or  the  Great  Charter,  as  the  articles  were  called 
after  John  confirmed  them,  was  won  by  a  combination  between  all 
classes  of  freemen,  and  it  gave  rights  to  them  all. 

By  its  concessions  the  Church  was  to  be  free,  its  privileges 
were  to  be  respected,  and  its  right  to  free  elections  which  John  had 
granted  earlier  in  the  year  was  not  to  be  infringed  on.  As  for  the 
laity,  the  tenants-in-chief  were  to  pay  only  fixed  reliefs  when  they 
entered  on  their  estates.  Heirs  under  age  were  to  be  the  king's 
wards,  but  the  king  was  to  treat  them  fairly,  and  to  do  nothing  to 
injure  their  land  while  it  was  in  his  hands.  The  king  might  con- 
tinue to  find  husbands  for  heiresses  and  wives  for  heirs,  but  only 
among  those  of  their  own  class.  The  tenants-in-chief  again  were 
bound  to  pay  aids  to  the  king  when  he  needed  ransom  from  impris- 
onment, or  money  to  enable  him  to  bear  the  expenses  of  knighting 
his  eldest  son  or  of  marrying  his  eldest  daughter.  For  all  other 
purposes  the  king  could  only  demand  supplies  from  his  tenants-in- 
chief  with  the  consent  of  the  Common  Council  of  the  realm.  As 
only  the  tenants-in-chief  were  concerned,  this  Common  Council  was 
the  Great  Council  of  tenants-in-chief,  such  as  had  met  under  the 
Norman  and  Angevin  kings.  A  fresh  attempt,  however,  was  made 
to  induce  the  smaller  tenants-in-chief  to  attend,  in  addition  to  the 
bishops,  abbots,  and  barons,  by  a  direction  that  while  these  were  to 
be  summoned  personally,  the  sheriffs  should  in  each  county  issue  a 
general  summons  to  the  smaller  tenants-in-chief.  Though  the  sub- 
tenants had  no  part  in  the  Common  Council  of  the  realm,  they  were 
relieved  by  a  direction  that  they  should  pay  no  more  aids  to  their 
lords  than  their  lords  paid  to  the  king,  and  by  a  general  declaraticm 
that  all  that  had  been  granted  to  their  lords  by  tlie  king  should  ])e 
allowed  by  their  lords  to  them.  The  Londoners  and  other  tov/ns- 
men  had  their  privileges  assured  to  them ;  and  all  freemen  \vcre 
secured  against  heavy  and  irregular  penalties  if  they  committed  an 
offense. 

Such  were  the  provisions  of  this  truly  national  act.  which 
Englishmen  were  for  ages  engaged  in  maintaining  and  de- 
veloping. The  immediate  question  was  how  to  secure  wliat 
had   been    gained.       The   first   thing   necessary    for   this    purpose 


128  ENGLAND 

1215-1215 

was  to  make  the  courts  of  law  the  arbitrators  between  the  king-  and 
his  subjects.  In  a  series  of  articles  it  was  declared  that  the  sworn 
testimony  of  a  man's  peers  should  be  used  whenever  fines  or  penal- 
ties were  imposed,  and  this  insistence  on  the  employment  of  the 
jury  system  as  it  then  existed  was  emphasized  by  the  strong  words 
to  which  John  placed  his  seal :  "  No  freeman  may  be  taken,  or  im- 
prisoned, or  disseized,  or  outlawed,  or  banished,  or  in  any  way 
destroyed,  nor  will  we  go  against  him,  or  send  against  him,  except 
by  the  lawful  judgment  of  his  peers,  or  by  the  law  of  the  land.  To 
none  will  we  sell  or  deny  or  delay  right  or  justice."  It  was  a  good 
security  if  it  could  be  maintained,  but  it  would  avail  nothing  against 
a  king  who  was  willing  and  able  to  use  force  to  set  up  the  old  tyr- 
anny once  more.  In  the  first  place  John  must  dismiss  all  his  foreign 
mercenaries.  So  little,  however,  was  John  trusted  that  it  was 
thought  necessary  in  the  second  place  to  establish  a  body  of  twenty- 
five — twenty-four  barons  and  the  Mayor  of  London — which  was  to 
guard  against  any  attempt  of  the  king  to  break  his  word.  If  John 
infringed  upon  any  of  the  articles  of  the  Charter  the  twenty-five, 
with  the  assistance  of  the  whole  community  of  the  kingdom,  had 
the  right  of  distraining  upon  the  king's  lands  till  enough  was 
obtained  to  make  up  the  loss  to  the  person  who  had  suffered  wrong. 
In  other  words,  there  was  to  be  a  permanent  organization  for 
making  war  upon  the  king. 

John  waited  for  the  moment  of  vengeance.  Not  only  did  he 
refuse  to  send  his  mercenaries  away,  but  he  sent  to  the  Continent 
for  large  reinforcements.  Pope  Innocent  declared  the  barons  to  be 
wicked  rebels,  and  released  John  from  his  oath  to  the  Great  Charter. 
War  soon  broke  out.  John's  mercenaries  were  too  strong  for  the 
barons,  and  in  the  beginning  of  1216  almost  all  England  with  the 
exception  of  London  had  been  overrun  by  them.  Though  the  Pope 
laid  London  under  an  interdict,  neither  the  citizens  nor  the  barons 
paid  any  attention  to  it.  They  sent  to  Louis,  the  eldest  son  of 
Philip  of  France,  to  invite  him  to  come  and  be  their  king  in  John's 
stead.  Louis  was  married  to  John's  niece,  and  might  thus  be 
counted  as  a  member  of  the  English  royal  family.  The  time  had 
not  yet  come  when  a  man  who  spoke  French  was  regarded  as  quite 
a  foreigner  among  the  English  barons.  On  May  21,  1216,  Louis 
landed  an  army  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet. 

John,  in  s]:)ite  of  his  success,  found  himself  without  sufficient 
money  to  pay  his  mercenaries,  and  he  therefore  retreated  to  Win- 


JOHN 


1216 


129 


Chester.  Louis  entered  London  in  triumph,  and  afterwards  drove 
John  out  of  Winchester.  Innocent  indeed  excommunicated  Louis, 
but  no  one  took  heed  of  the  excommunication.  Yet  John  was  not 
without  support.  The  trading  towns  of  the  east,  who  probably 
regarded  Louis  as  a  foreigner,  took  his  part,  and  many  of  his  old 
officials,  to  whom  the  victory  of  the  barons  seemed  likely  to  bring 


back  the  anarchy  of  Stephen's  time,  clung  to  him.  One  of  these, 
a  high-spirited  and  strong-willed  man,  Hubert  de  Burgh,  held  out 
for  John  in  Dover  Castle.  John  kept  the  field  and  even  won  some 
successes.  As  he  was  crossing  the  Wash  the  tide  rose  rapidly  and 
swept  away  his  baggage.  He  himself  escaped  with  difficulty.  Worn 
out  in  mind  and  body,  he  was  carried  on  a  litter  to  Newark,  where 
on  October  19,  12 16,  he  died. 


Chapter   XIII 

HENRY    III.     1216— 1272 

LEADING    DATES 

Accession  of  Henry  III.,  A.D.  1216 — The  Fall  of  Hubert  de  Burgh, 
1232 — The  Provisions  of  Oxford,  1248 — Battle  of  Lewes,  1264 — 
Battle  of  Evesham,  1265 — Death  of  Henry  III.,  1272 

HENRY  III.,  the  eldest  son  of  John,  was  but  nine  years  old 
at  his  father's  death.  Never  before  had  it  been  useful  for 
England  that  the  king  should  be  a  child.  As  Henry  had 
oppressed  no  one  and  had  broken  no  oaths,  those  who  dared  not 
trust  the  father  could  rally  to  the  son.  The  boy  had  two  guardians, 
one  of  whom  was  Gualo,  the  legate  of  Pope  Honorius  III.,  a  man 
gentler  and  less  ambitious  than  Innocent  III.,  whom  he  had  just 
succeeded ;  the  other  was  William  the  Marshal,  Earl  of  Pembroke, 
who  had  been  constant  to  John,  not  because  he  loved  his  evil  deeds, 
but  because,  like  many  of  the  older  officials,  he  feared  that  the 
victory  of  the  barons  would  be  followed  by  anarchy.  These  two 
had  on  their  side  the  growing  feeling  on  behalf  of  English  nation- 
ality; whereas,  as  long  as  John  lived,  his  opponents  had  argued  that 
it  was  better  to  have  a  foreign  king  like  Louis  than  to  have  a  king 
like  John,  who  tyrannized  over  the  land  by  the  help  of  foreign 
mercenaries.  Henry's  followers  daily  increased,  and  in  121 7  Louis 
was  defeated  by  the  Marshal  at  Lincoln.  Later  in  the  year  Hubert 
de  Burgh,  the  Justiciar,  sent  out  a  fleet  which  defeated  a  French 
fleet  off  Dover.    Louis  then  submitted  and  left  the  kingdom. 

The  principles  on  which  William  the  Marshal  intended  to 
govern  were  signified  by  the  changes  made  in  the  Great  Charter 
when  it  was  renewed  on  the  king's  accession  in  12 16,  and  again  on 
Louis's  expulsion  in  121 7.  Most  of  the  clauses  binding  the  king 
to  avoid  oppression  were  allowed  to  stand ;  but  those  which  pro- 
hibited the  raising  of  new  taxation  without  the  authority  of  the 
Great  Council,  and  the  stipulation  which  established  a  body  of 
twenty-five  to  distrain  on  John's  jiroperty  in  case  of  the  breach  of 
the  Charter,  were  omitted.     Probably  it  was  thought  that  there  was 

130 


HENRY    III.  131 

1219-1233 

less  danger  from  Henry  than  there  had  been  from  John;  but  the 
acceptance  of  the  compromise  was  mainly  due  to  the  feeling'  that, 
while  it  was  desirable  that  the  king  should  govern  with  modera- 
tion, it  would  be  a  dangerous  experiment  to  put  the  power  to  con- 
trol him  in  the  hands  of  the  barons,  who  might  use  it  for  their 
own  advantage  rather  than  for  the  advantage  of  the  nation.  The 
whole  history  of  England  for  many  years  was  to  turn  on  the 
difficulty  of  weakening  the  power  of  a  bad  king  without  producing 
anarchy. 

In  1 2 19  William  the  Marshal  died.  For  some  years  the 
government  was  mainly  in  the  hands  of  Hubert  de  Burgh,  who 
strenuously  maintained  the  authority  of  the  king  over  the  barons, 
while  at  the  same  time  he  set  himself  distinctly  at  the  head  of  the 
growing  national  feeling  against  the  admission  of  foreigners  to 
wealth  and  high  position  in  England.  In  1220  Hubert  demanded 
the  barons'  fortified  castles  as  Henry  II.  had  done  in  the  begin- 
ning of  his  reign.  As  long  as  Hubert  ruled,  England  was  to  belong 
to  the  English.  His  power  was  endangered  from  the  very  quarter 
from  which  it  ought  to  have  received  most  support.  In  1227  Henry 
declared  himself  of  age.  He  was  weak  and  untrustworthy,  always 
ready  to  give  his  confidence  to  unworthy  favorites.  His  present 
favorite  was  Peter  des  Roches,  Bishop  of  Winchester.  The  bishop 
was  a  greedy  and  unscrupulous  Poitevin.  who  regarded  the  king's 
fa\'or  as  a  means  of  enriching  himself  and  his  Poitevin  relatives 
and  friends.  Henry  was  always  short  of  money,  and  was  persuaded 
by  Peter  that  it  was  Hubert's  fault.  In  1232  Hubert  was  charged 
with  a  whole  string  of  crimes  and  dismissed  from  (jffice. 

Henry  was  now  entirely  under  the  power  of  Peter  des  Roches. 
In  1233  he  ordered  Hubert  to  be  siezed.  Though  Hubert  took 
sanctuary  in  a  chapel,  he  was  dragged  out,  and  thrown  into  the 
Tower,  and  was  never  again  employed  in  any  office  of  state.  As 
long  as  Peter  des  Roches  ruled  the  king  it  would  be  hard  to  keep 
England  for  the  English.  Poitevins  and  Bretons  flocked  over  from 
the  Continent,  and  were  appointed  to  all  the  influential  posts  which 
fell  vacant.  The  barons  had  the  national  feeling  behind  them  when 
they  raised  complaints  against  this  policy.  Hieir  leader  was  Earl 
Richard  the  Marshal,  the  son  of  the  Earl  William  who  had  gov- 
erned England  after  the  death  of  John.  Witliout  even  the  sem- 
blance of  trial  Henry  declared  Earl  Richard  and  his  cliief  suppcjrters 
guilty  of  treason.     /\t  a  Great  Council  held  at  Westminster  some  of 


132  ENGLAND 

1209 

the  barons  remonstrated.  Peter  des  Roches  replied  saucily  that 
there  were  no  peers  in  England  as  in  France,  meaning  that  in 
England  the  barons  had  no  rights  against  the  king.  Both  Henry 
and  Peter  could,  however,  use  their  tongues  better  than  their 
swords.  Among  Henry's  followers  were  many  of  Peter's  confi- 
dants. Edmund  Rich,  a  saintly  man,  who  had  recently  become 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  protested  against  his  misdeeds.  All 
England  was  behind  the  Archbishop,  and  Henry  was  compelled  to 
dismiss  Peter  and  then  to  welcome  back  Peter's  enemies  and  to 
restore  them  to  their  rights.  It  was  of  no  slight  importance  that 
a  man  so  devoted  and  unselfish  as  Edmund  Rich  had  put  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  movement.  It  was  a  good  thing,  no  doubt,  to 
maintain  that  wealth  should  be  in  the  hands  rather  of  natives  than 
of  foreigners ;  but  after  all  every  contention  for  material  wealth 
alone  is  of  the  earth,  earthy.  Xo  object  which  appeals  exclusively 
to  the  selfish  instincts  can.  in  the  long  run.  be  worth  contending  for. 
Edmund  Rich's  accession  to  the  national  cause  was  a  guarantee 
that  the  claims  of  righteousness  and  mercy  in  the  management  of 
the  national  government  would  not  altogether  be  forgotten,  and 
fortunately  there  v.ere  new  forces  actively  at  work  in  the  same 
direction.  The  friars,  the  followers  of  St.  Francis  and  St.  Dominic, 
had  made  good  their  footing  in  England. 

Francis,  the  son  of  a  merchant  in  the  Tuscan  town  of  Assisi, 
threw  aside  the  vanities  of  youth  after  a  serious  illness.  He  was 
wedded,  he  declared,  to  Poverty  as  his  bride.  He  clothed  himself 
in  rags,  and  separated  himself  from  his  father.  He  wandered  about 
as  a  beggar,  subsisting  on  alms  and  devoting  himself  to  the  care 
of  the  sick  and  afiiicted.  Before  long  he  gathered  together  a 
brotherhood  of  men  like-minded  with  himself,  who  left  all,  to  give 
not  alms  luit  themselves  to  the  help  of  the  poor  and  sorrowful  of 
Christ's  flock.  In  1209  Innocent  HI.  constituted  tliem  into  a  new 
order,  not  of  monks,  but  of  Friars  (Fratrcs  or  brethren).  The 
special  title  of  tlie  new  order,  whic'n  after  ages  have  known  by  the 
name  of  Franciscans,  was  that  of  Minorites  (Fratrcs  ^Finorcs),  or 
the  lesser  brethren,  because  Francis  in  his  liumility  declared  them 
to  be  less  than  tlie  least  of  Christ's  servants.  Like  Francis,  they  were 
to  be  mcn'Iieants.  begging  tiieir  food  fr^  ^m  day  to  day.  Having 
nothing  themselves,  tlicy  v^'ould  be  tlie  better  able  to  touch  the  hearts 
(jf  those  wlio  bail  n>»tliing.  Yet  it  was  n^..:  S' )  much  the  humility  of 
Francis  .is  his  lovincr  heart  which  distiir^-iiislicd  him  among  men. 


HENRY    III.  133 

1209-1224 

Not  only  all  human  beings  but  all  created  things  were  clear  to  him. 
Once  he  is  said  to  have  preached  to  birds.  He  called  the  sun  and 
the  wind  his  brethren,  the  moon  and  the  water  his  sisters.  When 
he  died  the  last  feeble  words  which  he  breached  were,  "  Welcome, 
sister  Death !  " 

Another  order  arose  about  the  same  time  in  Spain.  Dominic, 
a  Spaniard,  was  appalled,  not  by  the  misery,  but  by  the  ignorance 
of  mankind.  The  order  which  he  instituted  was  to  be  called  that 
of  the  Friars  Preachers,  though  they  have  in  later  times  usually 
been  known  as  Dominicans.  Like  the  Franciscans  they  were  to  be 
Friars,  or  brothers,  because  all  teaching  is  vain,  as  much  as  all 
charitable  acts  are  vain,  unless  brotherly  kindness  be  at  the  root. 
Like  the  Franciscans  they  were  to  be  mendicants,  because  so  only 
could  the  world  be  convinced  that  they  sought  not  their  own  good, 
but  to  win  souls  to  Christ. 

In  1 220  the  first  Dominicans  arrived  in  England.  Four  years 
later,  in  1224,  the  first  Franciscans  followed  them.  Of  the  work 
of  the  early  Dominicans  in  England  little  is  known.  They  preacjicd 
and  taught,  appealing  to  those  whose  intelligence  was  keen  enough 
to  appreciate  the  value  of  argument.  The  Franciscans  had  a  differ- 
ent work  before  them.  The  misery  of  the  dwellers  on  the  outskirts 
of  English  towns  was  appalling.  The  townsmen  had  made  pro- 
vision for  keeping  good  order  among  all  who  sliared  in  the  priv- 
ileges of  the  town ;  but  they  made  no  provision  for  good  order 
among  the  crowds  who  flocked  to  the  town  to  pick  up  a  scanty 
living  as  best  they  might.  These  poor  wretches  had  to  dwell  in 
miserable  hovels  outside  the  walls  by  the  side  of  fetid  ditches  into 
which  the  filth  of  the  town  was  poured.  Disease  and  starvation 
thinned  their  numbers.  No  man  cared  for  their  bodies  or  their 
souls.  The  priests  who  served  in  the  churches  within  the  town 
passed  them  by,  nor  had  they  any  place  in  tlie  charities  with  which 
the  brethren  of  the  guilds  assuaged  the  misfortunes  of  their  own 
members.  It  was  among  these  that  the  Franciscans  lived  and 
labored,  sharing  in  their  misery  and  their  diseases,  counting  their 
lives  w^ell  spent  if  they  could  bring  comfort  to  a  single  human  soul. 

The  work  of  the  friars  was  a  new  phase  in  the  history  of  the 
Church.  The  monks  had  made  it  their  object  to  save  their  own 
souls;  the  friars  made  it  their  object  to  save  the  bodies  and  souls 
of  others.  The  friars,  like  the  monks,  tauglit  by  the  example  of 
self-denial;  but  the  friars  added  active  well-doing  to  the  passive 


134  ENGLAND 

1236-1238 

virtue  of  restraint.  Such  examples  could  not  fail  to  be  attended 
with  consequences  of  which  those  who  set  them  never  dreamed,  all 
the  more  because  the  two  new  orders  worked  harmoniously  towards 
a  common  end.  The  Dominicans  quickened  the  brain  while  the 
Franciscans  touched  the  heart,  and  the  whole  nation  was  the  better 
in  consequence. 

In  1236  Henry  married  Eleanor,  the  daughter  of  the  Count  of 
Provence.  The  immediate  consequence  was  the  arrival  of  her  four 
uncles  with  a  stream  of  Provengals  in  their  train.  Among  these 
uncles  William,  bishop-elect  of  Valence,  took  the  lead.  Henry 
submitted  his  weak  mind  entirely  to  him,  and  distributed  rank  and 
wealth  to  the  Provengals  with  as  much  profusion  as  he  had  distrib- 
uted them  to  the  Poitevins  in  the  days  of  Peter  des  Roches.  The 
barons,  led  now  by  the  king's  brother,  Richard  of  Cornwall,  re- 
monstrated when  they  met  in  the  Great  Council,  which  was  grad- 
ually acquiring  the  right  of  granting  fresh  taxes,  though  all 
reference  to  that  right  was  dropped  out  oi  all  editions  of  the  Great 
Charter  issued  in  the  reign  of  Henry.  For  some  time  they  granted 
the  money  which  Henry  continually  asked  for,  coupling,  however, 
with  their  grant  the  demand  that  Henry  should  confirm  the  Charter. 
The  king  never  refused  to  confirm  it.  He  had  no  difficulty  in 
making  promises,  but  he  never  troubled  himself  to  keep  those  which 
he  had  made. 

Strangely  enough,  Simon  de  Montfort,  the  man  who  was  to 
be  the  chief  opponent  of  Henry  and  his  foreign  favorites,  was 
himself  a  foreigner.  He  was  sprung  from  a  family  established  in 
Normandy,  and  his  father,  the  elder  Simon  de  Montfort,  had  been 
the  leader  of  a  body  of  Crusaders  from  the  north  of  France,  who 
had  poured  over  the  south  to  crush  a  vast  body  of  heretics,  known 
by  the  name  of  Albigeois,  from  Albi,  a  town  in  which  they 
swarmed.  The  elder  Simon  had  been  strict  in  his  orthodoxy  and 
unsparing  in  his  cruelty  to  all  who  were  unorthodox.  From  him 
the  younger  Simon  inherited  his  unswerving  religious  zeal  and  his 
constancy  of  purpose.  There  was  the  same  stern  resolution  in  both, 
but  in  the  younger  man  these  qualities  were  coupled  with  a  states- 
manlike instinct,  which  was  wanting  to  the  father.  Norman  as  he 
was,  he  had  a  claim  to  the  earldom  of  Leicester  through  his  grand- 
mother. In  1236  he  returned  to  England  to  be  present  at  the  king's 
marriage.  He  was  at  once  taken  into  favor,  and  in  1238  married 
the  king's  sister,  Eleanor.    His  marriage  was  received  by  the  barons 


HENRY    III.  135 

1239-1243 

and  the  people  with  a  burst  of  indignation.  It  was  one  more  in- 
stance, it  was  said,  of  Henry's  preference  for  foreigners  over  his 
own  countrymen.  In  1239  Henry  turned  upon  his  brother-in-law, 
brought  heavy  charges  against  him,  and  drove  him  from  his  court. 
In  1240  Simon  was  outwardly  reconciled  to  Henry,  but  he  was 
never  again  able  to  repose  confidence  in  one  so  fickle.  In  1242 
Henry  resolved  to  undertake  an  expedition  to  France  to  recover 
Poitou,  which  had  been  gradually  slipping  out  of  his  hands.  At  a 
Great  Council  held  before  he  sailed,  the  barons,  who  had  no  sym- 
pathy with  any  attempt  to  recover  lost  possessions  in  France,  not 
only  rated  him  soundly  for  his  folly,  but,  for  the  first  time,  abso- 
lutely refused  to  make  him  a  grant  of  money.  Simon  told  him  to 
his  face  that  the  Frenchman  was  no  lamb  to  be  easily  subdued. 
Simon's  words  proved  true.  Henry  sailed  for  France,  but  in  1243 
he  surrendered  all  claims  to  Poitou,  and  returned  discomfited.  If 
he  did  not  bring  home  victory  he  brought  with  him  a  new  crowd 
of  Poitevins,  who  were  connected  with  his  mother's  second  husband. 
All  of  them  expected  to  receive  advancement  in  England,  and  they 
seldom  expected  it  in  vain. 

Disgusted  as  were  the  English  landowners  by  the  preference 
shown  by  the  king  to  foreigners,  the  English  clergy  were  no  less 
disgusted  by  the  exactions  of  the  Pope.  The  claim  of  Innocent  HI. 
to  regulate  the  proceedings  of  kings  had  been  handed  down  to  his 
successors  and  made  them  jealous  of  any  ruler  too  powerful  to  be 
controlled.  As  the  king  of  England  was  the  Pope's  vassal  in  conse- 
quence of  John's  surrender,  he  looked  to  him  for  aid  against  the 
Emperor  Frederick  more  than  to  others,  especially  as  England, 
enjoying  internal  peace  more  than  other  nations,  was  regarded  as 
especially  wealthy.  In  1237  Pope  Gregory  IX.  sent  Cardinal  Otho 
as  his  legate  to  demand  money  from  the  Englisli  clergy.  The  clergy- 
found  a  leader  in  Robert  Grossetete,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  a  wise  and 
practical  reformer  of  clerical  disorders :  but  though  they  grumbled, 
they  could  get  no  protection  from  the  king,  and  were  forced  to  pay. 
Otho  left  England  in  1241,  carrying  immense  sums  of  money  with 
him,  and  the  promise  of  the  king  to  present  three  hundred  Italian 
priests  to  English  benefices  before  he  presented  a  single  English- 
man. In  1243  Gregory  IX.  was  succeeded  by  Innocent  IV.,  who 
was  even  more  grasping  than  his  predecessor. 

Against  these  evils  the  Great  Council  strove  in  vain  to  make 
head.     It  was  now  beginning  to  be  known  as  Parliament,  though 


136  E  N  G  L  A  N  D 

1243-1254 

no  alteration  was  yet  made  in  its  composition.  In  1244  clergy  and 
barons  joined  in  remonstrating  with  the  king,  and  some  of  them 
even  talked  about  restraining  his  power  by  the  establishment  of  a 
Justiciar  and  Chancellor,  together  with  four  councilors,  all  six  to 
be  elected  by  the  whole  of  the  baronage.  Without  the  consent  of 
the  Chancellor  thus  chosen  no  administrative  act  could  be  done. 
The  scheme  was  a  distinct  advance  upon  that  of  the  barons  who, 
in  1215^  forced  the  Great  Charter  upon  John.  The  barons  had  then 
proposed  to  leave  the  appointment  of  executive  officials  to  the  king, 
and  to  appoint  a  committee  of  twenty-five,  who  were  to  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  government  of  the  country,  but  were  to  compel  the 
king  by  force  to  keep  the  promises  which  he  had  made.  In  1244 
they  proposed  to  appoint  the  executive  officials  themselves.  It  was 
the  beginning  of  a  series  of  changes  which  ultimately  led  to  that 
with  which  we  are  now  familiar,  the  appointment  of  ministers 
responsible  to  Parliament.  It  was  too  great  an  innovation  to  be 
accepted  at  once,  especially  as  it  was  demanded  by  the  barons  alone. 
The  clergy,  who  were  still  afraid  of  the  disorders  which  might 
ensue  if  power  were  lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  barons,  refused  to 
support  it,  and  for  a  time  it  fell  to  the  ground.  At  the  same  time 
Richard  of  Cornwall  abandoned  the  baronial  party.  But  on  the 
other  hand  Earl  Simon  was  found  on  the  side  of  the  barons. 

The  clergy  also  had  to  learn  by  bitter  experience  that  it  was 
only  by  a  close  alliance  with  the  barons  that  they  could  preserve 
themselves  from  wrong.  Money  was  wrung  from  them,  and  the 
Pope,  moreover,  continued  to  present  his  own  nominees  to  English 
benefices.  For  a  time  even  Henry  made  complaints,  but  in  1254 
Innocent  IV.  won  him  over  to  his  side  by  offering  the  crown  of 
Sicily  and  Naples  to  his  son  Edmund.  Henry  leaped  at  the  offer, 
hoping  that  England  would  bear  the  expense  of  the  undertaking. 
England  was,  however,  in  no  mood  to  comply.  Henry  had  been 
squandering  money  for  years.  He  had  recently  employed  Earl 
Simon  in  Gascony,  where  Simon  had  put  down  the  resistance  of 
the  nobles  with  a  heavy  hand.  The  Gascons  complained  to  Henry, 
and  Henry  quarreled  with  Simon  more  bitterly  than  before.  In 
1254  Plenry  crossed  the  sea  to  restore  order  in  person.  To  meet 
his  expenses  he  borrowed  a  vast  sum  of  money,  and  this  loan,  which 
he  expected  England  to  meet,  was  the  only  result  of  the  expedition. 

During  the  king's  absence  the  queen  and  Earl  Richard,  wlio 
were  left  as  regents,  and  who  had  to  collect  money  as  best  they 


HENRY    III.  137 

1254-1258 

might,  gathered  a  Great  Council,  to  which,  for  the  first  time,  rep- 
resentative knights,  four  from  each  shire,  were  summoned.  They 
were  merely  called  on  to  report  what  amount  of  aid  their  constitu- 
ents were  willing  to  give,  and  the  regents  were  doubtless  little 
aware  of  the  importance  of  the  step  which  they  were  taking.  It 
was  only,  to  all  appearances,  an  adaptation  of  the  summons  calling 
on  the  united  jury  to  meet  at  St.  Albans  to  assess  the  damages  of 
the  clergy  in  the  reign  of  John.  It  might  seem  as  if  the  regents 
had  only  summoned  a  united  jury  to  give  evidence  of  their  con- 
stituents' readiness  to  grant  certain  sums  of  money.  In  reality 
the  new  scheme  was  sure  to  take  root,  because  it  held  out  a  hope 
of  getting  rid  of  a  constitutional  difficulty  which  had  hitherto 
proved  insoluble — the  difficulty,  that  is  to  say,  of  weakening  the 
king's  power  to  do  evil  without  establishing  baronial  anarchy  in 
its  place.  It  was  certain  that  the  representatives  of  the  free- 
holders in  the  counties  would  not  use  their  influence  for  the 
destruction  of  order. 

At  the  end  of  1254  Henry  returned  to  England,  In  1255  a 
new  Pope  demanded  more  money  from  England.  Immense  sums 
were  wrung  from  the  clergy,  who  were  powerless  to  resist  Pope 
and  king  combined.  Their  indignation  was  the  greater,  not  only 
because  they  knew  the  Pope's  effort  was  to  secure  his  political 
power  in  Italy,  but  also  because  the  Papal  court  was  known  to  be 
hopelessly  corrupt.  The  clergy  indeed  were  less  than  ever  in  a 
condition  to  resist  the  king  without  support.  Grossetcte  was  dead, 
and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  queen's  uncle,  Boniface  of 
Savoy,  whose  duty  it  was  to  maintain  the  rights  of  the  Church, 
was  a  man  who  cared  nothing  for  England  except  on  account  of 
the  money  he  drew  from  it.  Other  bishoprics  as  well  were  held 
by  foreigners.  The  result  of  the  weakness  of  the  clergy  was  that 
they  were  now  ready  to  unite  with  the  barons,  whom  they  had 
deserted  in  1244.  Henry's  misgovernment,  in  fact,  had  roused 
all  classes  against  him,  as  the  townsmen  and  the  smaller  land- 
owners had  been  even  worse  treated  than  the  greater  barons. 
In  1257  one  obstacle  to  reform  was  removed.  Richard  of  Corn- 
wall, the  king's  brother,  was  chosen  king  of  the  Romans  by  tlie 
German  electors,  an  election  which  would  make  him  Emperor  as 
soon  as  he  had  been  crowned  by  the  Pope. 

The  crisis  in  England  came  in  1258,  while  Richard  was  still 
abroad.     ThonHi   thoiisriiuls   were   dving  of  starvation    in   conse- 


138  ENGLAND 

1258 

quence  of  a  bad  harvest,  Henry  demanded  for  the  Pope  the 
monstrous  sum  of  one-third  of  the  revenue  of  all  England.  Then 
the  storm  burst.  At  a  Parliament  at  Westminster  the  barons  ap- 
peared in  arms  and  demanded,  first,  the  expulsion  of  all  foreigners, 
and,  secondly,  the  appointment  of  a  committee  of  twenty-four — 
twelve  from  the  king's  party  and  twelve  from  that  of  the  barons — 
to  reform  the  realm.  The  king  unwillingly  consented,  and  the 
committee  was  appointed.  Later  in  the  year  Parliament  met 
again  at  Oxford  to  receive  the  report  of  the  new  committee.  The 
i\Iad  Parliament,  as  it  was  afterwards  called  in  derision,  was  re- 
solved to  make  good  its  claims.  The  scheme  of  reinforcing  Par- 
liament by  the  election  of  knights  of  the  shire  had  indeed  been 
suffered  to  fall  into  disuse  since  its  introduction  in  1254,  yet  every 
tenant-in-chief  had  of  old  the  right  of  attending,  and  though  the 
lesser  tenants-in-chief  had  hitherto  seldom  or  never  exercised  that 
right,  they  now  trooped  in  arms  to  Oxford  to  support  the  barons. 
To  this  unwonted  gathering  the  committee  produced  a  set  of  pro- 
posals which  have  gone  by  the  name  of  the  Provisions  of  Oxford. 
There  was  to  be  a  council  of  fifteen,  without  the  advice  of  which 
the  king  could  do  no  act,  and  in  this  council  the  baronial  party  had 
a  majority.  The  offices  of  state  were  filled  in  accordance  with  the 
wishes  of  the  twenty-four,  and  the  barons  thus  entered  into  pos- 
session of  the  authority  which  had  hitherto  been  the  king's.  The 
danger  of  the  king's  tyranny  was  averted,  but  it  remained  to  be 
seen  whether  a  greater  tyranny  would  not  be  erected  in  its  stead. 
One  clause  of  the  Provisions  of  Oxford  was  not  reassuring.  The 
old  Parliaments,  which  every  tenant-in-chief  had  at  least  the  cus- 
tomary right  of  attending,  were  no  longer  to  exist.  Their  place 
was  to  be  taken  by  a  body  of  twelve,  to  be  chosen  by  the  barons, 
which  was  to  meet  three  times  a  year  to  discuss  public  affairs  with 
the  council  of  fifteen. 

The  first  difficulty  of  the  new  government  was  to  compel  the 
foreigners  to  surrender  their  castles.  The  barons  swore  that  no 
danger  should  keep  them  back  till  they  had  cleared  the  land  of 
foreigners  and  had  obtained  the  good  laws  which  they  needed. 
Earl  Simon  set  the  example  by  surrendering  his  own  castles  at 
Kenilworth  and  Odiham.  The  national  feeling  was  with  Simon 
and  the  barons,  and  at  last  the  foreigners  were  driven  across  the 
sea.  For  a  time  all  went  well.  The  committee  of  twenty-four 
continued  its  work  and  produced  a  further  series  of  reforms.     All 


HENRY    III.  139 

1259-1263 

persons  in  authority  were  called  on  to  swear  to  be  faithful  to  the 
Provisions  of  Oxford,  and  the  king  and  his  eldest  son,  Edward, 
complied  with  the  demand. 

Early  in  1259  Richard  came  back  to  England,  and  gave  satis- 
faction by  swearing  to  the  Provisions.  Before  long  signs  of 
danger  appeared.  The  placing  complete  authority  in  the  hands  of 
the  barons  was  not  likely  to  be  long  popular,  and  Earl  Simon  was 
known  to  be  in  favor  of  a  wider  and  more  popular  scheme.  Hugh 
Bigod,  who  had  been  named  Justiciar  by  the  barons,  gave  offense 
by  the  way  in  which  he  exercised  his  office.  Simon  was  hated  by 
the  king,  and  he  knew  that  many  of  the  barons  did  not  love  him. 
The  subtenants — the  Knights  Bachelors  of  England  as  they  called 
themselves — doubting  his  power  to  protect  them,  complained,  not 
to  Simon,  but  to  Edward,  the  eldest  son  of  the  king,  that  the 
barons  had  obtained  the  redress  of  their  own  grievances,  but  had 
done  nothing  for  the  rest  of  the  community.  Edward  was  now  a 
young  man  of  twenty,  hot-tempered  and  impatient  of  control,  but 
keen-sighted  enough  to  know,  what  his  father  had  never  knov.'n, 
that  the  royal  power  would  be  increased  if  it  could  establish  itself 
in  the  affections  of  the  classes  whose  interests  were  antagonistic  ro 
those  of  the  barons.  He  therefore  declared  that  he  had  sworn 
to  the  Provisions,  and  would  keep  his  oath ;  but  that  if  the  barons 
did  not  fulfill  their  own  promises,  he  would  join  the  community  in 
compelling  them  to  do  so.  The  warning  was  effectual,  and  the 
barons  issued  orders  for  the  redress  of  the  grievances  of  those  who 
had  found  so  high  a  patron. 

Simon  had  no  wish  to  be  involved  in  a  purely  baronial  policy, 
and  had  already  fallen  out  with  the  leader  of  the  barons  who  had 
resisted  the  full  execution  of  the  promises  made  at  Oxford  in  the 
interest  of  the  people  at  large.  The  king  fomented  the  rising 
quarrel,  and  in  1261  announced  that  the  Pope  had  declared  the 
Provisions  to  be  null  and  void,  and  had  released  him  from  his 
oath  to  observe  them.  Henry  now  ruled  again  in  his  own  fashion. 
Both  leaders  of  the  barons  joined  Simon  in  inviting  a  Parliament 
to  meet,  at  which  three  knights  should  appear  for  each  county, 
thus  throwing  over  the  unfortunate  narrowing  of  Parliament  to 
a  baronial  committee  of  twelve,  which  had  been  the  worst  blot  on 
the  Provisions  of  Oxford.  In  1263  Simon,  now  the  acknowledged 
head  of  the  barons  and  of  the  nation,  finding  that  the  king  could 
not  be  brought  to  keep  the  Provisions,  took  arms  against  him.     He 


140  ENGLAND 

1264-1265 

was  a  master  in  the  art  of  war,  and  gained  one  fortified  post  after 
another.  The  war  was  carried  on  with  doubtful  results,  and  by 
the  end  of  the  year  both  parties  agreed  to  submit  to  the  arbitration 
of  the  king  of  France. 

The  king  of  France,  Louis  IX.,  afterwards  known  as  St.  Louis, 
was  the  justest  and  most  unselfish  of  men.  Yet,  well-intentioned 
as  Louis  was,  he  had  no  knowledge  of  England,  and  in  France, 
where  the  feudal  nobility  was  still  excessively  tyrannical,  justice 
was  only  to  be  obtained  by  the  maintenance  of  a  strong  royal 
power.  He  therefore  thought  that  what  was  good  for  France  was 
also  good  for  England,  and  in  the  beginning  of  1264  he  relieved 
Henry  from  all  the  restrictions  which  his  subjects  had  sought  to 
place  uix)n  him.  The  decision  thus  taken  was  known  as  the  Mise, 
or  settlement,  of  Amiens,  from  the  place  at  which  it  was  issued. 

The  ]\Iise  of  Amiens  required  an  unconditional  surrender  of 
England  to  the  king.  The  Lond(jners  and  the  trading  towns  were 
the  first  to  reject  it.  Simon  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  united 
army  of  barons  and  citizens.  In  the  early  morning  of  ]May  14  he 
caught  the  king's  army  half  asleep  at  Lewes.  Edward  charged  at 
the  Londoners,  against  whom  he  bore  a  grudge,  and  cleared  them 
off  the  field  with  enormous  slaughter.  When  he  returned  the 
battle  was  lost.  Henry  himself  was  captured,  and  Richard,  king 
of  the  Romans,  was  found  hiding  in  a  windmill.  Edward,  in  spite 
of  his  success,  had  to  give  himself  up  as  a  prisoner. 

Simon  follov/ed  up  his  victory  by  an  agreement  called  the 
Mise  of  Lewes,  according  to  which  all  matters  of  dispute  were 
again  to  be  referred  to  arbitration.  In  the  meantime  there  were 
to  be  three  Electors,  Earl  Simon  himself,  the  Earl  of  Gloucester, 
and  the  Bishop  of  Chichester.  These  were  to  elect  nine  councilors, 
who  were  to  name  the  ministers  of  state.  To  keep  these  councilors 
within  bounds  a  Parliament  was  called,  in  which  with  the  barons, 
bishops,  and  abbots  there  sat  not  only  chosen  knights  for  each 
shire,  but  also  for  the  first  time  two  representatives  of  certain 
towns.  This  Parliament  met  in  1265.  It  was  not,  indeed,  a  full 
parliament,  as  only  Simon's  partisans  among  the  barons  were 
summoned,  but  it  was  the  fullest  representation  of  England  as  a 
whole  which  had  yet  met,  and  not  a  merely  baronial  committee  like 
that  proposed  in  1258.  The  views  of  Simon  were  clearly  indicated 
in  an  argumentative  Latin  poem  written  after  the  battle  of  Lewes 
by  one  of  his  supporters.     In  this  the  king's  claim  to  do  as  he  liked 


H  E  N  R  Y     1 1 1 .  141 

1265-1270 

with  his  own  was  met  by  a  demand  that  he  should  rule  according  to 
law.  The  difficulty  still  remained  of  ascertaining  what  the  law 
was.  The  poet  held  that  the  law  consisted  in  the  old  customs,  and 
that  the  people  themselves  must  be  appealed  to  as  the  witnesses  of 
what  those  old  customs  were.  Parliament  was  a  national  jury, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  give  evidence  on  the  laws  and  customs  of  the 
nation  in  the  same  way  that  a  local  jury  gave  evidence  on  local 
matters. 

Simon's  constitution  was  premature.  Men  wanted  a  patriotic 
king  who  could  lead  the  nation  instead  of  one  who,  like  Henry, 
used  it  for  his  own  ends.  The  new  rulers  were  sure  to  quarrel 
with  one  another.  If  Simon  was  still  Simon  the  Righteous,  his 
sons  acted  tyrannically.  The  barons  began  again  to  distrust  Simon 
himself,  and  the  young  Earl  of  Gloucester,  like  his  father  before 
him,  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  dissatisfied  barons,  and  went 
over  to  the  king,  Edward  escaped  from  confinement,  and  he 
and  Gloucester  combined  forces,  and,  falling  on  Earl  Simon  at 
Evesham,  defeated  him  utterly,  Simon  was  slain  in  the  fight  and 
his  body  barbarously  mutilated;  but  his  memory  was  treasured, 
and  he  was  counted  as  a  saint  by  the  people  for  whom  he  hnd 
worked. 

The  storm  which  had  been  raised  was  some  time  in  calming 
down.  Some  of  Earl  Simon's  followers  continued  to  hold  out 
against  the  king.  When  at  last  they  submitted,  they  were  treated 
leniently,  and  in  1267,  at  a  Parliament  at  Marlborough,  a  statute 
was  enacted  embodying  most  of  the  demands  for  the  redress  of 
grievances  made  by  the  earlier  reformers.  The  kingdom  settled 
down  in  peace,  because  Henry  now  allowed  Edward  to  be  the  real 
head  of  the  government,  Edward,  in  short,  carried  on  Earl 
Simon's  work  in  ruling  justly,  with  the  advantage  of  being  raised 
above  jealousies  by  his  position  as  heir  to  tlie  throne.  In  1270 
England  was  so  peaceful  that  Edward  could  eml)ark  on  a  crusade. 
In  1272  Plenry  III,  died  and  his  son,  though  in  a  distant  land,  was 
quietly  accepted  as  his  successor. 

In  spite  of  the  turmoils  of  Henry's  reign  the  country  made 
progress  in  many  ways.  Men  busied  tliemsclvcs  with  re])lacing  the 
old  round-arched  churches  by  large  and  more  beautiful  ones,  in  that 
Early  English  style  of  which  Eincoln  Cathedral  was  the  first 
example  on  a  large  scale.  In  1220  it  was  followed  by  Pjcverlcy 
Minster.      Tlie  nave  C)i  Salisburv   Catliedral   was  begun   in    1240, 


142  ENGLAND 

1240-1272 

and  a  new  Westminster  Abbey  grew  piecemeal  under  Henry's  own 
supervision  during  the  greater  part  of  the  reign.  Mental  activity 
accompanied  material  activity.  At  Oxford  there  were  reckoned 
15,000  scholars.  Most  remarkable  was  the  new  departure  taken 
by  Walter  de  Merton,  Henry's  Chancellor.  Hitherto  each  scholar 
had  shifted  for  himself,  lived  where  he  could,  and  been  subjected 
to  little  or  no  discipline.  In  founding  Merton  College,  the  first 
college  which  existed  in  the  University,  Merton  proposed  not  only 
to  erect  a  building  in  which  the  lads  who  studied  might  be  boarded 
and  placed  under  supervision,  but  to  train  them  with  a  view  to 
learning  for  its  own  sake,  and  not  to  prepare  them  for  the  priest- 
hood. The  eagerness  to  learn  things  difficult  was  accompanied 
by  a  desire  to  increase  popular  knowledge.  For  the  first  time  since 
the  Chronicle  came  to  an  end,  which  was  soon  after  the  accession 
of  Henry  H.,  a  book — Layamon's  "  Brut  " — appeared  in  the  reign  of 
John  in  the  English  language,  and  one  at  least  of  the  songs  which 
witness  to  the  interest  of  the  people  in  the  great  struggle  with 
Henry  HI.  was  also  written  in  the  same  language.  Yet  the  great 
achievement  of  the  fifty-six  years  of  Henry's  reign  was — to  use  the 
language  of  the  smith  who  refused  to  put  fetters  on  the  limbs  of 
Hubert  de  Burgh — the  "  giving  of  England  back  to  the  English." 
In  12 16  it  was  possible  for  Englishmen  to  prefer  a  French-born 
Louis  as  their  king  to  an  Angevin  John.  In  1272  England 
was  indeed  divided  by  class  prejudices  and  conflicting  in- 
terests, but  it  was  nationally  one.  The  greatest  grievance  suffered 
from  Henry  III.  was  his  preference  of  foreigners  over  his  own 
countrymen.  In  resistance  to  foreigners  Englishmen  had  been 
welded  together  into  a  nation,  and  in  their  new  king  Edward  they 
found  a  leader  who  would  not  only  prove  a  wise  and  thoughtful 
ruler,  but  who  was  every  inch  an  Englishman. 


Chapter  XIV 

EDWARD    I.,    1272— 1307.     EDWARD    II.,    1307— 1327 

LEADING   DATES 

Accession  of  Edward  I.,  A.D.  1272 — Death  of  Alexander  III., 
1285 — The  Award  of  Norham,  1292 — The  Model  Parliament,  1295 — 
The  First  Conquest  of  Scotland,  1296 — Confirmatio  Cartarum, 
1297 — Completion  of  the  Second  Conquest  of  Scotland,  1304 — The 
Incorporation  of  Scotland  with  England,  1305 — The  Third  Con- 
quest of  Scotland,  1306 — Accession  of  Edward  II.,  1307 — Execution 
of  Gaveston,  1312 — Battle  of  Bannockburn,  1314 — Deposition  of 
Edward  II.,  1327 


"^  DWARD  I.,  though  he  inherited  the  crown  in  1272,  did  not 
return  to  England  till  1274,  being  able  to  move  in  a  leisurely 

-^  fashion  across  Europe  without  fear  of  disturbance  at  home. 
He  fully  accepted  those  articles  of  John's  Great  Charter  which  had 
been  set  aside  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Henry  III.,  and  which 
required  that  the  king  should  only  take  scutages  and  aids  with  the 
consent  of  the  Great  Council  or  Parliament.  The  further  require- 
ment of  the  barons  that  they  should  name  the  ministers  of  the  crown 
was  allowed  to  fall  asleep.  Edward  was  a  capable  ruler,  and  knew 
how  to  appoint  better  ministers  than  the  barons  were  likely  to  choose 
for  him.  It  was  Edward's  peculiar  merit  that  he  stood  forward  not 
only  as  a  ruler  but  as  a  legislator.  He  succeeded  in  passing  one 
law  after  another,  because  he  thoroughly  understood  that  useful 
legislation  is  only  possible  when  the  legislator  on  the  one  hand  has 
an  intelligent  perception  of  the  remedies  needed  to  meet  existing 
evils,  and  on  the  other  hand  is  willing  to  content  himself  with  such 
remedies  as  those  who  are  to  be  benefited  by  them  are  ready  to 
accept.  The  first  condition  was  fulfilled  by  Edward's  own  skill  as 
a  lawyer,  and  by  the  skill  of  the  great  lawyers  whom  he  employed. 
The  second  condition  was  fulfilled  by  his  determination  to  authorize 
no  new  legislation  without  the  counsel  and  consent  of  those  wlio 
were  most  aft"ecled  by  it.  He  did  not,  indeed,  till  late  in  his  reign, 
call  a  whole  Parliament  together,  as  Earl  Simon  had  done.  But 
he  called  the  barons   together   in   any  matter  which   affected   the 

U3 


lU  ENGLAND 

1274-1284 

barons,  and  he  called  the  representatives  of  the  towns  together 
in  any  matter  which  affected  the  townsmen,  and  so  on  with  the  other 
classes. 

Outside  England  Edward's  first  difficulty  was  with  the  Welsh, 
who,  though  their  princes  had  long  been  regarded  by  the  English 
kings  as  vassals,  had  practically  maintained  their  independence  in 
the  mountainous  regions  of  north  Wales  of  which  Snowdon  is  the 
center.  The  Welshmen  made  forays  and  plundered  the  English 
lands,  and  the  English  retorted  by  slaughtering  Welshmen  whenever 
they  could  come  up  with  them  among  the  hills.  Naturally  the 
Welsh  took  the  side  of  any  enemy  of  the  English  kings  with  whom 
it  was  possible  to  ally  themselves.  Llewelyn,  Prince  of  Wales,  had 
joined  Earl  Simon  against  Henry  IIL,  and  had  only  done  homage 
to  Henry  after  Simon  had  been  defeated.  After  Henry's  death  he 
refused  homage  to  Edward  till  1276.  In  1282  he  and  his  brother 
David  renewed  the  war,  and  Edward,  determined  to  put  an  end  to 
the  independence  of  such  troublesome  neighbors,  marched  against 
them.  Before  the  end  of  the  year  Llewelyn  was  slain,  and  David 
was  captured  in  1283,  and  executed  in  1284.  Wales  then  came 
fully  under  the  dominion  of  the  English  kings.  Edward's  second 
son,  afterwards  King  Edward  H.,  was  born  at  Carnarvon  in  1284, 
and  soon  afterwards,  having  become  heir  to  the  crown,  upon  the 
death  of  his  elder  brother,  was  presented  to  the  Welsh  as  Prince  of 
Wales,  a  title  from  that  day  usually  bestowed  upon  the  king's  eldest 
son.  At  the  same  time,  though  Edward  built  strong  castles  at  Con- 
way and  Carnarvon  to  hold  the  ^^''elsh  in  awe,  he  made  submission 
easier  by  enacting  suitable  laws  for  them,  under  the  name  of  the 
Statute  of  Wales,  and  by  establishing  a  separate  body  of  local  offi- 
cials to  govern  them,  as  well  as  by  confirming  them  in  the  possession 
of  their  lands  and  goods. 

Though  Edward  L  was  by  no  means  extravagant,  he  found  it 
impossible  to  meet  the  expenses  of  government  without  an  increase 
of  taxation.  In  1275  he  obtained  the  consent  of  Parliament  to  the 
increase  of  the  duties  on  exports  and  imports  which  had  hitherto 
been  levied  without  Parliamentary  sanction.  He  was  now  to  receive 
by  a  Parliamentary  grant  a  fixed  export  duty  of  6s.  8d.  on  every  sack 
of  wool  sent  out  of  the  country,  and  of  a  corresponding  duty  on 
wool-fells  and  leather.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  it  is  useless 
for  any  government  to  attempt  to  gain  a  revenue  by  export  duty. 
On  the  Continent  men  could  not  produce  much  wool  or  leather  for 


KinvAkn  1,   Ki.\<,  1)1-    i:x(,i.AXi),   i'ki:si;x  is    ru  tiik  .\ssk.mi;i.i'.i>  xopj.ks  at 

CAkX  AinnX   (  .\>T].F.     IIIK    I  IKSr    I'KlXtK    DV    WALKS 


EDWARD    1.  — EDWARD    II.  1A5 

1285-1290 

sale,  because  private  wars  were  constantly  occurring-,  and  the  figlit- 
ing  men  were  in  the  habit  of  driving-  off  the  sheep  and  the  cattle, 
while  in  England  under  the  king's  protection  sheep  and  cattle  could 
be  bred  in  safety.  There  were  now  growing  up  manufactures  of 
cloth  in  the  fortified  towns  of  Flanders,  and  the  manufacturers  there 
were  obliged  to  come  to  England  for  the  greater  part  of  the  wool 
which  they  used.  They  could  not  help  paying  not  only  the  price  of 
the  wool,  but  the  king's  export  duty  as  well,  because  if  they  refused 
they  could  not  get  sufficient  wool  in  any  other  country. 

Every  king  of  England  since  the  Norman  Conquest  had  exer- 
cised authority  in  a  two-fold  capacity.  On  one  hand  he  was  the 
head  of  the  nation,  on  the  other  hand  he  was  the  feudal  lord  of  his 
vassals.  Edward  laid  more  stress  than  any  former  king  upon  his 
national  headship.  Early  in  his  reign  he  organized  the  courts  of 
law,  completing  the  division  of  the  Curia  Regis  into  the  three 
courts  which  existed  till  recent  times :  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  to 
deal  with  criminal  offenses  reserved  for  the  king's  judgment,  and 
with  suits  in  which  he  was  himself  concerned ;  the  Court  of  Ex- 
chequer, to  deal  with  all  matters  touching  the  king's  revenue ;  an.d 
the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  to  deal  with  suits  between  subject  and 
subject.  Edward  took  care  that  the  justice  administered  in  these 
courts  should  as  far  as  possible  be  real  justice,  and  in  1289  he  dis- 
missed two  chief  justices  and  many  other  officials  for  corruption. 
In  1285  he  improved  the  Assize  of  Arms  of  Henry  II.,  so  as  to 
be  more  sure  of  securing  a  national  support  for  liis  government 
in  time  of  danger. 

It  was  in  accordance  with  the  national  feeling  that  Edward, 
in  1290,  banished  from  England  the  Jews,  whose  presence  was  most 
profitable  to  himself,  but  who  were  regarded  as  cruel  tyrants  by  their 
debtors.  On  the  other  hand,  Edward  took  care  to  assert  his  rights 
as  a  feudal  lord.  In  1279,  by  the  statute  Dc  rcligiosis,  commonly 
knov/n  as  the  Statute  of  Mortmain,  he  forbade  tlie  gilt  of  land  to 
the  clergy,  because  in  their  hands  land  was  no  longer  liable  to  tlie 
feudal  dues.  In  1290,  by  another  statute.  Quia  cinptorcs,  he  forbade 
all  new  sub-infeudation.  If  from  henceforth  a  vassal  wished  to  part 
with  his  land,  the  new  tenant  was  to  hold  it,  not  under  the  vassal 
who  gave  it  up,  but  under  that  vassal's  lord,  whether  tlie  lord  was 
the  king  or  anyone  else.  The  object  of  this  law  was  to  increase  the 
number  of  tenants-in-chief,  and  thus  to  bring  a  larger  number  of 
land-owners  into  direct  relations  with  tlie  king. 


146  ENGLAND 

1285 

In  his  government  of  England  Edward  had  sought  chiefly  to 
strengthen  his  position  as  the  national  king  of  the  whole  people,,  and 
to  depress  legally  and  without  violence  the  power  of  the  feudal 
nobility.  He  was,  however,  ambitious,  with  the  ambition  of  a  man 
conscious  of  great  and  beneficent  aims,  and  he  was  quite  ready  to 
enforce  even  unduly  his  personal  claims  to  feudal  obedience  when- 
ever it  served  his  purpose  to  do  so.  His  favorite  motto,  "  Keep 
troth"  (Pactum  scrua),  revealed  his  sense  of  the  inviolability  of  a 
personal  engagement  given  or  received,  but  his  legal  mind  often  led 
him  into  construing  in  his  own  favor  engagements  in  which  only  the 
letter  of  the  law  was  on  his  side,  while  its  spirit  was  against  him.  It 
was  chiefly  in  his  relations  with  foreign  peoples  that  he  fell  into  this 
error,  as  it  was  here  that  he  was  most  strongly  tempted  to  lay  stress 
upon  the  feudal  tie  which  made  for  him,  and  to  ignore  the  impor- 
tance of  a  national  resistance  which  made  against  him.  In  dealing 
with  Wales,  for  instance,  he  sent  David  to  a  cruel  death,  because  he 
had  broken  the  feudal  tie  v>-hich  bound  him  to  the  king  of  England, 
feeling  no  sympathy  with  him  as  standing  up  for  the  independence 
of  his  own  people. 

In  the  earlier  part  of  Edward's  reign  Alexander  III.  was  king 
of  Scotland.  Alexander's  ancestors,  indeed,  had  done  homage  to 
Edward's  ancestors,  but  in  1189  William  the  Lion  had  purchased 
from  Richard  I.  the  abandonment  of  all  the  claim  to  homage  for  the 
crown  of  Scotland  which  Henry  II.  had  acquired  by  the  treaty  of 
Falaise.  William's  successors,  however,  held  lands  in  England, 
and  had  done  homage  for  them  to  the  English  kings.  Ed- 
ward would  gladly  have  restored  the  old  practice  of  homage 
for  Scotland  itself.  Tiiere  was  something  alluring  in  the  pros- 
pect of  being  lord  of  the  whole  island,  as  it  would  not  only 
strengthen  his  own  personal  position,  but  would  bring  two  nations 
into  peaceful  union.  Between  the  southern  part  of  Scotland,  indeed, 
and  the  northern  part  of  England,  there  was  no  great  dissimilarity. 
On  both  sides  of  the  border  the  bulk  of  the  population  was  of  the 
?:inie  Angh'an  stock,  while,  in  consequence  of  the  welcome  offered 
by  the  Scottish  kings  to  persons  of  Xorman  descent,  the  nobility  was 
as  completely  Xorman  in  Scotland  as  it  was  in  England,  many  of 
the  nobles  indeed  possessing  lands  on  both  sides  of  the  border.  A 
prospect  of  effecting  a  union  by  peaceful  means  offered  itself  to 
Edv.-ard  in  1285,  when  Alexander  III.  was  killed  by  a  fall  from  his 
horse  near  Kinghorn.     Alexander's  only  descendant  was  ^Margaret, 


EDWARD    I.  — EDWARD    II.  147 

1290-1293 

a  child  of  his  daughter  and  King  Eric  of  Norway.  In  1290  it  was 
agreed  that  she  should  marry  the  Prince  of  Wales,  but  that  the 
two  kingdoms  should  remain  absolutely  independent  of  one  another. 
Unfortunately,  the  Maid  of  Norway,  as  the  child  was  called,  died 
on  her  way  to  Scotland,  and  this  plan  of  establishing  friendly  rela- 
tions between  the  two  countries  cam.e  to  naught.  If  it  had  suc- 
ceeded three  centuries  of  war  and  misery  might  possibly  have  been 
avoided. 

The  death  of  Edward's  wife,  Eleanor  of  Castile,  which  hap- 
pened in  the  same  year,  brought  sorrow  into  Edward's  domestic 
life.  He,  sorrowing  as  he  was,  was  unable  to  neglect  the  affairs  of 
State.  On  the  death  of  the  Maid  of  Norway  there  was  a  large 
number  of  claimants  to  the  Scottish  crown.  Every  one  of  the  three 
chief  claimants  was  an  English  baron.  The  only  escape  from  a 
desolating  civil  war  seemed  to  be  to  appeal  to  Edward's  arbitration, 
and  in  1291  Edward  summoned  the  Scots  to  meet  him  at  Norham. 
He  then  demanded  as  the  price  of  his  arbitration  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  his  position  as  lord  paramount  of  Scotland,  in  virtue  of 
which  the  Scottish  king,  when  he  had  once  been  chosen,  was  to  do 
homage  to  himself  as  king  of  England.  Edward  appears  to  have 
thought  it  right  to  take  the  opportunity  of  Scotland's  weakness  to 
renew  the  stricter  relationship  of  homage  which  had  been  given 
up  by  Richard.  At  all  events,  the  Scottish  nobles  and  clergy 
accepted  liis  demand,  though  the  commonalty  made  some  objection, 
the  nature  of  which  has  not  been  recorded.  Ech.vard  then  in- 
vestigated carefully  the  points  at  issue,  and  in  1292  decided  in 
favor  of  Balliol,  as  the  baron  whose  descent  was  through  the 
eldest  line. 

The  new  king  of  Scotland  did  homage  to  Edward  for  his  whole 
kingdom.  If  Edward  could  have  contented  himself  with  enforcing 
the  ordinary  obligations  of  feudal  superiority  all  might  have  gone 
well.  Unfortunately  for  all  parties,  he  attempted  to  stretch  them 
by  insisting  in  1293  that  appeals  from  the  courts  of  the  king  of 
Scotland  should  lie  to  the  courts  of  the  king  of  England.  Suitors 
found  that  their  rights  cc^uld  nrjt  be  ascertained  till  they  had  under- 
taken a  long  and  costly  journey  to  Westminster.  A  national  feeling 
of  resistance  w:is  rcniscd  among  the  Scois,  and  tliough  J^dward 
pressed  his  claims  courteously,  he  continued  to  press  them.  A  tem- 
per grevv'  up  in  Scotland  whicli  might  be  dangerous  to  him  if  Scot- 
land could  finti  an  allv.      Elward  now  had  some  trouble  with  Philip 


148  ENGL  A  N  D 

1295-1296 

IV,  of  France  and  in  1295  a  league  was  made  between  France  and 
Scotland,  which  lasted  for  more  than  three  hundred  years.  Its 
permanence  was  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  was  a  league  between 
nations  more  than  a  league  between  kings. 

Edward,  attacked  on  two  sides,  threw  himself  for  support  on 
the  English  nation.  Tovvards  the  end  of  1295  he  summoned  a  Par- 
liament which  was  in  most  respects  the  model  for  all  succeeding 
Parliaments.  It  was  attended  not  only  by  bishops,  abbots,  earls,  and 
barons,  by  two  knights  from  every  shire,  and  two  burgesses  from 
every  borough,  but  also  by  representatives  of  the  chapters  of  cathe- 
drals and  of  the  parochial  clergy.  It  cannot  be  said  with  any  ap- 
proach to  certainty  whether  the  Parliament  thus  collected  met  in 
one  House  or  not.  As.  however,  the  barons  and  knights  offered  an 
eleventh  of  the  value  of  their  movable  goods,  the  clergy  a  tenth,  and 
the  burgesses  a  seventh,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  there  was  a  separation 
into  what  in  modern  times  would  be  called  three  Houses,  at  least  for 
purposes  of  taxation.  At  all  events,  the  representatives  of  the 
clergy  subsequently  refused  to  sit  in  Parliament,  preferring  to  vote 
money  to  the  Crown  in  their  own  convocations. 

In  1296  Edward  turned  first  upon  Scotland.  After  he  crossed 
the  border  Balliol  sent  to  him  renouncing  his  homage.  "  Has  the 
felon  fool  done  such  folly? "  said  Edward.  "  If  he  will  not  come  to 
us,  we  will  go  to  him."  He  won  a  decisive  victory  over  the  Scots 
at  Dunbar.  Balliol  surrendered  his  crown,  and  was  carried  off, 
never  to  reappear  in  Scotland.  Edward  set  up  no  more  vassal 
kings.  He  declared  himself  to  be  the  immediate  king  of  Scotland, 
Balliol  having  forfeited  the  crown  by  treason.  The  Scottish  nobles 
did  homage  to  him.  On  his  return  to  England  he  left  behind  him 
the  Earl  of  Surrey  and  Sir  Hugh  Cressingham  as  guardians  of  the 
kingdom,  and  he  carried  off  from  Scone  the  stone  of  destiny  on 
which  the  Scottish  kings  had  been  crowned,  and  concerning  which 
there  had  been  an  old  prophecy  to  the  effect  that  wherever  that  stone 
was  Scottish  kings  should  rule.  The  stone  was  placed,  where  it 
still  remains,  under  the  coronation-chair  of  the  English  kings  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  and  there  were  those  long  afterwards  who 
deemed  the  prophecy  fulfilled  when  the  Scottish  king  James  VI. 
came  to  take  his  seat  on  that  chair  as  James  I.  of  England. 

The  dispute  with  France  and  the  conquest  of  Scotland  cost 
much  money,  anrl  Edward,  finding  his  ordinary  revenue  insufficient, 
had  1}een   dri\-c!"i  to  increase   it  by  unusual   means.      He  gathered 


EDWARD    I. -^EDWARD    II.  149 

1296-1297 

assemblies  of  the  merchants,  and  persuaded  them  without  the  leave 
of  ParHament  to  increase  the  export  duties,  and  he  also  induced  the 
clergy  in  the  same  way  to  grant  him  large  sums.  The  clergy  were 
the  first  to  resist.  In  1296  Boniface  VIII.,  a  Pope  who  pushed  to 
the  extreme  the  Papal  claims  to  the  independence  of  the  Church, 
issued  the  bull,  Clericis  laicos,  in  which  he  declared  that  the  clergy 
were  not  to  pay  taxes  without  the  Pope's  consent;  and  when  at  the 
end  of  the  year  Edward  called  on  his  Parliament  to  grant  him  fresh 
sums,  Winchelsey,  the  Ardibishop  of  Canterbury,  refused,  on  the 
ground  of  this  Bull,  to  allow  a  penny  to  be  levied  from  the  clergy. 
Edward,  instead  of  arguing  with  him,  directed  the  chief  justice  of 
the  King's  Bench  to  announce  that,  as  the  clergy  would  pay  no  taxes, 
they  would  no  longer  be  protected  by  the  king.  The  clergy  now 
found  themselves  in  evil  case.  Anyone  who  pleased  could  rob  them 
or  beat  them,  and  no  redress  was  to  be  had.  They  soon  therefore 
evaded  their  obligation  to  obey  the  Bull,  and  paid  their  taxes,  under 
the  pretense  that  they  were  making  presents  to  the  king,  on  which 
Edward  again  opened  his  courts  to  them.  In  the  days  of  Plenry  I. 
or  Henry  II.  it  would  not  have  been  possiljle  to  treat  the  clergy  in 
this  fashion.  The  fact  was,  that  the  mass  of  the  people  now  looked 
to  the  king  instead  of  to  the  Church  for  protection,  and  therefore 
respected  the  clergy  less  than  tliey  had  done  in  earlier  days. 

In  1297  Edward,  having  subdued  the  Scots  in  the  preceding 
year,  resolved  to  conduct  one  army  to  Flanders,  and  to  send  another 
to  Gascony  to  maintain  his  rights  against  Philip  IV.  He  therefore 
called  on  his  barons  to  take  part  in  these  enterprises.  Among 
those  ordered  to  go  to  Gascony  were  Roger  Bigod,  Karl  of  Nor- 
folk, and  Humfrey  Bohun,  Earl  of  Hereford.  They  declared  that 
they  were  only  bound  to  follow  the  king  himself,  and  that  as  Edward 
was  not  going  in  person  to  Gascony  they  would  not  go.  The  two 
earls  soon  found  support.  The  barons  were  sore  because  Edward's 
reforms  had  diminished  their  authority.  The  clergy  were  st)re 
because  of  their  recent  treatment.  The  merchants  were  sore  because 
of  the  exactions  to  which  they  had  been  subjected.  Archbishop 
Winchelsey  bound  the  malcontents  together  by  asking  Edward  to 
confirm  Magna  Carta  and  oth.er  charters  granted  by  his  predecessors, 
and  by  adding  other  articles  now  proposed  for  the  first  time,  so  as 
to  preclude  him  from  demanding  taxes  not  granted  by  Parliament. 
Edward  found  that  the  new  articles  restricted  his  action  more  than 
it  had  been  restricted  by  the  older  charters.     He  was  deeply  vexed. 


150  ENGLAND 

1297-1298 

as  he  thought  that  he  desen-ed  to  be  trusted,  and  that,  though  he  had 
exacted  illegal  payments,  he  had  only  done  so  out  of  necessity.  He 
saw,  however,  that  he  must  yield,  but  he  could  not  bring  himself 
to  yield  in  person,  and  he  therefore  crossed  the  sea  to  Flanders, 
leaving  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  make  the  required  concession.  On 
October  lo,  1297,  the  Coniirmatio  Cartarum,  as  it  was  called,  was 
issued  in  the  king's  name.  It  differed  from  Magna  Carta  in  this, 
that  whereas  John  had  only  engaged  not  to  exact  feudal  revenue 
from  his  vassals  without  consent  of  Parliament,  Edward  I.  also 
engaged  not  to  exact  custom  duties  without  a  Parliamentary  grant. 
From  that  time  no  general  revenue  could  be  taken  from  the  whole 
realm  without  a  breach  of  the  law,  though  the  king  still  continued 
for  some  time  to  raise  tallages,  or  special  payments,  from  the  tenants 
of  his  own  demesne  lands. 

While  Edward  was  contending  with  his  own  people  his  officers 
had  been  oppressing  the  Scots.  They  had  treated  Scotland  as  a 
conquered  land,  not  as  a  country  joined  to  England  by  equal  union. 
Resistance  began  in  1297,  and  a  rising  v.'as  headed  by  Wallace. 
In  the  autumn  an  English  army  advancing  into  Scotland  reached  the 
south  bank  of  the  Forth  near  Stirling.  In  the  battle  which  ensued, 
\\'allace's  victory  was  complete,  and  he  then  invaded  England,  rav- 
aging and  slaughtering  as  far  as  Hexham. 

In  1298  Edward,  who  had  been  unsuccessful  on  the  Continent, 
made  a  truce  with  Philip.  Returning  to  England,  he  marched 
against  Wallace,  and  came  up  with  him  at  Falkirk.  The  battle 
which  ensued,  like  William's  victory  at  Senlac,  was  a  triumph 
of  inventive  military  skill  over  valor  content  to  rest  upon 
ancient  methods.  At  Falkirk  the  long-bow  was  tried  for  the  first 
time  in  any  considerable  battle.  The  effect  was  overwhelming: 
a  shower  of  arrows  poured  upon  a  single  point  in  the  ring  of  the 
spearmen  soon  cleared  a  gap.  Edward's  cavalry  dashed  in  before 
the  enemy  had  time  to  close,  and  the  victory  was  won.  Wallace  had 
had  scarcely  one  of  the  Scottish  nobles  with  him  either  at  Stirling 
or  at  Falkirk,  and  unless  all  Scotland  combined  he  could  hardly  be 
expected  to  succeed  against  such  a  warrior  as  Edward.  Wallace's 
merit  was  that  he  did  not  despair  of  his  country,  and  that  by  his 
patriotic  vigor  lie  prepared  the  minds  of  Scotsmen  for  a  happier  day. 
He  himself  l^ed  to  France,  but  Scotland  struggled  on  without  him. 
Some  of  the  nobles,  now  that  Wallace  was  no  longer  present  to  give 
them  cause  of  jealousy,  took  part  in  the  resistance,  and  only  in  1304 


EDWARD    I.  — EDWARD    II.  151 

1304-1305 

did  Edward  after  repeated  campaigns  complete  his  second  conquest 
of  the  country. 

Edward  then  proceeded  to  incorporate  Scotland  with  England, 
Scotland  was  to  be  treated  very  much  as  Wales  had  been  treated 
before.  There  was  to  be  as  little  harshness  as  possible.  Nobles 
who  had  resisted  Edward  were  to  keep  their  estates  on  payment  of 
fines,  the  Scottish  law  was  to  be  observ^ed,  and  Scots  were  to  be 
chosen  to  represent  the  wishes  of  their  fellow-countrymen  in  the  Par- 
liament at  Westminster.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Scottish  nobles 
were  to  surrender  their  castles,  and  the  country  was  to  be  governed 
by  an  English  lieutenant,  who,  together  with  his  council,  had 
power  to  amend  the  laws. 

Edward's  dealings  with  Scotland,  mistaken  as  they  were,  were 
not  those  of  a  self-willed  tyrant.  If  it  be  once  admitted  that  he  was 
really  the  lord  paramount  of  Scotland,  everything  that  he  did  may  be 
justified  upon  feudal  principles.  First,  Balliol  forfeited  his  vassal 
crown  by  breaking  his  obligations  as  a  vassal.  Secondly,  Edward, 
through  the  default  of  his  vassal,  took  possession  of  the  fief  which 
Balliol  had  forfeited,  and  thus  became  the  immediate  lord  of  Balliol's 
vassals.  Thirdly,  those  vassals  rebelled — so  at  least  Edward  would 
have  said — against  their  new  lord.  Fourthly,  they  thereby  forfeited 
their  estates  to  him,  and  he  was  therefore,  according  to  his  own 
view,  in  the  right  in  restoring  their  estates  to  them — if  he  restored 
them  at  all — under  new  conditions.  Satisfactory  as  this  argument 
must  have  seemed  to  Edward,  it  was  weak  in  two  places.  The 
Scots  might  attack  it  at  its  basis  by  retorting  that  Edward  liad  never 
truly  been  lord  paramount  of  Scotland  at  all ;  or  they  might  assert 
that  it  did  not  matter  whether  he  was  so  or  not,  because  the  Scottish 
right  to  national  independence  was  superior  to  all  feudal  claims.  It 
is  this  latter  argument  which  has  tlie  most  weight  at  tlie  present  day, 
and  it  seems  to  us  strange  that  Edward,  who  had  done  so  much  to 
encourage  the  national  growth  of  England,  should  have  entirely 
ignored  the  national  growth  of  Scotland.  All  that  can  be  said  to 
palliate  Edward's  mistake  is  that  it  was,  at  first,  dilficult  to  perceive 
that  there  was  a  Scottish  nationality  at  all.  Changes  in  the  political 
aspect  of  affairs  grow  up  unobserved,  and  it  was  not  till  after  his 
death  that  all  classes  in  Scotland  were  ccnnpletely  welded  together 
in  resistance  to  an  English  king.  At  all  events,  if  he  treated  the 
claim  of  the  Scots  to  national  independence  with  contempt,  he  at 
least  strove,  according  to  his  own  notions,  to  benefit  Scots  and  Eng- 


152  ENGLAND 

1306-1307 

lish  alike.  He  hoped  that  one  nation,  justly  ruled  under  one  gov- 
ernment, would  grow  up  in  the  place  of  two  divided  peoples. 
It  was  better  even  for  England  that  Edward's  hopes  should  fail. 
Scotland  would  have  been  of  little  worth  to  its  more  powerful 
neighbor  if  it  had  been  covv^ed  into  subjection;  whereas  when,  after 
struggling  and  suffering  for  her  independence,  she  offered  herself 
freely  as  the  companion  and  ally  of  England  to  share  in  common 
duties  and  common  efforts,  the  gift  was  priceless.  That  Scotland 
was  able  to  shake  off  the  English  yoke  was  mainly  the  work  of 
Robert  Bruce.  The  Bruces,  like  Balliol,  were  of  Norman  descent, 
and  as  Balliol's  rivals  they  had  attached  themselves  to  Edward. 
The  time  was  now  come  when  all  chances  of  Balliol's  restoration 
were  at  an  end,  and  thoughts  of  gaining  the  crown  stirred  in  the 
mind  of  the  younger  Bruce.  His  one  powerful  rival  among  the 
nobles  was  done  away  with  and  Bruce  made  for  Scone  and  was 
crowned  king  of  Scotland  in  the  presence  of  many  of  the  chief  nobil- 
ity. Edward  now  conquered  Scotland  for  a  third  time,  and  Bruce's 
supporters  were  carried  off  to  English  prisons,  and  their  lands 
divided  among  English  noblemen.  Bruce  almost  alone  escaped. 
He  knew  now  that  he  had  the  greater  part  of  the  nobility  as  well 
as  the  people  at  his  side,  and  even  in  his  lonely  wanderings  and  hair- 
breadth escapes  he  was,  what  neither  Balliol  nor  Wallace  had  been, 
the  true  head  of  the  Scottish  nation.  Before  the  end  of  1306  he 
reappeared  and  inflicted  heavy  losses  on  the  English  garrisons.  In 
1307  Edward  once  more  set  out  for  Scotland;  but  he  was  now  old 
and  worn  out,  and  lie  died  at  Burgh  on  Sands,  a  few  miles  on  the 
English  side  of  the  border. 

The  new  king,  Edward  IT.,  was  as  different  as  possible  from  his 
father.  He  was  not  wicked,  like  William  II.  and  John,  but  he 
detested  the  trouble  of  public  business,  and  thought  that  the  only 
advantage  of  being  a  king  was  that  he  would  have  leisure  to  amuse 
himself.  During  his  father's  life  he  devoted  himself  to  Piers  Gaves- 
ton,  a  Gascon,  who  encouraged  him  in  his  pleasures  and  taught  him 
to  mistrust  his  father.  Edward  I.  banished  Gaveston ;  Edward  II., 
immediately  on  his  accession,  not  only  recalled  him,  but  made  him 
regent  when  he  himself  crossed  to  France  to  be  married  to  Isabella, 
the  daughter  of  Philip  IV.  The  barons,  who  were  already  inclined 
to  win  back  some  of  the  authority  of  which  Edward  I.  had  deprived 
them,  were  very  angry  at  the  place  taken  over  their  heads  by  an  up- 
start favorite,  especially  as  Gaveston  was  ill-bred  enough  to  make 


EDWARD    I. —  EDWARD    II.  153 

1308-1314 

jests  at  their  expense.  The  barons  found  a  leader  in  Thomas,  Earl 
of  Lancaster.  He  was  an  ambitious  man,  who  tried  to  play  the 
part  which  had  been  played  by  Earl  Simon  without  any  of  Simon's 
qualifications  for  the  position.  In  1308  the  king  yielded  to  the 
barons  so  far  as  to  send  Gaveston  out  of  the  country  to  Ireland  as 
his  lieutenant.  In  1309  he  recalled  him.  The  barons  were  exasper- 
ated, and  in  the  Parliament  of  13 10  they  brought  forward  a  plan  for 
taking  the  king's  government  out  of  his  hands,  very  much  after  the 
fashion  of  the  Provisions  of  Oxford.  Twenty-one  barons  were 
appointed  Lords  Ordainers,  to  draw  up  ordinances  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country.  In  131 1  they  produced  the  ordinances. 
Gaveston  was  to  be  banished  for  life.  The  king  was  to  appoint 
officers  only  with  the  consent  of  the  barons,  without  which  he  was 
not  to  go  to  war  nor  to  leave  the  kingdom.  The  ordinances  may 
have  been  justified  in  so  far  as  they  restrained  the  authority  of  a 
king  so  incapable  as  Edward  II.  Constitutionally  their  acceptance 
was  a  retrograde  step,  as,  like  the  Provisions  of  Oxford,  they 
placed  power  in  the  hands  of  the  barons,  passing  over  Parliament  as 
a  whole.  Edward  agreed  to  the  ordinances,  but  refused  to  sur- 
render Gaveston.  The  barons  took  arms  to  enforce  their  will,  and 
in  1 3 12,  having  captured  Gaveston,  they  beheaded  him  near  War- 
wick without  the  semblance  of  a  trial. 

\^^lile  Edward  and  the  barons  were  disputing,  Bruce  gained 
ground  rapidly.  In  13 13  Stirling  was  tlie  only  fortress  of  impor- 
tance in  Scotland  still  garrisoned  by  the  English,  and  Edward  II. 
put  himself  at  the  head  of  an  army  to  relieve  it.  On  June  24.  13 14, 
Edward  reached  Bannockburn,  within  sight  of  Stirling.  -Vfler  a  bat- 
tle, the  vast  English  host  turned  and  fled.  Stirling  at  once  surren- 
dered, and  all  Scotland  was  lost  to  Edward.  Alaterially,  both  Eng- 
land and  Scotland  suffered  grievously  from  the  result  of  the  battle 
of  Bannockburn.  English  invasions  of  southern  Scotland  and  Scot- 
tish invasions  of  northern  England  spread  (les<jlati(ni  far  and  wide, 
stifling  the  germs  of  nascent  civilization.  rvForally.  both  nations 
were  in  the  end  the  gainers.  The  hardihood  and  self-reliance  of 
the  Scottish  character  is  distinctly  to  be  traced  to  those  years  of 
Struggle  against  a  powerful  neighbor.  England,  too,  was  the  better 
for  being  balked  of  its  prey.  No  nation  can  suppress  the  liberty  of 
another  without  endangering  its  own. 

Edward  was  thrown  by  his  defeat  entirely  under  the  power  of 
Lancaster,  who  took  the  whole  authority  into  his  hands  and  placed 


154  ENGLAND 

1321-1326 

and  displaced  ministers  at  his  pleasure.  Lancaster,  however,  was  a 
selfish  and  incompetent  ruler.  It  was  rather  by  good  luck  than  by 
good  management  that  Edward  was  at  last  able  to  resist  him. 
Edward  could  not  exist  without  a  personal  favorite,  and  he  found 
one  in  Hugh  le  Despenser.  Despenser  was  at  least  an  Englishman, 
which  Gaveston  had  not  been,  and  his  father,  Hugh  le  Despenser 
the  elder,  did  his  best  to  raise  up  a  party  to  support  the  king.  In 
1321,  however.  Parliament,  under  Lancaster's  influence,  declared 
against  them,  and  sentenced  them  to  exile.  Edward  took  arms  for 
his  favorites,  and  in  1322  defeated  Lancaster  at  Boroughbridge,  and 
then  had  him  tried  and  beheaded  at  Pontefract. 

Favorites  as  they  were,  the  Despensers  had  at  least  the  merit 
of  seeing  that  the  king  could  not  overpower  the  barons  by  the  mere 
assertion  of  his  personal  authority.  At  a  Parliament  held  at  York 
in  1322  the  king  obtained  the  revocation  of  the  ordinances,  and  a 
declaration  that  "  matters  to  be  established  for  the  estate  of  our 
lord  the  king  and  of  his  heirs,  and  for  the  estate  of  the  realm  and 
of  the  people,  shall  be  treated,  accorded,  and  established  in  Parlia- 
ments by  our  lord  the  king,  and  by  the  consent  of  the  prelates,  earls 
and  barons,  and  commonalty  of  the  realm,  according  as  hath  been 
hitherto  accustomed."  Edward  I.  had  in  1295  gathered  a  full 
Parliament,  including  the  commons.  But  there  was  no  law  to 
prevent  him  or  his  successors  excluding  the  commons  on  some 
future  occasion.  Edward  11.  by  this  declaration,  issued  with  con- 
sent of  Parliament,  confirmed  his  father's  practice  by  a  legislative 
act.  Unless  the  law  were  broken  or  repealed,  no  future  statute 
could  come  into  existence  without  the  consent  of  the  commons. 

For  some  years  after  the  execution  of  Lancaster,  Edward,  or 
rather  the  Despensers,  retained  power,  but  it  was  power  which  did 
not  work  for  good.  Edward  was  entirely  unable  to  control  his 
favorites.  The  elder  Despenser  was  covetous  and  the  younger 
Despenser  haughty,  and  they  both  made  enemies  for  themselves 
and  the  king.  Queen  Isabella  was  alienated  from  her  husband, 
partly  by  his  exclusive  devotion  to  the  Despensers  and  partly  by 
the  contempt  which  an  active  woman  is  apt  to  feel  for  a  husband 
without  a  will  of  his  own.  In  1325  she  went  to  France,  and  was 
soon  followed  by  her  eldest  son,  named  Edward  after  his  father. 
From  that  moment  she  conspired  against  her  husband.  In  1326 
she  landed,  accompanied  by  her  paramour,  Robert  Mortimer,  and 
bringing  with  her  foreign  troops.     The  barons  rose  in  her  favor. 


EDWARD    I.  — EDWARD    II.  155 

1327 

London  joined  them,  and  all  resistance  was  speedily  beaten  down. 
The  elder  Despenser  was  hanged  by  the  queen  at  Bristol.  The 
younger  was  hanged,  after  a  form  of  trial,  at  Hereford. 

Early  in  1327  a  Parliament  met  at  Westminster,  It  was 
filled  with  the  king's  enemies,  and  under  pressure  from  the  queen 
and  Mortimer  Edward  II.  was  compelled  to  sign  a  declaration  of 
his  own  wrong-doing  and  incompetency,  after  which  he  formally 
resigned  the  crown.  He  was  allowed  to  live  for  eight  months,  at 
the  end  of  which  he  was  brutally  murdered  in  Berkeley  Castle. 
The  deposition  of  Edward  II. — for  his  enforced  resignation  was 
practically  nothing  less  than  that — was  the  work  of  a  faithless 
wife  and  of  unscrupulous  partisans,  but  at  least  they  clothed  their 
vengeance  in  the  forms  of  Parliamentary  action.  It  was  by  the 
action  of  Parliament  in  loosing  the  feudal  ties  by  which  vassals 
were  bound  to  an  unworthy  king  that  it  rose  to  the  full  position 
of  being  the  representative  of  the  nation,  and  at  the  same  time 
virtually  proclaimed  that  the  wants  of  the  nation  must  be  satisfied 
at  the  expense  of  the  feudal  claims  of  the  king.  The  national 
headship  of  the  king  would  from  henceforward  be  the  distinguish- 
ing feature  of  his  office,  while  his  feudal  right  to  personal  service 
would  grow  less  and  less  important  every  year. 


Chapter   XV 

FROM    THE    ACCESSION    OF    EDWARD    III.    TO 
THE   TREATY    OF    BRETIGNL     1327— 1360 

LEADING    DATES 

Reigk  of  Edward  III.,  A.D.  1 327-1 377 — Accession  of  Edward  III., 
1327 — Beginning  of  the  War  with  France,  1337 — Battle  of  Crecy, 
1346 — The  Black  Death,  1348 — Battle  ok  Poitiers,  1356 — Treaty 
OF  Bretigni,  1360 

EDWARD  III.  was  only  fourteen  at  his  accession.  For  three 
years  power  was  in  the  hands  of  his  mothers  paramour, 
Mortimer.  Robert  Bruce,  though  old  and  smitten  with 
leprosy,  was  still  anxious  to  wring  from  England  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  Scottish  independence,  and.  in  spite  of  the  existing  truce, 
sent  an  army  to  ravage  the  northern  counties  of  England.  Morti- 
mer was  at  his  wits'  end.  and  in  1328  agreed  to  a  treaty  acknowl- 
edging the  complete  independence  of  Scotland.  It  was  a  wise 
thing  to  do,  but  no  nation  likes  to  acknowledge  failure,  and 
]\Iortimer  became  widely  unpopular.  He  succeeded  indeed  in 
breaking  up  a  conspiracy  against  himself,  and  in  1330  even  executed 
Edmund,  Earl  of  Kent,  a  brother  of  Edward  II.  The  discontented 
barons  found  another  leader  in  the  king,  who,  young  as  he  was. 
liad  been  married  at  fifteen  to  Philippa  of  Hainault.  Though  he 
was  already  a  father,  he  was  still  treated  by  ^Mortimer  as  a  child, 
and  virtually  kept  a  prisoner.  Edward  rebelled,  seized  Mortimer 
and  hanged  him,  and  Queen  Isabella  was  never  again  allowed  to 
take  part  in  public  affairs. 

Isabella's  three  brothers.  Louis  X..  Philip  Y..  and  Charles  IV., 
had  successively  reigned  in  France.  Had  not  Salic  Law  prohib- 
ited thiC  rule  "f  a  woman  Isabella  would  have  been  in  the  line  of 
succession.  .\t  the  time  of  the  death  of  Cliarles  IV.  England  was 
still  under  the  control  of  ^Mortimer  and  Isabella,  and  though 
Isabella,  being  the  sister  of  Charles  I\'..  thought  of  claiming  the 
crown,  not  for  herself,  but  for  her  son,  ^Mortimer  did  not  press  the 

156 


EDWARD     III.  157 

1329-1337 

claim.  In  1329  he  sent  Edward  to  do  homage  to  PhiHp  VI.  for 
his  French  possessions,  but  Edward  only  did  it  with  certain 
reservations,  and  in  1330  preparations  for  war  were  made  in 
England.  In  1331,  after  Mortimer's  fall,  when  Edward  was  his 
own  master,  he  again  visited  France,  and  a  treaty  was  concluded 
between  the  two  kings  in  which  he  abandoned  the  reservations  on 
his  homage. 

On  his  return,  Edward  looked  in  another  direction.  In  1329 
Robert  Bruce  died,  leaving  his  crown  to  his  son,  David  II.,  a  child 
five  years  old.  Certain  English  noblemen  had  in  the  late  treaty 
been  promised  restoration  of  the  estates  of  their  ancestors  in 
Scotland,  and  in  1332  some  of  them,  finding  the  promise  unful- 
filled, offered  English  forces  to  John  Balliol's  son,  Edward,  to 
help  him  to  the  Scottish  crown.  Edward  III.  supported  these,  and 
in  1333  he  laid  siege  to  Berwick,  then  in  the  hands  of  the  Scots. 
The  Scots  were  thrown  into  confusion,  and  their  whole  army  was 
almost  destroyed.  Edward  not  only  set  up  Balliol  as  his  vassal, 
but  compelled  him  to  yield  all  Scotland  south  of  the  Forth  to  be 
annexed  to  England.  Such  a  settlement  could  not  last,  Edward 
invaded  Scotland  again  and  again,  and  as  long  as  he  was  in  llie 
country  he  was  strong  enough  to  keep  his  puppet  on  the  throne, 
but  whenever  he  returned  to  England  David  Bruce's  supporters 
regained  strength.  The  struggle  promised  to  be  lengthy  unless 
help  came  to  the  Scots. 

Philip  VI..  of  France,  like  Philip  IV.  in  the  days  of  Edward  I., 
had  his  own  reasons  for  not  allowing  the  Scots  to  be  crushed. 
He  pursued  the  settled  policy  of  his  predecessors  in  attempting 
to  bring  the  great  fiefs  into  his  power,  and  especially  that 
part  of  Aquitaine  which  was  still  lield  Ijy  the  most  powerful  of  his 
vassals,  the  king  of  England,  by  secret  intrigues  and  legal  chicanery. 
Ill-feeling  increased  on  both  sides.  Philip  welcomed  David  Bruce, 
and  in  1336  French  sailors  attacked  English  shij^ping  and  landed 
plunderers  in  the  Isle  of  Wiglit.  In  1337  Edward  determined  to 
resist,  and  the  long  war  roughly  known  as  the  Hundred  Years' 
War  began.  It  was  in  reality  waged  to  discover  by  an  appeal  to 
arms  whether  the  whole  of  Aquitaine  was  to  be  incorporated  with 
France  and  whether  Scotland  was  to  be  incorporated  with 
England.  That  which  gave  it  its  peculiar  bitterness  was.  however, 
not  so  much  the  claims  of  tlie  kings,  as  the  jxissions  of  their  sub- 
jects.    The   national   antagonism   aroused   by   the   pkmderings   of 


158  ENGLAND 

1337 

French  sea-rovers  would  be  invigorated  by  the  plunderings  of 
EngHshmen  in  the  fields  of  France. 

To  Edv/ard  it  was  merely  a  question  of  defending,  first 
England,  and  then  Aquitaine,  against  aggression.  He  won  over, 
with  large  offers  of  money,  the  alliance  of  the  princes  of  the  em- 
pire whose  lands  lay  round  the  French  frontier  to  the  north  and 
east,  and  even  gained  the  support  of  the  Emperor  Lewis  the  Ba- 
varian. His  relations  with  Flanders  were  even  more  important. 
In  Flanders  there  had  sprung  up  great  manufacturing  towns,  such 
as  Ghent,  Bruges,  and  Ypres,  which  worked  up  into  cloth  the  wool 
which  was  the  produce  of  English  sheep.  These  wealthy  towns 
claimed  political  independence,  and  thus  came  into  collision  with 
their  feudal  lord,  the  Count  of  Flanders.  Philip,  unlike  his  wiser 
predecessors,  despised  the  strength  which  he  might  gain  from  the 
good-will  of  citizens  in  a  struggle  against  their  lords,  and  took  the 
part  of  the  Count,  and  for  a  time  crushed  the  citizens  at  the  battle 
of  Cassel.  After  a  while  the  cities  recovered  themselves,  and 
formed  an  alliance  under  the  leadership  of  Jacob  van  Arteveldt, 
a  Flemish  nobleman,  who  had  ingratiated  himself  with  them  by 
enrolling  himself  among  the  brewers  of  Ghent,  and  who  was  now 
successful  in  urging  his  countrymen  to  enter  into  friendship  with 
Edward, 

Li  the  long  run  Edward's  cause  would  be  found  a  losing  one, 
but  there  were  circumstances  which  made  it  prevail  for  a  time. 
In  France  there  was  a  broad  distinction  between  gentlemen  on 
the  one  side  and  citizens  and  peasants  on  the  other.  The  gentlemen 
despised  all  who  were  not  of  their  own  class.  This  broad  distinc- 
tion of  ranks  told  upon  the  military  strength  of  the  crown.  The 
fighting  force  of  the  French  king  was  his  feudal  array  of  armor- 
protected  cavalry,  composed  entirely  of  gentlemen,  and  aiming  at 
deciding  battles  in  the  old  fashion  by  the  rush  of  horsemen.  If 
foot  soldiers  were  brought  at  all  into  the  field  they  were,  for  the 
most  part,  ill-armed  and  ill-trained  peasants,  exposed  to  be  help- 
lessly slaughtered  by  the  horsemen. 

In  England,  on  the  otlier  hand,  the  various  orders  of  society 
had  been  welded  together  into  a  united  people.  War  had  become 
in  England  the  aft'air  of  the  nation  and  no  longer  the  affair  of  a 
class.  It  must  be  waged  with  efficient  archers  as  well  as  with 
efficient  horsemen,  the  archers  being  drawn  from  the  class  of 
yeomen  or  free  landed  proprietors  of  small  plots  of  land,  which 


EDWARD     III.  159 

1337-1340 

was  entirely  wanting-  in  France.  Such  an  army  needed  pay,  and 
the  large  sums  required  for  the  purpose  could  only  be  extracted 
from  a  nation  which,  like  the  English,  had  grown  comparatively 
rich  because  it  was  at  peace  within  its  own  borders.  Edward  was 
compelled,  if  he  wanted  to  fight,  to  encourage  trade,  though  it  is 
only  fair  to  remember  that  he  showed  himself  ready  to  encourage 
trade  without  any  such  ulterior  object.  He  brought  Flemish 
weavers  into  England,  and  did  his  best  to  improve  the  feeble  woolen 
manufacture  of  the  Eastern  counties. 

His  great  resource,  however,  for  purposes  of  taxation,  was 
the  export  of  wool  to  the  Flemish  manufacturing  towns.  Some- 
times he  persuaded  Parliament  to  raise  the  duties  upon  exported 
wool ;  sometimes  he  raised  them,  by  an  evasion  of  tlie  law,  after 
making  a  private  compact  with  the  merchants  without  consulting 
Parliament  at  all;  sometimes  he  turned  merchant  himself  and 
bought  wool  cheaply  in  England  to  sell  it  dear  in  Flanders. 

Great  as  was  Edward's  advantage  in  having  a  united  nation 
at  his  back,  it  hardly  seemed  in  the  first  years  of  the  war  as  though 
he  knew  how  to  use  it.  Though  he  had  declared  war  against 
Philip  in  1337,  he  did  not  begin  hostilities  till  the  following  year. 
In  1338,  after  landing  at  Antwerp,  he  obtained  from  the  Emperor 
Lewis  the  title  of  Imperial  Vicar,  which  gave  him  a  right  to  the 
military  services  of  the  vassals  of  the  Empire.  Crowds  of  German 
and  Low  Country  lords  pressed  into  his  ranks,  but  they  all  wanted 
high  pay,  and  his  resources,  great  as  they  were,  were  soon  ex- 
hausted, and  he  had  to  pawn  his  crowns  to  satisfy  their  needs. 
These  lords  proved  as  useless  as  they  were  expensive.  In  1339 
Edward  could  not  induce  Philip  to  fight,  and  was  obliged  to  return 
to  England. 

He  then  attempted  to  fall  back  on  tlie  support  of  the 
Flemings,  but  was  told  by  them  that  unless  he  formally  took 
the  title  of  King  of  France,  which  he  had  only  occasionnlly  done 
before,  they  could  not  fight  for  him,  as  the  king  of  France,  who- 
ever he  might  be,  was  their  superior  lord,  and  as  sucli  had  a  claim 
to  their  services.  After  some  hesitation,  in  the  beginning  of  1340. 
Edward  satisfied  their  scruples  by  reviving  the  claim  which  he  had 
formerly  abandoned,  declaring  himself  to  be,  in  right  of  his  mother, 
the  lawful  king  of  France;  and  quartering  the  French  arms  with 
his  own.  A  third  territorial  question  was  tluis  added  to  the  other 
two.     Practically  Edward's  answer  to  Philip's  effort  to  absorb  all 


160  ENGLAND 

1340-1346 

Aqiiitaine  in  France  was  a  counter  demand  that  all  France  should 
be  absorbed  in  England. 

Edward  had  not  yet  learned  to  place  confidence  in  those  Eng- 
lish archers  who  had  served  him  so  well  at  Halidon  Hill.  In  1340, 
however,  he  found  himself  engaged  in  a  conflict  which  should  have 
taught  him  where  his  true  strength  lay.  The  French  navy  held 
the  Channel,  and  had  burnt  Southampton.  The  fleet  of  the  Cinque 
Ports  was  no  longer  sufficient  to  cope  with  the  enemy.  Edward 
proudly  announced  that  he,  like  his  progenitors,  was  the  lord  of 
the  English  sea  on  every  side,  and  called  out  every  vessel  upon 
which  he  could  lay  hands.  The  result  was  a  naval  victory  at  Sluys, 
in  which  well-nigh  the  v-.'hole  French  fleet  was  absolutely  destroyed. 
It  was  by  the  English  archers  that  the  day  was  won.  So  complete 
was  the  victory  that  no  one  dared  to  tell  the  ill  news  to  Philip,  till 
his  jester  called  out  to  him,  "  What  cowards  these  English  arc  !  " 
"Because,"  he  explained,  "  they  did  not  dare  to  leap  into  the  sea 
as  our  brave   PYenchmen  did." 

If  Edward  was  to  obtain  still  greater  success,  he  had  but  to 
fight  with  a  national  force  behind  him  on  land  as  he  had  fought  at 
sea ;  but  he  was  slow  to  learn  the  lesson.  For  six  more  years  he 
frittered  away  his  strength.  There  was  a  disputed  succession  in 
Brittany,  and  one  of  the  claimants  ranged  himself  on  the  side  of  the 
English.  Up  to  the  end  of  1345  there  was  no  decisive  result  on 
either  side.  In  Scotland,  too,  things  had  been  going  so  badly  for 
Edward  that  in  1341  David  Bruce  had  been  able  to  return,  and  was 
now  again  ruling  over  his  own  people. 

Surprising  as  Edward's  neglect  to  force  on  a  battle  in  France 
appears  to  us,  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  those  days  it  was  far 
more  difficult  to  bring  on  an  engagement  than  it  is  in  tlie  present 
day.  Fortified  towns  and  castles  were  then  almost  impregnable, 
except  when  they  were  starved  out;  and  it  was  therefore  seldom 
necessary  for  a  commander — on  other  grounds  unwilling  to  fight — 
to  risk  a  battle  in  order  to  save  an  important  post  from  capture. 
Edward,  however,  does  not  appear  to  have  thought  that  there  was 
anything  to  be  gained  by  fighting.  In  1346  he  led  a  large  English 
army  into  Normandy,  taking  with  him  his  eldest  son,  afterwards 
known  as  tlie  Black  Prince,  at  that  time  a  lad  of  sixteen.  Edward 
now  deliberately  ravaged  Normandy.  He  then  marched  on,  appar- 
ently intending  to  take  refuge  in  Flanders,  but  had  to  march  far 
inland  to  cross  the  rivers  whose  bridges  had  been  broken  down 


E  D  W  A  R  D     1 1 1 .  161 

1346 

by  the  French.  From  a  point  of  honor  not  to  continue  his  retreat 
further,  Edward  hahed  on  a  gentle  slope  near  the  village  of 
Creqy  facing  eastward,  as  Philip's  force  had  swept  round  to 
avoid  difficulties  in  the  ground,  and  was  approaching  from  that 
direction. 

Great  as  was  Edward's  advantage  in  possessing  an  arm}'-  so 
diverse  in  its  composition  as  that  which  he  commanded,  it  would 
have  availed  him  little  if  he  had  not  known  how  to  order  that  army 
for  battle.  At  once  it  appeared  that  his  skill  as  a  tactician  was  as 
great  as  his  weakness  as  a  strategist.  He  drew  up  his  line  of 
archers  between  the  two  villages  of  Cregy  and  Vadicourt,  though 
his  force  was  not  large  enough  to  extend  from  one  to  the  other. 
He  then  ordered  the  bulk  of  his  horsemen  to  dismount  and  to 
place  themselves  with  leveled  spears  in  bodies  at  intervals  in  the 
line  of  archers.  The  innovation  was  thoroughly  reasonable,  as 
spearsmen  on  foot  would  be  able  to  check  the  fiercest  charge  of 
horse,  if  only  the  horse  could  be  exposed  to  a  shower  of  arrows. 
The  English  army  was  drawn  up  in  three  corps,  two  of  them  in 
the  front  line.  The  Black  Prince  was  in  command  of  one  of  the 
two  bodies  in  front,  while  the  king  himself  took  charge  of  the 
third  corps,  which  acted  as  a  reserve  in  the  rear. 

When  Philip  drew  nigh  in  the  evening  his  host  was  weary 
and  hungry.  He  ordered  his  knights  to  halt,  but  each  one  was 
thinking,  not  of  obeying  orders,  but  of  securing  a  place  in  the  front, 
where  he  might  personally  distinguish  himself.  Those  in  the  rear 
pushed  on,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  whole  of  the  French  cavalry 
became  a  disorganized  mob.  Philip  had  15,000  Genoese  crossbow- 
men,  but  a  heavy  shower  of  rain  had  wetted  the  strings  of  the  un- 
lucky Genoese.  The  English  drove  the  Genoese  back.  Then  the 
French  horsemen  charged  the  English  lines.  The  French  were 
driven  off  with  terrible  slaughter,  and  the  victory  ^^■as  wi^n.  It 
v.as  a  victory  of  foot  soldiers  over  horse  soldiers — of  a  nation  in 
which  all  ranks  joined  heartily  together  over  one  in  which  all  ranks 
except  that  of  the  gentry  were  despised.  Edward  HL  had  con- 
tributed a  high  spirit  and  a  keen  sense  of  lioncn",  but  it  was  to  the 
influence  of  Edward  L — to  his  wide  and  far-reaching  statesman- 
ship, and  his  innovating  military  genius — that  the  victory  of  Cregy 
was  really  due. 

While  Edward  was  fighting  in  France,  the  Scots  invaded 
England,  but  they  were  defeated  at  Xevill's  Cross,  and  their  king, 


162  ENGLAND 

1347 

David  Bruce  (David  II.),  taken  prisoner.  Edward,  when  the 
news  reached  him,  had  laid  siege  to  Calais.  In  this  siege  cannon, 
which  had  been  used  in  earlier  stages  of  the  war,  were  employed, 
but  they  were  too  badly  made  and  loaded  with  too  little  gunpowder 
to  do  much  damage.  In  1347  Calais  was  starved  into  surrender, 
and  Edward,  who  regarded  the  town  as  a  nest  of  pirates,  ordered 
six  of  the  principal  burgesses  to  come  out  with  ropes  round  their 
necks,  as  a  sign  that  they  were  to  be  put  to  death.  It  was  only  at 
Queen  Philippa's  intercession  that  he  spared  their  lives,  but  he  drove 
every  Frenchman  out  of  Calais,  and  peopled  it  with  his  own  sub- 
jects. A  truce  with  Philip  was  agreed  on,  and  Edward  returned 
to  England. 

Edward  III.  had  begun  his  reign  as  a  constitutional  ruler,  and 
on  the  whole  he  had  no  reason  to  regret  it.  In  his  wars  with  France 
and  Scotland  he  had  the  popular  feeling  with  him,  and  he  showed 
his  reliance  on  it  when,  in  1340.  he  consented  to  the  abolition  of 
his  claim  to  impose  tallage  on  his  demesne  lands — the  sole  frag- 
ment of  unparliamentary  taxation  legally  retained  by  the  king 
after  the  Coiifinnatio  Car f anon.  In  1341  the  two  Houses  of 
Parliament  finally  separated  from  one  another,  and  when 
Edward  picked  a  quarrel  with  Archbishop  Stratford,  the  Lords 
successfully  insisted  that  no  member  of  their  House  could  be  tried 
excepting  by  his  peers.  The  Commons,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
striving — not  always  successfully — to  maintain  their  hold  upon 
taxation.  In  1341  they  made  Edward  a  large  money  grant  on 
condition  of  his  yielding  to  their  demands,  and  Edward  (whose 
constitutional  intentions  were  seldom  proof  against  his  wish  to  re- 
tain the  power  of  the  purse)  shamelessly  broke  his  engagement 
after  receiving  the  money.  On  other  occasions  the  Commons  were 
more  successful ;  yet,  after  all,  the  composition  of  their  House  was 
of  more  importance  than  any  special  victory  they  might  gain.  In 
it  the  country  members — or  knights  of  the  shire — sat  side  by  side 
with  the  burgesses  of  the  towns.  In  no  other  country  in  Europe 
would  this  have  been  possible.  The  knights  of  the  sliire  were  gen- 
tlemen, who  on  the  Continent  were  reckoned  among  the  nobility, 
and  despised  townsmen  far  too  much  to  sit  in  the  same  House  with 
them.  In  England  there  was  the  same  amalgamation  of  classes  in 
Parliament  as  on  the  battlefield.  When  once  gentlemen  and 
burgesses  formed  part  of  the  same  assembly,  they  would  come  to 
have  common  interests ;  and,  in  any  struggle  in  which  the  merchants 


EDWARD     III.  163 

*348 

were  engaged,  it  would  be  a  great  gain  to  them  that  a  class  of  men 
trained  to  arms  would  be  inclined  to  take  their  part. 

Edward's  return  after  the  surrender  of  Calais  was  followed  by 
an  outburst  of  luxury.  As  the  sea-rovers  of  Nonnandy  and  Calais 
had  formerly  plundered  Englishmen,  English  landsmen  now  plun- 
dered Normandy  and  Calais.  "  There  was  no  woman  who  had  not 
gotten  garments,  furs,  feather-beds,  and  utensils  from  the  spoils." 
Edward  surrounded  himself  with  feasting  and  jollity.  About  this 
time  he  instituted  the  Order  of  the  Garter,  and  his  tournaments 
were  thronged  with  gay  knights  and  gayer  ladies  in  gorgeous 
attires.  The  very  priests  caught  the  example,  and  decked  themselves 
in  unclerical  garments.  Even  architecture  lent  itself  to  the  prevail- 
ing taste  for  magnificence.  The  beautiful  Decorated  style  which 
had  come  into  use  towards  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  was, 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  superseded  by  the  Perpendicular 
style,  in  which  beauty  of  form  was  abandoned  for  the  sake  of 
breadth.  Roofs  became  wide,  and  consequently  halls  were  larger 
and  better  adapted  to  crowded  gatherings. 

In  the  midst  of  this  luxurious  society  arrived,  in  1348,  a  terri- 
ble plague  which  had  been  sweeping  over  Asia  and  Europe,  and 
which  in  modern  times  has  been  styled  the  Black  Death.  No 
plague  known  to  history  was  so  destructive  of  life.  Half  of  the 
population  certainly  perished,  and  some  think  tliat  the  number 
of  those  who  died  must  be  reckoned  at  two-thirds. 

This  enormous  destruction  of  life  could  not  fail  to  have  im- 
portant results  on  the  economic  conditions  of  the  country.  The 
process  of  substituting  money  rents  for  labor  service,  which  had 
begun  some  generations  before,  had  become  \"ery  general  at 
the  accession  of  Edward  III.  so  that  the  demesne  land  wdiich 
the  lord  kept  in  his  own  hands  was  on  most  estates  cultivated  by 
hired  labor.  Now%  when  at  least  half  of  the  laborers  had  disap- 
peared, those  who  remained  having  less  competition  to  fear,  de- 
manded higher  wages,  while  at  tlie  same  time  the  price  of  the 
produce  of  the  soil  was  the  same  or  less  than  it  had  been  before, 
The  question  affected  not  merely  the  great  lords  but  the  smaller 
gentry  as  well.  The  House  of  Commons,  wliich  was  filled  with 
the  smaller  gentry  and  the  well-to-do  t<jwnsmcn — who  were  also 
employers  of  labor — was  therefore  as  eager  as  the  House  of  Lords 
to  keep  down  wages.  In  1349  the  Statute  of  Laborers  was  passed, 
fixing  a  scale  of  wages  at  the  rates  which  had  Ijeen  paid  before  the 


16i  ENGLAND 

1349-1356 

Black  Death,  and  ordering  punishments  to  be  inflicted  on  those 
who  demanded  more.  It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  the  legis- 
lators had  any  tyrannical  intentions.  For  ages  all  matters  relating 
to  agriculture  had  been  fixed  by  custom ;  and  the  laborers  were  out- 
rageously violating  custom.  Custom,  however,  here  found  itself 
in  opposition  to  the  forces  of  nature,  and  though  the  statute  was 
often  renewed  with  increasing  penalties,  it  was  difficult  to  secure 
obedience  to  it  in  the  teeth  of  the  opposition  of  the  laborers.  The 
chief  result  of  the  statute  was  that  it  introduced  an  element  of  dis- 
cord between  two  classes  of  society. 

In  1352  was  passed  the  Statute  of  Treasons,  by  which  the 
offenses  amounting  to  treason  were  defined,  the  chief  of  them  be- 
ing levying  war  against  the  king.  As  no  one  but  a  great  noble- 
man was  strong  enough  even  to  think  of  levying  war  against  the 
king,  this  statute  may  be  regarded  as  a  concession  to  the  wealthier 
landowners  rather  than  to  the  people  at  large. 

In  1350  Philip  VI.  of  France  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
son  John.  The  truce  was  prolonged,  and  it  was  not  till  1355  that 
war  was  renewed.  Edward  himself  was  recalled  to  England  by 
fresh  troubles  in  Scotland,  but  the  Black  Prince  landed  at  Bordeaux 
and  marched  through  the  south  of  France,  plundering  as  he  went. 
Neither  father  nor  son  seems  to  have  had  any  idea  of  gaining  his 
ends  except  by  driving  tlie  French  by  ill-treatment  into  submission. 

In  1356  the  Black  Prince  swept  over  central  France  in  another 
similar  plundering  expedition.  He  was  on  his  way  back  with  his 
plunder  to  Bordeaux  with  no  more  than  8,000  men  to  guard  it  when 
he  learned  as  he  passed  near  Poitiers  that  King  John  was  close 
to  him  with  50,000.  He  drew  up  his  little  force  on  a  rising  ground 
amid  thick  vineyards,  with  a  hedge  in  front  of  him  behind  which 
he  could  shelter  his  archers.  As  at  Cregy,  the  greater  part  of  the 
English  horsemen  were  dismounted,  and  John,  thinking  that  therein 
lay  their  secret  of  success,  ordered  most  of  his  horsemen  to  dis- 
mount as  well,  not  having  discovered  that  though  spearmen  on 
fo(jt  could  present  a  formidable  resistance  to  a  cavalry  charge,  they 
were  entirely  useless  in  attacking  a  strong  position  held  by  archers. 
Then  he  sent  forward  300  knights  who  retained  their  htjrses, 
bidding  a  strung  body  of  dismounted  horsemen  to  supptjrt  them. 
The  horsemen,  followed  by  the  footmen,  charged  at  a  gap  in  the 
hedge,  Ijut  the  hedge  on  cither  side  was  lined  with  English  Ijowmen, 
aiid  men  and  hijrses  were  struck  (^lown.     Those  whrj  survived  tied 


EDWARD     III.  165 

1357-1360 

and  scattered  their  countrymen  behind.  Seeing-  the  disorder,  the 
Black  Prince  ordered  the  few  knights  whom  he  had  kept  on  horse- 
back to  sweep  round  and  to  fall  upon  the  confused  crowd  in  the 
flank.  The  archers  advanced  to  second  them,  and,  gallantly  as  the 
French  fought,  their  unhorsed  knights  could  accomplish  nothing 
against  the  combined  efforts  of  horse  and  foot.  King  John  was 
taken  prisoner  and  the  battle  was  at  an  end.  After  the  astounding 
victory  of  Poitiers,  the  Black  Prince,  instead  of  marching  upon 
Paris,  went  back  to  Bordeaux.  In  1357  he  made  a  truce  for  two 
years  and  returned  to  England  with  his  royal  captive. 

In  1356,  the  year  in  which  the  Black  Prince  fought  at  Poitiers, 
his  father  ravaged  Scotland.  Edward,  however,  gained  nothing 
by  this  fresh  attempt  at  conquest.  In  his  retreat  he  suffered  heavy 
loss,  and  in  1357,  changing  his  plan,  he  replaced  David  Bruce 
on  the  throne,  and  strove  to  win  the  support  of  the  Scots 
instead  of  exasperating  them  by  violence.  In  the  meanwhile 
the  two  years'  truce  brought  no  good  to  France.  The  nol)les  wrung 
from  the  peasants  the  sums  needed  to  redeem  their  relatives,  and 
the  disbanded  soldiers  formed  themselves  into  free  companies  and 
plundered  the  country.  The  French  peasants  broke  into  a  rebellion 
known  as  the  Jacquerie.  After  committing  unheard-of  cruelties  ihe 
peasants  were  repressed  and  slauglitered.  An  attempt  of  the  States- 
General — a  sort  of  French  Parliament  which  occasionally  met — to 
improve  the  government  failed.  Peace  with  England  was  talked 
of,  but  Edward's  terms  were  too  hard  to  be  accepted,  and  in  1359 
war  began  again. 

So  miseral)ly  devasted  was  France  that  Edward,  when  he  in- 
vaded the  country  in  1359,  had  to  take  with  him  not  only  men  and 
munitions  of  war,  l)ut  large  stores  of  provisions.  "  I  could  not  be- 
lieve," wrote  an  Italian  who  revisited  France  after  an  al)scncc  of 
some  years,  "that  tliis  was  the  same  kingdom  tliat  I  had  once  seen 
so  rich  and  flourishing.  Nothing  presented  itself  to  my  eyes  but  a 
fearful  solitude,  an  extreme  poverty,  land  uncultivated,  houses  in 
ruins.  Even  the  neighborhood  of  Paris  manifested  everywhere 
marks  of  destruction  and  conflagration.  The  streets  were  de- 
serted; the  roads  overgrown  with  weeds;  the  whole  a  vast  soli- 
tude." In  the  spring  of  1360  Edward  moved  on  towards  ^the 
banks  of  the  Loire,  hoping  to  find  sustenance  there.  Near  Char- 
tres  he  was  overtaken  by  a  terrible  storm  of  hail  anrl  tlumder.  and 
in  the  roar  of  the  thunder  he  thought  that  he  heard  the  voice  of 


166  ENGLAND 

1360 

God  reproving  him  for  the  misery  which  he  had  caused.    He  abated 
his  demands  and  signed  the  treaty  of  Bretigni. 

By  the  treaty  of  Bretigni  John  was  to  be  ransomed  for  an 
enormous  sum;  Edward  was  to  surrender  his  claim  to  the  crown 
of  France  and  to  the  provinces  north  of  Aquitaine,  receiving  in 
return  the  whole  of  the  duchy  of  Aquitaine  together  with  the 
districts  round  Calais  and  Ponthieu,  all  of  them  to  be  held  in 
full  sovereignty,  without  any  feudal  obligation  to  the  king  of 
France.  Probably  it  cost  Edward  little  to  abandon  his  claim  to 
the  French  crown,  which  had  only  been  an  afterthought:  and  it 
was  a  clear  gain  to  get  rid  of  those  feudal  entanglements  which  had 
so  frequently  been  used  as  a  pretext  of  aggression  against  the  Eng- 
lish kings.  It  was  hardly  likely,  however,  that  England  would 
long  be  able  to  keep  a  country  like  Aquitaine,  which  was  geo- 
graphically part  of  France  and  in  which  French  sympathies  were 
constantly  on  the  increase.  "  We  will  obey  the  English  with  our 
lips,"  said  the  men  of  Rochelle,  when  their  town  was  surrendered, 
"  but  our  hearts  shall  never  be  moved  towards  them." 


Chapter    XVI 


REIGN    OF    EDWARD    III.    AFTER   THE   TREATY 
OF   BRETIGNI.     1360—1377 

LEADING   DATES 

Reign  of  Edward  III.,  A.D.  1327-1377 — Battle  of  Navarrete,  A.D. 
1367 — Renewal  of  War  with  France,  1369 — Truce  with  France, 
1375 — The    Good   Parliament,   1376 — Death  of   Edward   III.,   1377 

TO  hold  his  new  provinces  the  better,  Edward  sent  the  Black 
Prince  to  govern  them  in  1363  with  the  title  of  Duke  of 
Aquitaine.  King-  John  had  been  liberated  soon  after  the 
making  of  the  peace,  and  had  been  allowed  to  return  to  France  on 
payment  of  part  of  his  ransom,  and  on  giving  hostages  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  remainder.  John's  eldest  son  and  successor,  Charles 
v.,  known  as  the  Wise,  or  the  Prudent,  was  less  chivalrous,  but 
more  cautious  than  his  father,  and  soon  found  an  opportunity  of 
stirring  up  trouble  for  the  Black  Prince  without  exposing  his  own 
lands  to  danger.  Pedro  the  Cruel,  king  of  Castile,  who  had  for 
some  time  been  the  ally  of  England,  was  opposed  by  Henry  of  Tras- 
tamara  to  whom  Charles  V,  sent  help.  The  tyrannical  Pedro 
begged  the  Black  Prince  to  help  him.  Despite  the  pleadings  of  the 
Gascon  nobles,  he  did  so,  only  to  find  Pedro  as  false  as  he  was  cruel. 
Sickness  broke  out  in  the  English  ranks,  and  the  Black  Prince  re- 
turned to  Bordeaux  with  only  a  fifth  part  of  his  army,  and  with 
his  own  health  irretrievably  shattered.  In  1368  Henry  made  his 
way  back  to  Spain,  defeated  and  slew  Pedro,  and  undid  the  whole 
work  of  the  Black  Prince  to  the  south  of  the  Pyrenees. 

Worse  than  this  was  in  store  for  the  Black  Prince.  As  his 
soldiers  clamored  for  their  wages,  he  levied  a  hearth  tax  to  supply 
their  needs.  The  Aquitanian  Parliament  declared  against  the  tax, 
and  appealed  to  the  king  of  France  to  do  them  right.  In  1369 
Charles,  who  knew  that  the  men  of  Aquitaine  would  be  on  his 
side,  summoned  tlie  Black  Prince  to  Paris  to  defend  his  conduct. 
Edward,  by  the  advice  of  Parliament,  resumed  the  title  of  King 

167 


168  ENGLAND 

1369-1375 

of  France,  and  war  broke  out  afresh  in  1369.  The  result  of  the 
first  war  had  been  owing  to  the  blunders  of  the  French  in  attack- 
ing the  English  archers  with  the  feudal  cavalry.  Charles  V.  and 
his  commander,  Du  Guesclin,  resolved  to  fight  no  battles.  Their 
troops  hung  about  the  English  march,  cut  off  stragglers,  and  cap- 
tured exposed  towns.  The  English  marched  hither  and  thither, 
plundering  and  burning,  but  their  armies,  powerful  as  they  were 
when  attacked  in  a  defensive  position,  could  not  succeed  in  forcing 
a  battle,  and  were  worn  out  without  accomplishing  anything 
worthy  of  their  fame.  The  Black  Prince,  soured  by  failure 
and  ill-health,  in  1371  was  back  in  England.  His  eldest  sur- 
viving brother,  John  of  Gaunt — or  Ghent — Duke  of  Lancaster, 
continued  the  war  in  France.  In  1372  the  English  lost  town 
after  town.  In  1373  John  of  Gaunt  set  out  for  Calais.  He  could 
plunder,  but  he  could  not  make  the  enemy  fight.  "  Let  them  go," 
wrote  Charles  V.  to  his  commanders ;  "  by  burning  they  will  not 
become  masters  of  your  heritage.  Though  storms  rage  over  a 
land,  they  disperse  of  themselves.  So  will  it  be  with  these  Eng- 
lish." When  the  English  reached  the  hilly  center  of  France  food 
failed  them.  The  winter  came,  and  horses  and  men  died  of  cold 
and  want.  A  rabble  of  half-starved  fugitives  was  all  that  reached 
Bordeaux  after  a  march  of  six  hundred  miles.  Aquitaine,  where 
the  inhabitants  were  for  the  most  part  hostile  to  the  English,  and 
did  everything  in  their  power  to  assist  the  French,  was  before  long 
all  but  wholly  lost,  and  in  1375  a  truce  was  made  wliich  put  an  end 
to  hostilities  for  a  time,  leaving  only  Calais,  Cherbourg,  Brest, 
Bayonne,  and  Bordeaux  in  the  hands  of  the  English. 

The  antagonism  between  England  and  France  necessarily 
led  to  an  antagonism  between  England  and  the  Papacy.  Since  1305 
the  Popes  had  fixed  their  abode  at  Avignon,  and  Avignon  was 
near  enough  to  be  under  the  control  of  the  king  of  France.  The 
Popes  were  regarded  in  England  as  the  tools  of  the  French  enemy. 
The  Papal  court,  too,  became  distinguished  for  luxury  and  vice, 
and  its  vast  expenditure  called  for  supplies  whicli  England  was  in- 
creasingly loth  to  furnish.  By  a  system  of  provisions,  as  they  were 
called,  the  Pope  provided — or  appointed  ])eforehand — his  nominees 
to  English  benefices,  and  expected  tliat  his  nominees  would  be 
allowed  to  lioltl  the  benefices  to  the  exclusion  of  those  of  the 
patrons.  In  135 1  the  Statute  of  Provisors  ^  attempted  to  put  an 
end  to  the  system,  but  it  was  not  immediately  successful,  and  had 

1  Provisors  are  the  persons  provided  or  appointed  to  a  benefice. 


A  F  T  E  R     B  R  E  T  I  G  N  I  169 

1353-1362 

to  be  reenacted  in  later  years.  In  1353  a  Statute  of  Prccnmnire^ 
was  passed,  in  which,  though  the  Pope's  name  was  not  mentioned, 
an  attempt  was  made  to  stop  suits  being  carried  before  foreign 
courts — in  other  words,  before  tlie  Papal  court  of  Avignon.  An- 
other claim  of  the  Popes  was  to  the  1,000  marks  payable  annually 
as  a  symbol  of  John's  vassalage,  a  claim  most  distasteful  to  Eng- 
lishmen as  a  sign  of  national  humiliation.  Since  1333,  the  year  in 
which  Edward  took  the  government  into  his  own  hands,  the  pay- 
ment had  not  been  made,  and  in  1366  Parliament  utterly  rejected  a 
claim  made  by  the  Pope  for  its  revival. 

The  national  spirit  which  revealed  itself  in  an  armed  struggle 
vvdth  tlie  French  and  in  a  legal  struggle  with  the  Papacy  showed 
itself  in  the  increasing  predominance  of  the  English  language.  In 
1362  it  supplanted  French  in  the  law  courts,  and  in  the  same  year 
Parliament  was  opened  with  an  English  speech.  French  was  still 
the  language  of  the  court,  but  it  was  becoming  a  foreign  speed;, 
pronounced  very  differently  from  the  "  French  of  Paris." 

Cruel  as  had  been  the  direct  results  of  the  English  victories 
in  France,  they  had  indirectly  contributed  to  the  overthrow  of  that 
feudalism  which  weighed  heavily  upon  France  ami  upon  all  Con- 
tinental Europe.  The  success  of  the  English  had  been  the  success 
of  a  nation  strong  in  the  union  of  classes.  The  cessation  of  tlie 
war  drove  the  thoughts  of  Englishmen  back  upon  themselves.  The 
old  spiritual  channels  had  been,  to  a  great  extent,  choked  up. 
Bishops  vrere  busy  with  tlie  king's  affairs;  monks  had  long  ceased 
to  be  specially  an  example  to  the  world ;  and  even  the  friars  had 
fallen  from  their  first  estate,  and  had  found  out  tliat.  though  they 
might  personally  possess  notliing,  their  order  might  be  wealthy. 
"Jlie  men  who  won  victories  in  France  came  home  to  spend  their 
booty  in  show  and  luxury.  Yet,  for  all  the  s])]cndor  around,  there 
was  a  general  feeling-  that  the  times  were  out  of  joint,  and  tliis 
was  strengthened  by  a  fresh  inroad  of  the  Black  Death  in  1361.  Tn 
the  prevalent  yearning  for  a  better  life,  a  voice  was  gix'cn  by 
William  Langland.  whose  "  Vision  of  Piers  the  Plowman  "  appeared 
in  its  first  shape  in  1362.  In  the  o])cning  of  his  poem  he  shows  to 
his  readers  the  supremacy  of  the  MaiJ.cn  Meed — bribery — over  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men.,  lay  and  clerical.  Then  he  turns  to 
the  purification  of  this  wicked  world.  The  way  to  Truth  lies  not 
through  the  inventions  of  the  oflicial  Church,  the  pardons  and  in- 

2  So  called  from  the  first  words  of  the  writs  appointed  to  be  issued  under  it, 
Prccnuiuin-  facias;  the  Hrst  of  these  words  Ijeing  a  corruption  of  Framoncri. 


170  ENGLAND 

1371-1374 

dulgences  set  up  for  sale.  "  They  who  have  done  good  shall  go 
into  eternal  life,  but  they  who  have  done  evil  into  eternal  fire." 
He  looks  for  help  to  the  despised  peasant.  No  doubt  his  peasant 
was  idealized,  as  no  one  knew  better  than  himself ;  but  it  was  hon- 
esty of  work  in  the  place  of  dishonest  idleness  which  he  venerated. 
It  was  the  glory  of  England  to  have  produced  such  a  thought  far 
more  than  to  have  produced  the  men  who,  heavy  with  the  plunder 
of  unhappy  peasants,  stood  boldly  to  their  arms  at  Cregy  and  Poi- 
tiers. He  is  as  yet  hardly  prepared  to  say  what  is  the  righteousness 
which  leads  to  eternal  life.  It  is  not  till  he  issues  a  second  edition 
in  1377  that  he  can  answer.  To  do  well,  he  now  tells  us,  is  to  act 
righteously  to  all  in  the  fear  of  God.  To  do  better  is  to  walk  in 
the  way  of  love :  "  Behold  how  good  a  thing  it  is  for  brethren  to 
dwell  in  unity."  To  do  best  is  to  live  in  fellowship  with  Christ  and 
the  Church,  and  in  all  humility  to  bring  forth  the  fruits  of  the 
Divine  communion. 

Langland  wished  to  improve,  not  to  overthrow,  existing  in- 
institutions,  but  for  all  that  his  work  was  profoundly  revolutionary. 
They  who  call  on  those  who  have  left  their  first  love  to  return  to 
it  are  seldom  obeyed,  but  their  voice  is  often  welcomed  by  the  cor- 
rupt and  self-seeking  crowd  which  is  eager,  after  the  fashion  of 
birds  of  prey,  to  tear  the  carcass  from  which  life  has  departed. 
A  large  party  was  formed  in  England,  especially  among  the 
greater  barons,  which  was  anxious  to  strip  the  clergy  of  their 
wealth  and  power,  without  any  thought  for  the  better  fulfillment  of 
their  spiritual  functions.  In  the  Parliament  of  1371  bishops  were 
declared  unfit  to  hold  offices  of  state.  Among  others  who  were 
dismissed  was  William  of  Wykeham,  the  Bishop  of  Winchester. 
He  was  a  great  architect  and  administrator,  and  having  been  de- 
prived of  the  Chancellorship  used  his  wealth  to  found  at  Winches- 
ter the  first  great  public  school  in  England.  By  this  time  a  Chan- 
cellor was  no  longer  what  he  had  been  in  earlier  days,  a  secretary 
to  the  king.  He  was  now  beginning  to  exercise  equitable  juris- 
diction— that  is  to  say,  the  right  of  deciding  suits  according  to 
equity,  in  cases  in  which  the  strict  artificial  rules  of  the  ordinary 
courts  stood  in  the  way  of  justice. 

In  1374,  as  soon  as  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  returned  from 
his  disastrous  campaign,  he  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
baronial  and  anti-clerical  party.  He  Avas  selfish  and  unprin- 
cipled, but  he  had  enormous  wealth,  having  secured  the  vast  es- 


AFTER     BRETIGNI  171 

1374-1376 

tates  of  the  Lancaster  family  by  his  marriage  with  Blanche,  the 
granddaughter  of  the  brother  of  Thomas  of  Lancaster,  the  oppo- 
nent of  Edw'ard  IL  Rich  as  he  was  he  wished  to  be  richer ;  he  was 
now  practically  the  first  man  in  the  state.  The  king  was  suffer- 
ing from  softening  of  the  brain,  and  had  fallen  under  the  influence 
of  a  greedy  and  unscrupulous  mistress,  Alice  Ferrers.  A  bargain 
was  struck  between  the  Duke  and  Alice  Ferrers,  who  was  able  to 
obtain  the  consent  of  the  helpless  king  to  anything  she  pleased. 

If  Lancaster's  character  had  been  higher,  he  might  have  se- 
cured a  widespread  popularity,  as  the  feeling  of  the  age  was  ad- 
verse to  the  continuance  of  a  wealthy  clergy.  Even  as  things  were, 
he  had  on  his  side  John  Wycliffe,  the  most  able  reasoner  and  de- 
voted reformer  of  his  age.  Wycliffe  had  distinguished  himself  at 
Oxford,  and  had  attracted  Lancaster's  notice  by  the  ability  of  his 
argument  against  the  Fope's  claim  to  levy  John's  tribute.  In  1374 
he  had  been  sent  to  Bruges  to  argue  with  the  representatives  of  the 
Fope  on  the  question  of  the  provisions,  and  by  1376  had  either 
issued,  or  was  preparing  to  issue,  his  work  "  On  Civil  Lordship,"  in 
which,  by  a  curious  adaptation  of  feudal  ideas,  he  declared  that  aU 
men  held  their  possessions  direct  from  God,  as  a  vassal  held  his 
estate  from  his  lord ;  and  that  as  a  vassal  was  bound  to  pay  certain 
military  services,  failing  which  he  lost  his  estate,  so  everyone  who 
fell  into  mortal  sin  failed  to  pay  his  service  to  God,  and  forfeited 
his  right  to  his  worldly  possessions.  In  this  way  dominion,  as  he 
said,  was  founded  on  grace — that  is  to  say,  the  continuance  of 
man's  right  to  his  possessions  depended  on  his  remaining  in  a  state 
of  grace.  It  is  true  that  Wycliffe  qualified  his  argument  by  alleg- 
ing that  he  was  only  announcing  theoretical  truth,  and  that  no  man 
had  a  right  to  rob  another  of  his  holding  because  he  believed  him 
to  be  living  in  sin.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  men  like  Lancaster 
would  take  no  heed  of  this  distinction,  and  would  welcome  Wycliffe 
as  an  ally  in  the  work  of  despoiling  the  clergy  for  their  own 
purposes. 

Ordinary  citizens,  who  cared  nothing  for  theories  which  they 
did  not  understand,  were  roused  against  Lancaster  by  the  unblush- 
ing baseness  of  his  rule.  Nor  was  this  all.  The  anti-clerical  party 
was  also  a  baronial  party,  and  the  country  gentry  and  townsmen  had 
learned  the  lesson  that  they  would  be  the  first  to  suffer  from  the  un- 
checked rule  of  the  baronage.  They  now  had  the  House  of  Com- 
mons to  represent  their  wishes,  but  as  yet  the  House  of  Commons 


172  ENGLAND 

1376-1377 

was  too  weak  to  stand  alone.  At  last  it  was  rumored  that  when  the 
Black  Prince  died  his  young  son  Richard  was  to  be  set  aside,  and 
that  Lancaster  was  to  claim  the  inheritance.  The  Black  Prince 
awoke  from  his  lethargy,  and  stood  forward  as  the  leader  of  the 
Commons. 

A  Parliament,  known  as  the  Good  Parliament,  met  in  1376, 
and,  strong  through  the  Black  Prince's  support,  the  Commons  re- 
fused to  grant  supply  till  an  account  of  the  receipts  and  expenditure 
had  been  laid  before  them.  The  Commons  obtained  a  new  Council, 
in  which  Wykeham  was  included  and  from  which  Lancaster  was 
shut  out.  They  then  proceeded  to  accuse  before  the  House  of 
Lords  Richard  Lyons  and  Lord  Latimer  of  embezzling  the  king's 
revenue.  Lyons,  accustomed  to  the  past  ways  of  the  court,  packed 
1,000/.  in  a  barrel  and  sent  it  to  the  Black  Prince.  The  Black 
Prince  returned  the  barrel  and  the  money,  and  the  Lords  con- 
demned Lyons  to  imprisonment.  Latimer  was  also  sentenced  to 
imprisonment,  but  he  was  allowed  to  give  bail  and  regained  his 
liberty.  These  two  cases  are  the  first  instances  of  the  exercise  of 
the  right  of  impeachment — that  is  to  say,  of  the  accusation  of  politi- 
cal offenders  by  the  Commons  before  the  Lords.  Alice  Perrers  was 
next  driven  from  court. 

While  Parliament  was  still  sitting  the  Black  Prince,  worn  out 
by  his  exertions,  died.  His  son,  young  Richard,  was  at  once 
recognized  as  heir  to  the  throne.  Lancaster,  however,  regained  his 
influence  over  his  doting  father.  Alice  Perrers  and  Lord  Latimer 
found  their  way  back  to  court.  The  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  thrown  into  prison.  In  1377  a  new  Parliament,  elected 
under  Lancaster's  influence,  reversed  all  the  proceedings  of  the 
Good  Parliament,  and  sliowed  how  little  sympathy  the  baronial 
party  had  with  the  people  by  imposing  a  poll  tax  of  4c/.  a  head  on 
all  except  beggars,  thus  making  the  payment  of  a  laborer  and  a 
duke  ec[ual.  The  bishops,  unable  to  strike  at  Lancaster,  struck  at 
Wycliffe,  as  his  creature.  Wycliffe  was  summoned  to  appear  be- 
fore an  ecclesiastical  court  at  St.  Paul,  presided  over  by  Courtenay, 
the  Bishop  of  London.  He  came  supported  by  Lancaster  and  a 
troop  of  Lancaster's  followers.  Hot  words  were  exchanged  be- 
tween them  and  the  Bishop.  The  London  crowd  took  their 
Bishop's  part  and  the  Duke  was  compelled  to  flee  for  his  life.  In 
the  summer  of  1377  Edward  III.  died,  deserted  by  everyone,  Alice 
Perrers  making  off,  after  robbing  him  of  his  finger-rings. 


Chapter  XVII 

RICHARD   II.   AND   THE    SOCIAL   REVOLUTION. 

1377— 1381 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign   of  Richard   II.,   A.D.    1377-1399— Accession   of  Richard   II., 
1377 — The  Peasants'  Revolt,  1381 

'OE  to  the  land,"  quoted  Langland  from  Ecclesiastes,  in 
the  second  edition  of  "  Piers  the  Plowman,"'  "  when  the 
king  is  a  child."  Richard  was  but  ten  years  of  age  when 
he  was  raised  to  the  throne.  The  French  plundered  the  coast,  and 
the  Scots  plundered  the  Borders.  In  the  presence  of  such  dangers 
Lancaster  and  Wykeham  forgot  their  differences,  and  as  Lancaster 
was  too  generally  distrusted  to  allow  of  his  acting  as  regent,  the 
council  governed  in  the  name  of  the  young  king.  Lancaster,  liow- 
ever,  took  the  lead,  and  renewed  the  war  with  France  with  but  little 
result  beyond  so  great  a  waste  of  money  as  to  stir  up  Parliament 
to  claim  a  control  over  the  expenditure  of  the  Crown. 

In  1378  began  the  Great  Schism.  For  nearly  half  a  century 
from  that  date  there  were  two  Popes,  one  at  Avignon  and  one  at 
Rome.  WycHffe  had  been  gradually  losing  his  reverence  for  a 
single  Pope,  and  he  had  none  left  for  two.  He  was  now  busy  with 
a  translation  of  the  Bible  into  English,  and  sent  forth  a  band  of 
"  poor  priests  "  to  preach  the  simple  gospel  Vv-hich  he  found  in  it. 
He  was  thus  brought  into  collision  with  the  pretensions  of  the  priest- 
hood, and  was  thereby  led  to  question  the  doctrines  on  which  tlieir 
authority  was  based.  In  13S1  he  declared  his  disbelief  in  the 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  and  thereby  denied  to  priests  tliat 
power  "  of  making  the  body  of  Christ,"  which  was  held  to  mark 
them  off  from  their  fellov/-men.  In  any  case,  so  momentous  an 
announcement  would  have  cost  Wycliffe  tlie  liearts  oi  large  num- 
bers of  his  supporters.  It  was  the  more  fat:il  to  his  influence  as 
it  was  coincident  with  social  dis<jr(lcrs,  tlie  blame  for  which  was 
certain,  rightly  or  wr(jngly,  to  l)e  laid  at  liis  di  >or. 

The  disastrous  war  with  France  made  fresh  taxation  unavoid- 

173 


174  ENGLAND 

1379-1381 

able.  In  1379  a  poll-tax  was  imposed  by  Parliament  on  a  graduated 
scale,  reaching  from  the  61.  13^.  4^/.,  required  of  a  duke,  to  the  groat, 
or  4d.,  representing  in  those  days  at  least  the  value  of  4^.  at  the 
present  day,  required  of  the  poorest  peasant.     A  second  poll-tax  in 

1380  exacted  no  less  than  three  groats  from  every  peasant,  and  from 
every  one  of  his  unmarried  children  above  the  age  of  fifteen.     In 

1 38 1  a  tiler  at  Dartford  in  Kent  struck  dead  a  collector.  His 
neighbors  took  arms  to  protect  him.  In  an  incredibly  short  time 
the  peasants  of  the  east  and  south  of  England  rose  in  insurrection. 

The  peasants  had  other  grievances  besides  the  weight  of  taxa- 
tion thrown  on  them  by  a  Parliament  in  which  they  had  no  repre- 
sentatives. The  landlords,  finding  it  impossible  to  compel  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  low  wages  provided  for  by  the  Statute  of 
Laborers,  had  attempted  to  help  themselves  in  another  way. 
Before  the  Black  Death  the  bodily  service  of  villeins  had  been  fre- 
quently commuted  into  a  payment  of  money.  The  landlords  in 
many  places  now  declared  the  bargain  to  have  been  unfair,  and  com- 
pelled the  villeins  to  render  once  more  the  old  bodily  service.  The 
discontent  that  prevailed  everywhere  was  fanned  not  merely  by  the 
attacks  made  by  Wycliffe's  poor  priests  upon  the  idle  and  inefficient 
clergy,  but  by  itinerant  preachers  unconnected  with  Wycliffe,  who 
denounced  the  propertied  classes  in  general.  One  of  these,  John 
Ball,  a  notorious  assailant  of  the  gentry,  had  been  thrown  into 
prison.     His  favorite  question  was : 

When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span 
Who  was  then  a  gentleman? 

From  one  end  of  England  to  another  the  revolt  spread.  The 
parks  of  the  gentry  were  broken  into,  the  deer  killed,  the  fish-ponds 
emptied.  The  court-rolls  which  testified  to  the  villeins'  services 
were  burned,  and  lawyers  as  well  as  others  connected  with  the  courts 
were  put  to  death  without  mercy.  From  Kent  and  Essex  100,000 
enraged  peasants,  headed  by  Wat  Tyler  and  Jack  Straw,  released 
John  Ball  from  jail  and  poured  along  the  roads  to  London.  They 
hoped  to  place  the  young  Richard  at  their  head  against  their  enemies 
the  gentry.  The  boy  was  spirited  enough,  and  in  spite  of  his 
mother's  entreaties  insisted  on  leaving  the  Tower,  and  being  rowed 
across  the  Thames  to  meet  the  insurgents  on  the  Surrey  shore. 
Those  who  were  with  him,  however,  refused  to  allow  him  to  land. 
The  peasants  had  sympathizers  in  London  itself,  who  allowed  them 
to  break  into  the  city.     Lancaster's  palace  and  the  houses  of  law- 


RICHARD     II.  175 

1381-1384 

yers  and  officials  were  sacked  and  burned.  All  the  lawyers  who 
could  be  found  were  murdered,  and  others  who  were  not  lawyers 
shared  their  fate.  The  mob  broke  into  the  Tower,  and  beheaded 
Simon  of  Sudbury,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  had,  as  Chan- 
cellor, proposed  the  obnoxious  taxes  to  Parliament. 

The  boy  king  met  the  mob  at  Mile-End,  and  promised  to 
abolish  villeinage  in  England.  Charters  of  manumission  M'ere 
drawn  out  and  sealed,  and  a  great  part  of  the  insurgents  returned 
contentedly  home.  About  30,000,  however,  remained  behind. 
When  Richard  came  among  them  at  Smithfield,  Wat  Tyler  threat- 
ened him,  and  the  Mayor  of  London  slew  Wat  Tyler  with  his  dag- 
ger. A  shout  for  vengeance  was  raised.  With  astonishing  pres- 
ence of  mind  Richard  rode  forward.  "I  am  your  king,"  he  said; 
"  I  will  be  your  leader."  His  boldness  inspired  the  insurgents  with 
confidence,  and  caused  them  to  desist  from  their  threats  and  to 
return  to  their  homes.  In  the  country  the  gentry,  encouraged  by 
the  failure  of  the  insurgents  in  London,  recovered  their  courage. 
The  insurrection  was  everywhere  vigorously  suppressed.  Richard 
ordered  the  payment  of  all  services  due,  and  revoked  the  charters 
he  had  granted.  The  judges  on  their  circuits  hanged  the  ring- 
leaders without  mercy.  When  Parliament  met  it  directed  that 
the  charters  of  manumission  should  be  canceled.  Lords  and  Com- 
mons alike  stood  up  for  the  rich  against  the  poor,  and  the  boy  king 
was  powerless  to  resist  them,  and  it  is  possible  that  he  did  not  wish 
to  do  so.  The  revolt  of  the  peasants  strengthened  the  conservative 
spirit  of  the  country.  The  villeinage  into  which  the  peasants  had 
been  thrust  back  could  not,  indeed,  endure  long,  because  service  un- 
willingly rendered  is  too  expensive  to  be  maintained.  Men  were, 
however,  no  longer  in  a  mood  to  listen  to  reformers.  Great  noble- 
men, whose  right  to  the  services  of  their  villeins  had  been  denied, 
now  made  common  cause  with  tlie  great  churchmen.  The  i)rop- 
ertied  classes,  lay  and  clerical,  instinctively  saw  tliat  they  must  hang 
together.  Wycliffe's  attacks  on  transubstantiation  finding  little 
response,  he  was  obliged  to  retire  to  his  parsonage  at  Lutterworth, 
where  he  labored  with  his  pen  till  his  death  in  1384.  His  followers, 
known  by  the  nickname  of  Lollards,  were,  however,  for  some  time 
still  popular  among  the  poorer  classes. 

A  combination  between  the  great  nobles  and  the  higiicr  clergy 
might,  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century,  meet  with  temporary 
success;  but  English  society  was  too  diversified,  and  each  separate 


1T6  ENGLAND 

1381-1399 

portion  of  it  was  too  closely  linked  to  the  other  to  make  it  possible 
for  the  higher  classes  to  tyrannize  over  the  others  for  any  long 
jtime.  What  that  society  was  like  is  best  seen  in  Chaucer's  "  Canter- 
bury Tales."  Chaucer  was  precursor  of  modern  literature  as  Wyck- 
liffe  was  the  precursor  of  modern  religion.  He  was  an  inimitable 
story-teller,  with  an  eye  which  nothing  could  escape.  He  was 
ready  to  take  men  as  he  found  them,  having  no  yearning  for  the 
purification  of  a  sinful  world.  Heroic  examples  of  manly  constancy 
and  of  womanly  purity  and  devotion  are  mingled  in  his  pages  with 
coarse  and  ribald  tales :  still,  coarse  and  ribald  as  some  of  his  nar- 
ratives are,  Chaucer  never  attempts  to  make  vice  attractive.  He 
takes  it  rather  as  a  matter  of  course,  calling,  not  for  reproof,  but 
for  laughter,  whenever  those  who  are  doing  evil  place  themselves 
in  ridiculous  situations. 

While,  however,  there  is  not  one  of  the  "  Canterbury  Tales  " 
which  fails  to  bring  vividly  before  the  reader  one  aspect  or  another 
of  the  life  of  Chaucer's  day.  it  is  in  the  prologue  that  is  especially 
found  evidence  of  the  close  connection  which  existed  between  differ- 
ent ranks  of  society.  ]\Ien  and  women  of  various  classes  are  there 
represented  as  riding  together  on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  shrine  of  St. 
Thomas  of  Canterbury,  and  beguiling  the  way  by  telling  stories 
to  one  another.  No  baron,  indeed,  takes  part  in  the  pilgrimage, 
and  the  villein  class  is  represented  by  the  reeve,  who  was  him- 
self a  person  in  authority,  the  mere  cultivator  of  the  soil  being  ex- 
cluded. Yet,  within  these  limits,  the  whole  circle  of  society  is 
admirably  represented.  The  knight,  just  returned  from  deeds  of 
chivalry,  is  on  the  best  of  terms  with  the  rough-spoken  miller  and 
the  reeve,  while  the  clerk  of  Oxford,  who  would  gladly  learn  and 
gladly  teach,  and  who  followed  in  his  own  life  those  precepts  which 
he  commended  to  his  parishioners,  has  no  irreconcilable  quarrel  with 
the  begging  friar  or  with  the  official  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts, 
whose  only  object  is  to  make  a  gain  of  godliness. 

In  his  representation  of  the  clergy,  Chaucer  shows  that,  like 
Langland,  he  had  no  re\'erence  for  the  merely  official  clergy.  His 
"  poor  parson  of  a  town,"  indeed,  is  a  model  for  all  helpers  and 
teachers.     The  final  character  given  to  him  is : 

A  bettre  pree?t  I  trowe  ther  nowher  non  is. 
He  waytud  after  no  pompe  ne  reverence, 
Ne  maked  him  a  spiced  conscience: 
But  Cristci  lore,  and  h':>  apo-t'e,  tv.elve, 
He  tauglu,  and  fer^t  lie  lolwcd  ii  l.iniselve. 


RICHARD     II.  177 

1381-1399 

The  majority  among  Chaucer's  clergy  are,  however,  of  a  very 
different  kind.  There  is  the  parish  clerk,  who,  when  he  is  waving 
the  censer  in  church  thinks  more  of  the  pretty  w^omen  there  than  of 
his  duty;  the  monk  who  loves  hunting,  and  hates  work  and  reading; 
the  friar  who  is  ready  to  grant  absolution  to  anyone  who  will  give 
money  to  the  friars;  the  pardoner,  who  has  for  sale  sham  relics. 
Though  Wycliffe  had  failed  to  reform  the  Church  there  was  evi- 
dently much  room  for  a  reformer. 

Such  men  as  these  latter  did  not  go  on  pilgrimages  through 
pure  religious  zeal.  Villeins,  indeed,  were  *'  bound  to  the  soil." 
and  lived  and  died  on  land  wdiich  they  tilled ;  but  the  classes  above 
them  moved  about  freely,  and  took  pleasure  in  a  pilgrimage,  as  a 
modern  Englishman  takes  pleasure  in  a  railway  excursion.  It  was 
considered  to  be  a  pious  work  to  make  or  repair  roads  and  bridges, 
and  the  existence  of  many  bridges  especially  was  owing  to  the 
clergy.  The  most  famous  bridge  in  England,  London  Bridge,  had 
been  begun  in  the  place  of  an  old  wooden  one  in  1176 — in  the  reign 
of  Henry  H.  It  was  completed  in  1209,  houses  being  built  upon 
it  in  order  that  their  rents  might  pay  for  keeping  it  in  good  condi- 
tion. Local  taxes  were  sometimes  levied  to  maintain  the  roads 
and  bridges,  and  in  default  of  these,  it  was  held  to  be  the  duty  of 
the  owniers  of  land  to  keep  the  communications  open. 

In  spite  of  these  precautions,  roads  w^ere  often  neglected,  so 
that  those  who  were  not  obliged  to  go  on  foot  traveled  almost 
entirely  on  horseback,  women  almost  always  riding  astride  like 
men.  It  w\as  only  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  that  a 
few  ladies  rode  sideways.  Kings  and  queens  and  exceedingly  great 
people  occasionally  used  lumbering  but  gorgeously  orn;miented 
carriages;  but  this  was  to  enable  them  to  appear  in  splendor,  as 
this  way  of  traveling  must,  at  least  in  fine  weather,  have  been  far 
less  agreeable  than  the  ordinary  ride.  The  only  other  wheeled 
vehicles  in  existence  were  the  peasant's  carts  on  two  wheels,  roughly 
made  in  the  f(jrm  of  a  square  box  either  of  boards  or  of  a  lighter 
framework.  It  was  one  of  the  grievances  of  the  peasants  that  when 
the  king  moved  from  one  manor  to  another  his  purveyors  seized 
their  carts  to  carry  In's  property,  and  that  though  the  purvcy.M-s 
were  bound  by  frequently  repeated  statutes  to  pay  for  their  lure, 
these  statutes  were  often  broken,  and  the  carts  sent  back  without 
payment   ior  their  use.  The  same   purveyors   often   took   corn 

and  other  agriculture  produce,  for  which  they  paid  little  or  notliing. 


178  ENGLAND 

1381-1399 

When  the  king-  arrived  in  the  evening  at  a  town  his  numerous 
attendants  were  billeted  upon  the  townsmen,  without  asking  leave. 
Monasteries  were  always  ready  to  offer  hospitality  to  himself  or 
to  any  great  person,  and  even  to  provide  rougher  fare  for  the 
poorest  stranger  in  a  special  guest-house  provided  for  the  purpose. 
In  castles,  the  owner  was  usually  glad  to  see  a  stranger  of  his  own 
rank.  The  halls  were  still  furnished  with  movable  tables,  as  in 
the  days  before  the  Conquest,  and  at  night  mattresses  were 
placed  for  persons  of  inferior  rank  on  the  floor,  which  was 
strewn  with  rushes;  while  a  stranger  of  high  rank  had  usually 
a  bed  in  the  solar  with  the  lord  of  the  castle.  Travelers  of  the 
middle  class  were  not  thought  good  enough  to  be  welcomed 
in  monasteries  and  castles,  and  were  not  poor  enough  to  be  re- 
ceived out  of  charity;  and  for  them  inns  were  provided.  These 
inns  provided  beds,  of  which  there  were  several  in  each  room, 
and  the  guests  then  bought  their  provisions  and  fuel  from  the 
host,  instead  of  being  charged  for  their  meals  as  is  now  the  custom. 
From  a  manual  of  French  conversation,  written  at  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century  for  the  use  of  Englishmen,  it  appears  that 
cleanliness  was  not  always  to  be  found  in  these  inns. 

By  the  roadside  were  alehouses  for  temporary  refreshment, 
known  by  a  bunch  of  twigs  at  the  end  of  a  pole,  from  which  arose 
the  saying  that  "  Good  wine  needs  no  bush."  The  ale  of  the  day 
was  made  without  hops,  which  was  still  unknown  in  England,  and 
ale  would  therefore  only  keep  good  for  about  five  days. 

Besides  the  better  class  of  travelers,  the  roads  were  fre- 
quented by  wanderers  of  all  kinds,  quack  doctors,  minstrels,  jug- 
glers, beggars,  and  such  like.  Life  in  the  country  was  dull,  and 
even  great  lords  took  pleasure  in  amusements  which  are  now  only 
to  be  heard  of  at  country  fairs.  Anyone  who  could  play  or  sing 
was  always  \velcome,  and  the  verses  sung  were  often  exceedingly 
coarse.     Tumblers  and  peddlers  also  went  from  place  to  place. 

The  roads,  indeed,  were  not  always  safe.  Outlaws  who  had 
escaped  from  the  punishment  due  to  their  crimes  took  refuge  in  the 
broad  tracts  of  forest  land  which  occupied  much  of  the  soil  which 
has  since  been  cultivated,  shot  the  king's  deer,  and  robbed  mer- 
chants and  wealthy  travelers,  leaving  the  poor  untouched,  like  the 
legendary  Robin  Hood  of  an  earlier  date.  Such  robbers  were 
highly  esteemed  by  the  poor,  as  the  law  from  which  they  suffered 
w^as  cruelly  harsh,  hanging  being  the  penalty  for  thefts  amounting 


R  I  C  H  A  R  D     1 1 .  179 

1381-1399 

to  a  shilling.  Villeins  who  fled  from  service  could  be  reclaimed 
by  their  masters,  unless  they  could  succeed  in  passing-  a  year  in  a 
town,  and  consequently  were  often  found  among  vagabonds  who 
had  to  live  as  best  they  might,  often  enough  by  committing  fresh 
crimes.  Prisons  in  which  even  persons  guilty  of  no  more  than 
harmless  vagabondage  were  confined  reeked  with  disease,  and 
those  who  were,  as  wanderers  or  drunkards,  put  in  the  stocks,  had, 
if  an  unpleasant,  at  least  a  less  dangerous  experience  than  the 
prisoner.  One  means  of  escape,  indeed,  was  available  to  some,  at 
least,  of  these  unfortunates.  They  could  take  refuge  in  the  sanctu- 
aries to  be  found  in  the  churches,  from  which  no  officer  of  the  law 
could  take  them,  and,  though  the  Church  preserved  some  guilty  ones 
from  just  punishment,  she  also  saved  many  who  were  either  inno- 
cent or  who  were  exposed  to  punishments  far  too  severe  for  their 
slight  offenses. 

Even  harshness  is  less  dangerous  than  anarchy,  and  from  time 
to  time  measures  were  taken  to  provide  against  anarchy.  Be- 
fore the  Conquest  order  had  been  kept  by  making  either  the  kindred 
or  the  township  liable  to  produce  offenders,  and  this  system  was 
maintained  by  the  Norman  kings.  In  the  time  of  Richard  I.  all 
men  were  required  to  swear  to  keep  the  peace,  to  avoid  crime,  and 
to  join  in  the  hue  and  cry  in  pursuit  of  criminals.  In  the  time  of 
Henry  III.  persons  called  guardians  of  the  peace  were  occasionally 
appointed  to  see  that  order  was  kept,  and  at  the  accession  of  Ed- 
ward III.  these  officials  were  established  for  a  time  by  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment as  conservators  of  the  peace.  In  1360,  the  year  of  the  Treaty 
of  Bretigni,  they  were  permanently  continued,  and  the  name  (^f 
Justices  of  the  Peace  was  given  to  them.  They  were  to  keep  the 
peace  in  each  county,  and  their  number  was  to  be  made  up  of  a 
lord,  three  or  four  gentlemen,  and  a  lawyer,  who  was  in  ihi.se  clays 
always  a  cleric.  They  were  to  seize  and  imprison,  and  even  to 
try  persons  accused  of  crime.  The  king  named  these  justices,  but 
he  had  to  name  all  of  them  except  tlie  lawyer  from  among  the 
local  landowners.  In  every  way,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  the 
chief  local  landowners  were  becoming  prominent.  Tlie  kings  at- 
tempted to  govern  with  their  help,  both  in  Parliament  and  m  the 
counties. 


Chapter    XVIII 


RICHARD   II.  AND  THE   POLITICAL  REVOLUTION 

1382— 1399 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  Richard  II.,  A.D.  1377-1399 — The  Impeachment  of  Suf- 
folk, 1385 — The  Merciless  Parliamevt,  1388 — Richard  Begins  His 
Constitutional  Government,  1389 — Richard's  Coup-d'Etat,  1397 — 
Deposition  of  Richard,  1399 

IN  1382  Richard  at  the  early  age  of  fifteen  was  married  to 
Anne  of  Bohemia.  Though  he  was  a  young  husband  he  was 
at  all  events  old  enough  to  be  accused  of  disasters  which  he 
could  not  avoid.  Not  only  was  the  war  with  France  not  prosper- 
ing, but  English  influence  was  declining  in  Flanders,  and  that 
country  in  1383  fell  under  the  control  of  France.  In  1385  Richard, 
indeed,  invaded  Scotland,  ravaged  the  country  and  burned  Edin- 
burgh, though  without  producing  any  permanent  result.  In  1386 
a  French  fleet  and  army  was  gathered  at  Sluys,  and  an  invasion 
of  England  was  threatened. 

When  the  king  returned  from  Scotland  in  1385  he  made  a 
large  creation  of  peers.  His  Chancellor,  Suffolk,  was  an  able  and 
apparently  an  honest  administrator,  who  upheld  the  king's  pre- 
rogative against  the  encroachments  of  Parliament.  Oxford,  his 
favorite,  was  a  gay  and  heedless  companion  of  Richard's  pleasures, 
who  encouraged  him  in  unnecessary  expense,  and  thereby  provoked 
to  resistance  those  who  might  have  put  up  with  an  extension  of  the 
royal  authority.  That  resistance,  however,  was  to  a  great  extent 
due  to  causes  not  of  Richard's  own  making.  Though  the  French  in 
1386  abandoned  their  attempt  at  invasion,  the  preparations  to  resist 
them  had  been  costly,  and  Englishmen  were  in  an  unreasonable 
mood.  Things,  they  said,  had  not  gone  so  in  the  days  of  Edward 
in.  A  cry  for  reform  and  retrenchment,  for  more  victories  and 
less  expense,  was  loudly  raised. 

The  discontented  found  a  leader  in  Gloucester,  the  youngest 
of  the  king's  uncles.  Wealthy,  turbulent,  and  ambitious,  he  put 
liimself  at  the  head  of  all  who  had  a  grievance  against  the  king. 

180 


R  I  C  H  A  R  D     1 1 .  181 

1386-1388 

Lancaster  had  just  sailed  for  Spain  to  prosecute  a  claim  in  right 
of  his  second  wife  to  the  throne  of  Castile,  and  as  York  was  with- 
out ambition,  Gloucester  had  it  all  his  own  way.  Under  his  guid- 
ance a  Parliament  demanded  the  dismissal  of  Richard's  ministers, 
and,  on  his  refusal,  impeached  Suffolk.  Suffolk,  though  probably 
innocent  of  the  charges  brought  against  him,  was  condemned  and 
driven  from  power,  and  commissioners  of  regency  were  appointed 
for  a  year  to  regulate  the  realm  and  the  king's  household,  as  the 
Lords  Ordainers  had  done  in  the  days  of  Edward  IL 

Li  one  way  the  commissioners  of  regency  satisfied  the  desire 
of  Englishmen.  In  1387  they  sent  the  Earl  of  Arundel  to  sea, 
and  Arundel  won  a  splendid  victory  over  a  combined  fleet  of 
French,  Flemings,  and  Spaniards.  Richard,  on  the  other  hand, 
fearing  that  they  would  prolong  their  power  when  their  year  of 
office  was  ended,  consulted  upon  the  legality  of  the  commission  with 
the  judges  in  the  presence  of  Suffolk  and  others  of  his  principal 
supporters,  among  whom  was  the  Duke  of  L-eland.  With  one 
voice  the  judges  declared  that  Parliament  might  not  put  the  king 
in  tutelage.  Richard  then  made  preparations  to  prevent  by  force 
the  renewal  of  the  commission,  and  to  punish  as  traitors  those  who 
had  originated  it.  His  intention  got  abroad,  and  five  lords,  the 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  the  Earls  of  Arundel,  Nottingham,  Warwick, 
and  Derby,  the  latter  being  the  son  of  the  absent  Lancaster,  ap- 
peared at  the  head  of  an  overwhelming  force  against  him.  The 
five  lords  appellant,  as  they  were  called,  appealed,  or  accused  of 
treason  five  of  Richard's  councilors  before  a  Parliament  which 
met  at  Westminster  in  1388,  by  flinging  down  their  gloves  as  a 
token  that  they  were  ready  to  prove  the  truth  of  their  charge  in 
single  combat.  The  Parliament,  called  by  its  admirers  the  Won- 
derful, and  by  its  opponents  the  AJcrciless  Parliament,  was  entirely 
subservient  to  the  lords  appellant,  who,  instead  of  meeting  their 
antagonists  in  single  combat,  accused  them  before  the  House  of 
Lords.  The  Duke  of  Ireland,  Suffolk,  Chief  Justice  Tresilian, 
and  Brember,  who  had  been  Mayor  of  Londc^n,  were  condemned 
to  be  hanged.  The  two  first  named  had  escaped  to  the  Continent, 
but  the  others  were  put  to  death.  The  fifth  councilor,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  escaped  with  virtual  deprivation  by  llie  P(^pc. 
Four  other  knights  were  also  put  to  death.  Richard  was  allowed 
nominally  to  retain  the  crown,  but  in  reality  he  was  subjected  to  a 
council  in  which  Gloucester  and  his  adherents  were  supreme. 


182  ENGLAND 

1389-1390 

Richard's  entire  submission  turned  the  scale  in  his  favor. 
England  had  been  dissatisfied  with  him,  but  it  had  never  loved  the 
rule  of  the  great  feudal  lords.  Gloucester's  council  was  no  more 
popular  than  had  been  the  committees  named  in  the  Provisions 
of  Oxford  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III.,  or  of  the  Lords  Ordainers 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  IL,  and  it  fell  more  easily  than  any  govern- 
ment, before  or  afterwards.  Suddenly,  on  May  3,  1389,  Richard 
asked  his  uncle  in  full  council  how  old  he  was.  "  Your  highness," 
replied  Gloucester,  "  is  in  your  twenty-second  year."  "  Then," 
said  Richard,  "  I  must  be  old  enough  to  manage  my  own  affairs, 
as  every  heir  is  at  liberty  to  do  when  he  is  twenty-one."  No  at- 
tempt having  been  made  to  confute  this  argument,  Richard  dis- 
missed the  council,  and  ruled  once  more  in  person. 

This  sudden  blow  was  followed  by  seven  years  of  constitu- 
tional government.  It  seemed  as  if  Richard  had  solved  the  prob- 
lem of  the  relations  between  Crown  and  Parliament  which  had 
perplexed  so  many  generations  of  Englishmen.  In  1389  he  ap- 
pointed ministers  at  his  own  pleasure,  but  when  Parliament  met 
in  1390  he  commanded  them  to  lay  down  their  offices  in  order  that 
no  one  should  be  deterred  from  bringing  charges  against  them ; 
and  it  was  only  upon  finding  that  no  one  had  any  complaint  to 
bring  against  them  that  he  restored  them  to  their  posts.  Nor  did 
he  show  any  signs  of  irritation  against  those  by  whom  he  had  been 
outraged.  Not  only  did  he  forbear  to  recall  Suft'olk  and  his  other 
exiled  favorites,  but  after  a  little  time  he  admitted  Gloucester 
and  his  supporters  to  sit  in  council  alongside  of  his  own  adherents. 

During  the  fourteenth  century  the  importance  of  the  House 
of  Commons  had  been  steadily  growing,  and  the  king  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  great  nobles  on  the  other  had  been  sorely  tempted  to 
influence  the  elections  unduly.  Just  as  the  king  now  fought  with 
paid  soldiers  of  every  rank  instead  of  fighting  with  vassals  bound  by 
feudal  tenure,  so  the  great  nobles  surrounded  themselves  with  re- 
tainers instead  of  vassals.  The  vassal  had  been  on  terms  of  social 
equality  with  his  lord,  and  was  bound  to  follow  him  on  fixed 
terms. 

The  retainer  was  an  inferior,  who  was  taken  into  service  and 
professed  himself  ready  to  fight  for  his  lord  at  all  times  and  in  all 
causes.  In  return  his  lord  kept  open  house  for  his  retainers, 
supplied  them  with  coats,  known  as  liveries,  marked  with  his 
badge,  and  undertook  to  maintain  them  against  all  men,  either  by 


RICHARDII.  183 

1390-1397 

Open  force  or  by  supporting  them  in  their  quarrels  in  the  law  courts ; 
and  this  maintenance,  as  it  was  called,  was  seldom  limited  to  the 
mere  payment  of  expenses.  The  lord,  by  the  help  of  his  retainers, 
could  bully  witnesses  and  jurors,  and  wrest  justice  to  the  profit  of 
the  wrongdoer.  It  was  sufficiently  developed  to  draw  down  upon 
it  in  1390  a  statute  prohibiting  maintenance  and  the  granting  of 
liveries.  Such  a  statute  was  not  merely  issued  in  defense  of  private 
persons  against  intimidation ;  it  also  helped  to  protect  the  Crown 
against  the  violence  of  the  great  lords.  The  growth  of  the  power 
of  the  House  of  Commons  was  a  good  thing  as  long  as  the  House 
of  Commons  represented  the  wishes  of  the  community.  It  would 
be  a  bad  thing  if  it  merely  represented  knots  of  armed  retainers 
who  either  voted  in  their  own  names  according  to  the  orders  of 
their  lords,  or  who  frightened  away  those  who  came  to  vote  for 
candidates  whom  their  lords  opposed. 

It  was  therefore  well  for  the  community  that  there  should 
be  a  strong  and  wise  king  capable  of  making  head  against  the 
ambition  of  the  lords.  For  some  years  Richard  showed  himself 
wise.  Not  only  did  he  seek,  by  opening  the  council  to  his  op- 
ponents, to  win  over  the  lords  to  take  part  in  the  peaceable  gov- 
ernment of  the  country  instead  of  disturbing  it,  but  he  forwarded 
legislation  which  carried  out  the  general  wishes  of  the  country. 
The  Statute  of  Provisors  was  re-enacted  and  strengthened  in  1390, 
the  Statute  of  Mortmain  in  1391,  and  the  Statute  of  PnTmunire 
in  1393. 

Richard's  foreign  policy  was  based  upon  a  French  alliance. 
In  1389  he  made  a  truce  with  France  for  three  years,  although 
negotiations  for  a  permanent  truce  were  frustrated.  The  truce 
was,  however,  prolonged  from  time  to  time,  and  in  1396,  when 
Richard,  who  was  by  that  time  a  widower,  married  Isabella,  the 
daughter  of  Charles  VI..  a  child  of  eight,  it  was  prolonged  for 
twenty-eight  years.  Wise  as  this  policy  was.  it  was  distasteful 
to  Englishmen,  and  their  dissatisfaction  rose  when  they  learned 
that  Richard  had  surrendered  Brest  and  Cherbourg  to  the  French, 
which  had  been  pledged  to  him  for  money,  and  they  fancied  that 
he  was  equallv  ready  to  surrender  Calais  and  liordeaux. 

Richard 'knew' that  Gloucester  was  ready  to  avail  himself 
of  any  widespread  dissatisfaction,  and  that  he  had  recently  l)ecn 
allying  himself  with  Lancaster  against  him.  To  please  Lancaster, 
who  had  married  his  mistress,  Catherine  Swynford,  as  his  thn'd 


184  ENGLAND 

1397-1398 

wife,  Richard  had  legitimatized  the  Beauforts,  his  children  by  her, 
for  all  purposes  except  for  succession  of  the  crown,  thus  giving 
personal  offense  to  Gloucester.  Lancaster's  son  Derby,  and  Not- 
tingham, another  of  the  lords  appellant,  were  now  favorable  to 
the  king,  and  when  rumors  reached  Richard  that  Gloucester  was 
plotting  against  him,  he  resolved  to  anticipate  the  blow.  He 
arrested  the  three  of  the  lords  appellant  whom  he  still  distrusted, 
Gloucester,  Warwick,  and  Arundel,  and  charged  them  before 
Parliament,  not  with  recent  malpractices,  of  which  he  had 
probably  no  sufficient  proof,  but  with  the  slaughter  of  his  ministers 
in  the  days  of  the  Merciless  Parliament.  Warwick  was  banished 
to  the  Isle  of  Man,  Arundel  was  executed,  and  Gloucester  im- 
prisoned at  Calais,  where  he  was  secretly  murdered,  as  was  gener- 
ally believed,  by  the  order  of  the  king.  Archbishop  Arundel, 
brother  of  the  Earl  of  Arundel,  was  also  banished.  In  such  con- 
tradiction was  this  sudden  outburst  of  violence  to  the  prudence 
of  Richard's  recent  conduct,  that  it  has  sometimes  been  supposed 
that  he  had  been  dissimulating  all  the  time.  It  is  more  probable 
that,  without  being  actually  insane,  his  mind  had  to  some  extent 
given  way.  He  was  always  excitable,  and  in  his  better  days  his 
alertness  of  mind  carried  him  forward  to  swift  decisions,  as  when 
he  met  the  mob  at  Smithfield,  and  when  he  vindicated  his  authority 
from  the  restraint  of  his  uncle.  Signs  had  not  been  wanting  that 
his  native  energy  was  no  longer  balanced  by  the  restraints  of 
prudence.  In  1394  he  had  actually  struck  Arundel  in  Westminster 
Abbey.  In  1397  there  was  much  to  goad  him  to  hasty  and  ill- 
considered  action.  The  year  before  complaints  had  been  raised 
against  the  extravagance  of  his  household.  The  peace  which  he 
had  given  his  country  was  made  the  subject  of  bitter  reproach 
against  him.  and  he  seems  to  have  believed  that  Gloucester  was 
plotting  to  bring  him  back  into  the  servitude  to  which  he  had  been 
subjected  l)y  the  commissioners  of  regency. 

Whether  Richard  was  mad  or  not,  he  at  all  events  acted  like 
a  madman.  In  1398  he  summoned  a  packed  Parliament  to  Shrews- 
bury, which  declared  all  die  acts  of  the  !\Ierciless  Parliament  to  be 
null  and  void,  and  announced  that  no  restraint  could  legally  be 
put  on  the  king.  It  then  delegated  all  parliamentary  power  to  a 
committee  of  twelve  lords  and  six  commoners  chosen  from  the 
king's  friends.  Richard  was  thus  made  an  absolute  ruler  unbound 
liy  tlic  necessity  of  gathering  a  Parliament  again.      He  had  freed 


RICHARD     II.  185 

1398-1399 

himself  not  merely  from  turbulent  lords,  but  also  from  all  constitu- 
tional restraints. 

Richard  had  shown  favor  to  the  two  lords  appellant  who  had 
taken  his  side.  Derby  became  Duke  of  Herford,  and  Nottingham 
Duke  of  Norfolk.  Before  long  Herford  came  to  the  king  with  a 
strange  tale.  Norfolk,  he  said,  had  complained  to  him  that  the 
king  still  distrutsed  them,  and  had  suggested  that  they  should  guard 
themselves  against  him.  Norfolk  denied  the  truth  of  the  story, 
and  Richard  ordered  the  two  to  prove  their  truthfulness  by  a 
single  combat  at  Coventry.  When  the  pair  met  in  the  lists  in 
full  armor  Richard  stopped  the  fight,  and  to  preserve  peace,  as  he 
said,  banished  Norfolk  for  life  and  Herford  for  ten  years,  a  term 
which  was  soon  reduced  to  six.  There  was  something  of  the  un- 
wise cunning  of  a  madman  in  the  proceeding. 

Richard,  freed  from  all  control,  was  now,  in  every  sense  of 
the  word,  despotic.  He  extorted  money  without  a  semblance  of 
right,  and  even  compelled  men  to  put  their  seals  to  blank  promises 
to  pay,  which  he  could  fill  up  with  any  sum  he  pleased.  He  too, 
like  the  lords,  gathered  round  him  a  vast  horde  of  retainers,  who 
wore  his  badge  and  ill-treated  his  subjects  at  their  pleasure.  He 
threatened  the  Percies,  the  Earl  of  Northumberland  and  his  son, 
Harry  Hotspur,  with  exile,  and  sent  them  off  discontented  to  their 
vast  possessions  in  the  North.  Early  in  1399  the  Duke  of  Lan- 
caster died.  His  son,  the  banished  Hereford,  was  now  Duke  of 
Lancaster.  Richard,  however,  seized  the  lands  which  ought  to 
have  descended  to  him  from  his  father.  Every  man  who  had  prop- 
erty to  lose  felt  that  Lancaster's  cause  was  his  own.  Richard  at 
this  inopportune  moment  took  occasion  to  sail  to  L-eland.  Lie  had 
been  there  once  before  in  1394  in  the  vain  hope  of  protecting  the 
English  colonists.  His  first  expedition  had  been  a  miserable  fail- 
ure: his  second  expedition  was  cut  short  by  bad  news  from 
England. 

Lancaster,  with  a  small  force,  landed  at  Ravenspur,  in  York- 
shire, a  harbor  which  has  now  disappeared  in  the  sea.  At  first  he 
gave  out  that  he  had  come  merely  to  demand  his  own  inheritance. 
Then  he  alleged  he  had  come  to  redress  the  wrongs  of  the  realm. 
Northumberland  brought  the  Percies  to  liis  help.  Armed  men 
flocked  to  his  support  in  crowds.  The  Duke  of  York,  who  had 
been  left  behind  by  Ricliard  as  regent,  accepted  this  statement 
and  joined  liim  with  all  his  forces.     When   Richard  heard  what 


186  ENGLAND 

1399 

had  happened,  he  sent  the  Earl  of  Sahsbury  from  Ireland  to  Wales 
to  summon  the  Welshmen  to  his  aid.  The  Welshmen  rallied  to 
Salisbury,  but  the  king  was  long  in  following,  and  when  Richard 
landed  they  had  all  dispersed.  Richard  found  himself  almost 
alone  in  Conway  Castle,  while  Lancaster  had  a  whole  kingdom  at 
his  back. 

By  lying  promises  Lancaster  induced  Richard  to  place  himself 
in  his  power  at  Flint.  "  My  lord,"  said  Lancaster  to  him,  "  I  have 
now  come  before  you  have  sent  for  me.  The  reason  is  that  your 
people  commonly  say  you  have  ruled  them  very  rigorously  for 
twenty  or  two  and  twenty  years :  but,  if  it  please  God,  I  will  help 
you  to  govern  better."  The  pretense  of  helping  the  king  to  govern 
was  soon  abandoned.  Richard  was  carried  to  London  and  thrown 
into  the  Tower.  He  consented,  probably  not  till  after  he  had  been 
threatened  with  the  fate  of  Edward  II.,  to  sign  his  abdication. 
On  the  following  morning  the  act  of  abdication  was  read  in  Parlia- 
ment. The  throne  was  empty.  Then  Lancaster  stepped  forward. 
"  In  the  name,"  he  said.  "  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  I, 
Henry  of  Lancaster,  challenge  this  realm  of  England,  and  the 
crown  with  all  its  members  and  appurtenances,  as  I  am  descended 
by  right  line  of  blood  coming  from  the  good  lord  King  Henry 
the  Third,  and  through  that  right  God  of  his  grace  hath  sent  me, 
with  help  of  my  kin  and  of  my  friends,  to  recover  it,  the  which 
realm  was  in  point  to  be  undone  for  default  of  governance  and 
undoing  of  the  good  laws."  The  assent  of  Parliament  was  given, 
and  Lancaster  took  his  seat  in  Richard's  throne  as  King  Henry  IV. 

The  claim  which  Henry  put  forward  would  certainly  not  bear 
investigation.  It  laid  stress  on  right  of  descent,  and  it  has  since 
been  thought  that  Henry  intended  to  refer  to  a  popular  belief 
that  his  ancestor  Edmund,  the  second  son  of  Henry  III.,  was  in 
reality  the  eldest  son,  but  had  been  set  aside  in  favor  of  his  younger 
brother,  Edward  I.,  on  account  of  a  supposed  physical  deformity 
from  which  he  was  known  as  Edmund  Crouchback.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  the  whole  story  was  a  fable,  and  the  name  of  Crouchback 
had  been  given  to  Edmund  not  because  his  back  was  crooked, 
but  because  he  had  worn  a  cross  on  his  back  as  a  crusader.  That 
Henry  should  have  thought  it  necessary  to  allude  to  this  story, 
if  such  was  really  his  meaning,  shows  the  hold  which  the  idea 
of  hereditary  succession  had  taken  on  the  minds  of  Englishmen. 
In  no  other  way  could  he  claim  hereditary  right  as  a  descendant 


RICHARD     II.  187 

1399 

of  Henry  HI.  Richard  had  selected  as  his  heir  Roger  Mortimer, 
the  son  of  the  daughter  of  Lionel,  Duke  of  Clarence,  the  next  son 
of  Edward  III.,  after  the  Black  Prince,  who  lived  to  be  old  enough 
to  have  children.  Roger  Mortimer,  indeed,  had  recently  been 
killed  in  Ireland,  but  he  left  a  boy,  Edmund  Mortimer,  who,  on 
hereditary  principles,  was  heir  to  the  kingdom,  unless  the  doctrine 
— announced  by  Edward  III.,  when  declaring  himself  by  right  of  his 
mother  to  be  the  lawful  king  of  France — that  a  claim  to  the  crown 
descended  through  females  was  to  be  set  aside.  In  fact  the  real  im- 
portance of  the  change  of  kings  lay  not  in  what  Henry  said,  but  in 
what  he  avoided  saying.  It  w^as  a  reversion  to  the  old  right  of  elec- 
tion, and  to  the  precedent  set  in  the  deposition  of  Edward  11.  Henry 
tacitly  announced  that  in  critical  times,  when  the  wearer  of  the 
crown  was  hopelessly  incompetent,  the  nation,  represented  by  Par- 
liament, might  step  in  and  change  the  order  of  succession.  The 
question  at  issue  was  not  merely  a  personal  one  between  Richard 
and  Henry.  It  was  a  question  between  hereditary  succession  lead- 
ing to  despotism  on  the  one  side,  and  to  parliamentary  choice,  per- 
haps to  anarchy,  on  the  other.  That  there  were  dangers  attending 
the  latter  solution  of  the  constitutional  problem  would  not  be  long 
in  appearing. 

The  dethroned  king  was  imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  but  later 
taken  to  Pontefract  Castle.  The  reign  of  Richard  II.  had  been  a 
remarkable  period  in  the  constitutional  growth  of  England.  Still 
more  was  it  remarkable  in  matters  of  literature  and  religion.  Wy- 
cliffe  had  been  patronized  by  him,  and  the  poet  Chaucer,  already 
alluded  to,  and  Gower.  Gower  (born  in  1325)  was  the  friend  of 
Chaucer.  His  poetry,  however,  was  written  in  Latin  and  French 
as  well  as  English.  His  principal  work  was  undertaken  at  the 
direction  of  Richard,  the  king  commanding  him  "  to  bijok  some  new 
thing."  This  "  new  thing  "  is  known  to  have  been  in  three  parts, 
though  the  first,  the  "  Speculum  Meditantis,"  is  now  lost.  The 
second  part,  "  Vox  Clamantis."  exists  in  manuscript,  and  tlie  tb.ird 
and  best  known,  "  Confessio  Amantis,"  completed  in  1394,  remains 
to  our  day,  having  been  preserved  by  the  press  of  Caxton,  though 
not  printed  until  almost  a  century  later. 

Hardly  of  less  importance,  and  indeed  in  matter  of  poetic 
style  more  worthy  of  comparison  with  Chaucer  was  John  Barbour, 
though  he  wrote  in  northern  England  and  was.  in  fact,  a  Scotch- 
man.     Barbour  died  in    1395  and  Chaucer  in    1400,    and    as    for 


188  ENGLAND 

1399 

almost  two  hundred  years  no  poets  or  even  prose  writers  were  to 
appear  as  their  successors,  this  brilhant  era  of  Enghsh  Hterature 
may  be  said  to  have  closed  with  the  reign  of  Richard  II.  Certain 
it  is  that  the  period  settled  the  ling-uistic  future  of  England. 
Wycliffe  in  1380  by  his  translation  of  the  Bible  added  little  to 
the  vocabulary,  but  enriched  English  expression,  preserved  its  idiom, 
and  by  the  use  of  simple  forms  of  words  and  free  sentence  con- 
struction powerfully  affected  the  whole  cast  of  popular  thought 
and  speech.  Chaucer,  writing  for  the  nobles,  added  an  elegance 
and  refinement  of  style,  with  no  loss  of  simplicity  or  sacrifice  of 
force. 


PART  IV 

LANCASTER,  YORK,  AND  TUDOR. 
1399—1509 


Chapter    XIX 

HENRY   IV.,    1399— 1413.     HENRY   V.,    1413—1422 

LEADING    DATES 

Accession  of  Henry  IV.,  1399— Statute  for  the  Burning  of  Here- 
tics, f4oi— Battle  of  Shrewsbury,  1403— Fight  at  Bramham  Moor, 
1408— Succession  of  Henry  V.,  141 3— Battle  of  Agincourt,  1415— 
Treaty  of  Troyes,  1420 — Death  of  Henry  V.,  1423 

HENRY  IV.  fully  understood  that  his  only  chance  of  main- 
taining himself  on  the  throne  was  to  rule  with  due  con- 
sideration for  the  wishes  of  Parliament.  His  main  diffi- 
culty, like  that  of  his  predecessor,  was  that  the  great  lords 
preferred  to  hold  their  own  against  him  individually  with  the 
help  of  their  armies  of  retainers,  instead  of  exercising  political 
power  in  Parliament.  In  his  first  Parliament  an  angry  brawl 
arose.  The  lords  who  in  the  last  reign  had  taken  the  side  of 
Gloucester  flung  their  gloves  on  the  floor  of  the  House  as  a 
challenge  to  those  who  had  supported  Richard  when  he  compassed 
Gloucester's  death;  and  though  Henry  succeeded  in  keeping 
the  peace  for  the  time,  a  rebellion  broke  out  early  in  1400 
in  the  name  of  Richard.  Henry,  like  the  kings  before  him,  found 
his  support  against  the  turbulent  nobles  in  the  townsmen,  and 
the  noblemen  who  were  caught  by  the  excited  defenders  of  the 
throne  were  butchered  without  mercy  and  without  law. 

A  few  weeks  after  the  suppression  of  this  conspiracy  it  was 
rumored  that  Richard  had  died  in  prison  at  Pontefract.  Accord- 
ing to  Henry's  account  of  the  matter  he  had  voluntarily  starved 
himself  to  death.  Few,  however,  doubted  that  he  had  been  put  to 
death  by  Henry's  orders.  After  Richard's  death,  if  heredi- 
tary succession  had  been  regarded,  the  person  having  a  claim  to  the 
crown  in  preference  to  Henry  was  the  young  Edmund  Mortimer. 
Henry  therefore  took  care  to  keep  the  boy  under  custody  during  the 
whole  of  his  reign. 

Besides  seeking  the  support  of  the  commonalty,  Henry  sought 
the  support  of  the  Church.     Since  the  rise  of  the  friars  at  the  begin- 

191 


192  ENGLAND 

1400-1402 

ning  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  Church  had  produced  no  orders 
of  monks  or  friars.  In  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  she  produced 
the  schoolmen,  a  succession  of  great  thinkers  who  system- 
atized her  moral  and  religious  teaching.  Imagining  that  she 
had  no  more  to  learn,  she  now  attempted  to  strengthen  herself 
by  persecuting  those  who  disbelieved  her  teaching,  and  after 
the  suppression  of  the  revolt  of  the  peasants  made  common  cause 
with  the  landlords,  who  feared  pecuniary  loss  from  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  villeins.  This  conseiwative  alliance  against  social  and 
religious  change  was  the  more  easily  made  because  many  of  the 
bishops  were  now  members  of  noble  families,  instead  of  spring- 
ing, as  had  usually  been  the  case  in  the  better  days  of  the  medieval 
Church,  from  poor  or  middle-class  parentage. 

In  1 40 1  the  clergy  cried  aloud  for  new  powers.  The  ecclesias- 
tical courts  could  condemn  men  as  heretics,  but  had  no  power  to 
burn  them.  Bishops  and  abbots  formed  the  majority  of  the  House 
of  Lords,  and  though  the  Commons  had  not  lost  that  craving  for 
the  wealth  of  the  Church  which  had  distinguished  John  of  Gaunt's 
party,  they  had  no  sympathy  with  heresy.  Accordingly  the  statute 
for  the  burning  of  heretics  (Dc  liccrctlco  coinhiircndo),  the  first 
English  law  for  the  suppression  of  religious  opinion  was  passed 
with  the  ready  consent  of  the  king  and  both  Houses. 

If  Henry  found  it  ditticult  to  maintain  order  in  England,  he 
found  it  still  more  difficult  to  keep  the  peace  on  the  borders  of 
Wales.  Ov/en  Glendower,  a  powerful  \\'elsh  gentleman,  called 
the  W'elsli  to  arms,  and  proclaimed  himself  Prince  of  Wales.  For 
some  years  Wales  was  practically  independent.  English  townsmen 
and  yeomen  were  ready  to  support  Henry  against  any  sudden  at- 
tempt of  the  nobility  to  crush  him  with  their  retainers,  but  they 
were  unwilling  to  bear  the  burden  of  taxation  needed  for  the  steady 
performance  of  a  national  task.  In  the  meanv/hile  Henry  was  con- 
staiitly  exposed  to  secret  plots.  In  1401  he  found  an  iron  v;ith 
four  spikes  in  his  bed.  In  tlie  autumn  of  1402  he  led  an  expedition 
into  \\"ales.  but  storm?  of  rain  and  snow  forced  him  back.  His 
English  lollov.-ers  attributed  the  disaster  to  tlie  evil  spirits  which, 
as  tliey  fully  believed,  were  at  the  command  of  the  wizard  Glen- 
dower. 

Tlie  Scots  were  not  forgetful  of  the  advantages  to  be  derived 
from  the  divisions  of  England.  AMien  Henry  marclied  against 
Wales  in  1402  th.ev  invaded  Eng-land.   Tliev  were  met  bv  tiie  Percies 


HENRY    IV.  — HENRY   V.  193 

1402-1405 

and  defeated  at  Homildon  Hill.  The  Percies  had  still  something  of 
the  enormous  power  of  the  feudal  barons  of  the  eleventh  century. 
Their  family  estates  stretched  over  a  great  part  of  Northumberland, 
and  as  they  were  expected  to  shield  England  against  Scottish  in- 
vasions they  were  obliged  to  keep  up  a  military  retinue  which 
might  be  employed  against  the  king  as  well  as  in  his  service.  It 
was  mainly  through  their  aid  that  Henry  had  seated  himself  on  the 
throne.  Their  chief,  the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  and  his  brother, 
the  Earl  of  Worcester,  were  aged  men,  but  Nothumberland's  son, 
Henry  Percy — Harry  Hotspur  as  he  was  usually  called — was  of 
a  fiery  temper,  and  disinclined  to  submit  to  insult.  Various  causes 
contribute  to  irritate  the  Percies,  and  in  1403,  bringing  with  them 
as  allies  the  Scottish  prisoners  whom  they  had  taken  at  Homildon 
Hill,  they  marched  southwards  against  Henry.  Southern  Eng- 
land might  not  be  ready  adequately  to  support  Henry  in  an  in- 
vasion of  Wales,  but  it  was  in  no  mood  to  allow  him  to  be  dethroned 
by  the  Percies.  It  rallied  to  his  side,  and  enabled  him  signally  to 
defeat  the  Percies  at  Shrewsbury,  Hotspur  was  killed  in  the  fight, 
and  his  uncle,  the  Earl  of  Worcester,  being  captured,  was  beheaded 
without  delay.  Northumberland,  who  was  not  present  at  the  battle, 
was  committed  to  prison  in  1404,  but  was  pardoned  on  promise 
of  submission. 

After  such  a  deliverance  the  Commons  could  not  but  grant 
some  supplies.  In  the  autumn  of  1404,  however,  they  pleaded  for 
the  confiscation  of  the  revenues  of  tlic  higher  clergy,  which  were 
sufficient,  as  they  alleged,  to  support  15  earls,  1,500  knights,  6.200 
esquires,  and  100  hospitals  as  well.  The  king  refused  to  listen  to 
the  proposal  and  money  was  ^•oled  in  the  ordinary  wiiy.  it  was 
the  first  deliberate  attempt  to  meet  the  p;ro\ving  expenditure  of 
the  Crown  by  the  confiscation  of  ecclesiastical  revenue. 

Early  in  1405  Plenry  was  threatened  with  a  fresh  attack. 
Charles  VI,  of  France  was  now  a  confirmed  lunatic,  and  his 
authority  had  mainly  fallen  into  th.c  hands  of  his  brother,  Louis, 
Duke  of  Orleans,  a  profligate  and  unscruiuilous  man  wiio  was  re- 
garded by  the  feudal  nobility  of  h^raiicc  :is  ilieir  leader.  Tlie  Duke 
of  Orleans  refused  to  consider  himself  hin\vt.\  to  Henry  1)v  ilie  truce 
which  had  been  made  with  Richard,  and,  forming  an  alli:mce  with 
Owen  Glend(3V/er,  prepared  to  send  a  ilect  to  his  aid.  W'lien  there 
was  war  bctwceri  England  and  iMTincc  tiic  Scots  seldom  remained 
quiet,  but  this  time  Henry  wns  freed  from  that  danger  by  an  un- 


194  ENGLAND 

1405-1408 

expected  occurrence.  Robert  III.  now  sent  young  James,  his  only 
surviving  son,  to  be  educated  in  France.  On  his  way  the  prince 
was  captured  by  an  EngHsh  ship,  and  deHvered  to  Henry,  who  kept 
him  under  g^ard  as  a  hostage  for  the  peaceful  behavior  of  his 
countrymen.  The  prince,  he  said,  should  have  been  sent  to  him  to 
be  educated,  as  he  could  talk  French  as  well  as  the  king  of  France. 
When  Robert  died  soon  afterwards  the  captive  became  King  James 
I. ;  but  he  was  not  allowed  to  return  home,  and  Albany  ruled  Scot- 
land as  regent  in  his  name. 

The  capture  of  such  a  hostage  as  James  was  the  more  valuable 
to  Henry  as  at  that  very  moment  there  was  a  fresh  rising  in  the 
North,  in  which  Scrope,  the  Archbishop  of  York,  took  a  leading 
part.  The  insurgents  were  soon  dispersed,  and  both  Archbishop 
Scrope  and  ]Mowbray,  the  Earl  ^Marshal,  were  captured.  Henry 
had  them  both  beheaded,  though  neither  was  tried  by  his  peers, 
and  ecclesiastics  were  not  punishable  by  a  secular  court.  Know- 
ing that  the  insurrection  had  been  contrived  by  Xorthumberland, 
Henry  gave  himself  no  rest  till  he  had  demolished  the  fortifica- 
tions of  his  castles.  Northumberland  himself  escaped  to  Scot- 
land. 

In  1405,  while  Henry  was  in  the  North,  a  French  fleet 
landed  a  force  in  Wales  and  seized  Carmarthen.  In  1406  the  Duke 
of  Orleans  attacked  the  possessions  still  held  by  the  English  in 
Guienne.  Once  again  fortune  relieved  Henry  of  a  dangerous 
enemy.  The  Duke  of  Burgundy  was  also  ruler  of  Flanders 
through  his  mother.  His  wise  and  firm  government  in  Flanders 
won  him  favor  in  Paris  and  other  French  towns  in  the  north  of 
France.  He  was,  however,  personally  brutal  and  unscrupulous, 
and  having  entered  into  a  competition  for  power  with  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  he  had  him  murdered  in  1407  in  the  streets  of  Paris.  At 
once  a  civil  war  broke  out  between  the  Burgundian  party,  supported 
by  the  towns,  and  the  Orleans  party,  which  rested  on  the  feudal 
nobility,  and  was  now  termed  the  party  of  the  Armagnacs,  from  the 
Count  of  Armagnac,  its  chief  leader  after  the  murder  of  the  Duke 
of  Orleans.  Henry  had  no  longer  to  fear  invasion  from  France. 
In  1408  he  was  freed  from  vet  another  enemy.  The  old  Earl  of 
Northumberland  was  defeated  and  slain  on  Bramham  IVIoor.  At 
the  same  time  south  Wales  fell  again  under  the  power  of  the  king, 
and  though  Owen  Glendower  still  continued  to  hold  out  in  the 
mountainous  region  round  Snowdon,  his  power  rapidly  declined. 


HENRY    IV.  — HENRY    V.  195 

1409 

No  one  had  been  more  helpful  to  the  king  in  these  wars  than 
his  son,  Henry,  Prince  of  Wales.  He  had  fought  at  Shrewsbury 
and  in  Wales,  and  had  learned  to  command  as  well  as  to  fight. 
Young  as  he  was — in  1409  he  was  but  twenty-two — he  was  already 
seen  to  be  a  man  born  to  have  the  mastery.  He  took  his  place  in 
his  father's  council  as  well  as  in  his  armies  in  the  field.  He  was 
skillful,  resolute,  always  knowing  his  own  mind,  prompt  to  act  as 
each  occasion  arose.  He  was,  moreover,  unfeignedly  religious. 
It  seemed  as  if  a  king  as  great  as  Edward  I.  was  about  to  ascend 
the  throne.  Yet  between  the  character  of  Edward  I.  and  the  char- 
acter of  Prince  Henry  there  was  a  great  difference.  Edward  I. 
worked  for  the  future  as  well  as  for  the  present.  His  constructive 
legislation  served  his  country  for  generations  after  his  death.  Even 
his  mistaken  attempt  to  unite  England  and  Scotland  was,  to  some 
extent  at  least,  an  anticipation  of  that  which  was  done  by  the  Act  of 
Union  four  hundred  years  after  his  death.  The  young  Henry  had 
no  such  power  of  building  for  the  future.  He  worked  for  the  present 
alone,  and  his  work  crumbled  away  almost  as  soon  as  he  was  in  his 
grave.  His  ideas  were  the  ordinary  ideas  of  his  age,  and  he  never 
originated  any  of  his  own.  In  1410  the  House  of  Commons, 
which  was  again  urging  the  king  to  confiscate  the  revenues  of  the 
clergy,  even  urged  him  also  to  soften  the  laws  against  the  Lollards. 
The  king  refused,  and  he  had  no  opposition  to  fear  from  the 
Prince  of  Wales. 

It  was  not  long  before  a  bitter  quarrel  broke  out  betw^een 
Henry  IV.  and  his  son,  which  lasted  till  the  death  of  the  old  man. 
In  later  times  stories  were  told  how  Prince  Henry  gave  himself  up 
to  the  society  of  low^  and  debauched  companions,  how  he  amused 
himself  by  robbing  the  receivers  of  his  own  rents,  and  how,  havmg 
struck  Chief  Justice  Gascoigne  for  sitting  in  judgment  on  one  of 
his  unruly  followers,  lie  was  sent  to  prison  for  contempt  of  court. 
There  is  no  real  evidence  in  support  of  these  stories;  but  there  is 
good  reason  to  believe  that,  though  they  were  certainly  exagg-erated, 
they  were  not  altogether  without  foundation.  It  is  certam  that 
during  this  period  of  his  life  he  ran  deeply  into  debt,  and  was  no 
longer  on  good  terms  with  his  father.  Yet  even  the  story  about 
the  Chief  Justice  goes  on  to  say  that  tlie  Prince  took  his  punish- 
ment meekly  and  offered  no  resistance,  and  that  his  father  thanked 
God  that  he  had  so  upright  a  judge  and  so  obedient  a  son.  Political 
disagreement  probaljly  widened  the  breach  between  the  king  and 


196  ENGLAND 

1411-1413 

the  prince.  Henry  IV.  had  grown  accustomed  to  live  from  hand  to 
mouth,  and  had  maintained  himself  on  the  throne  rather  because 
Englishmen  needed  a  king  than  because  he  was  himself  a  great  ruler. 
In  his  foreign  policy  he  was  swayed  by  the  interests  of  the  moment. 
In  141 1  he  helped  the  Burgundians  against  the  Armagnacs.  In 
1412  he  helped  the  Armagnacs  against  the  Burgundians.  Prince 
Henry  already  aimed  at  a  steady  alliance  with  the  Burgundians, 
with  a  view^  to  a  policy  more  thoroughgoing  than  that  of  keeping 
a  balance  betw'een  the  French  parties.  The  king,  too,  was  subject 
to  epileptic  attacks,  and  to  a  cutaneous  disorder  which  his  ill-willers 
branded  by  the  name  of  leprosy.  It  has  even  been  said  that  in 
141 2  the  prince  urged  his  father  to  abdicate  in  his  favor.  If  so, 
he  had  not  long  to  wait  for  the  crown.  In  14 13  Henry  IV.  died, 
and  Henry  V.  sat  upon  his  throne. 

Henry  V.  was  steadied  by  the  duties  which  now  devolved  upon 
him  and  he  allowed  no  plans  of  vengeance  to  take  possession  of 
his  mind.  His  first  thought  was  to  show  that  he  had  confidence  in 
his  own  title  to  tlie  crown.  He  liberated  the  Earl  of  March,  and 
transferred  the  body  of  Richard  II.  to  a  splendid  tomb  at  West- 
minster, as  if  he  had  nothing  to  fear  from  any  competitor.  If  there 
was  one  thing  on  which,  as  far  as  England  was  concerned,  his 
heart  was  set,  it  was  on  strengthening  the  religion  of  his  ancestors. 
He  founded  three  friaries  and  he  set  himself  to  crush  the  Lollards. 
Sir  John  Oldcastle,  who  bore  the  title  of  Lord  Cobham  in  right  of 
his  wife,  was  looked  up  to  by  the  Lollards  as  their  chief  supporter. 
Oldcastle  was  brought  before  A.rchbishop  Arundel.  Both  judge  and 
accused  played  their  several  parts  with  dignity.  Arundel  without 
angry  reviling  asserted  the  necessity  of  accepting-  the  teaching  of 
the  Church.  Oldcastle  with  modest  firmness  maintained  the  falsity 
of  many  of  its  doctrines.  In  the  end  he  was  excommunicated,  but 
before  any  further  action  could  be  taken  he  escaped,  and  was  no- 
where to  be  found.  LI  is  followers  were  so  exasperated  as  to  form 
a  plot  against  the  king's  life.  The  result  was  a  statute  giving  fresli 
powers  to  the  king  for  tlie  punishment  of  the  Lollards.  Every 
book  written  by  them  was  to  Ije  confiscated.  Three  years  later 
(1417)  Oldcastle  was  seized  and  burned.  He  was  the  last  of  the 
Lollards  to  play  an  historical  part.  The  Lollards  continued  to 
exist  in  secret,  especially  in  the  towns,  but  there  was  never  again 
anyone  among  tliem  who  combined  religious  fervor  with  culti- 
vated intelli"-ence. 


HENRY    IV.  —  HENRY    V.  197 

1414-1415 

Henry  V.  was  resolved  to  uphold  the  old  foreign  policy  of 
the  days  of  Edward  HI.  as  well  as  the  old  religion.  In  1414, 
while  he  amused  the  French  court  by  offers  of  friendship,  he  was 
in  reality  preparing  to  demand  the  crown  of  France  as  the  right 
of  the  king  of  England,  leaving  out  of  sight  the  consideration  that 
if  the  claim  of  Edward  III.  had  been  worth  anything  at  all,  it 
would  have  descended  to  the  Earl  of  March  and  not  to  himself. 
Everything  seemed  to  combine  to  make  easy  an  attack  on  France. 
Burgundians  and  Armagnacs  were  engaged  in  a  death-struggle. 
Henry  now  made  an  alliance  with  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  against 
the  ruling  powers,  and  prepared  to  invade  tlie  distracted  land. 
Thus  far  he  proceeded  in  imitation  of  Edward  III.,  wlio  had  at- 
tacked Philip  VI.  in  alliance  Avith  the  Flemings.  Fie  went  to  war 
because  he  was  young  and  warlike,  because  the  enterprise  was  easy, 
and  because  foreign  conquest  would  unite  all  Englishmen  round 
his  throne. 

When  once  tlie  war  was  begun  he  was  certain  to  carry 
it  on  in  different  spirit  from  that  of  Edward  IIL  Edward  had 
gone  to  weaken  the  plunderers  by  plundering  in  return,  nnd  to  fight 
battles  only  when  they  happened  to  come  in  his  way.  Ueruw  went 
with  the  distinct  resolution  to  conquer  France  and  to  place  the 
French  crown  on  his  own  head.  Every  step  Avliich  he  took  was 
calculated  with  skill  for  tlie  attainment  of  this  end.  Of  immediate, 
perhaps  of  lifelong,  success  Henry  was  as  nearly  certain  as  it  was 
possible  to  be.  Yet,  if  he  had  remembered  what  had  been  the  end 
of  campaigns  adorned  by  the  brilliant  victories  of  Crecy  and 
Poitiero,  he  might  have  known  that  all  that  he  could  do  would 
end  in  ultimate  failure,  and  that  the  dav  must  come  when  divided 
France  would  unite  to  cast  out,  if  not  himself,  at  least  his  h.eirs. 
Henrv  was  not  inclined,  as  Edward  I.  had  been,  to  take  thought  for 
a  distant  morrow. 

In  14 1 5  Henry  openly  made  his  claim  and  gaUicred  his  army 
at  Soutliami)ton.  He  there  detected  a  conspiracy  to  place  the 
Earl  of  .March  on  tlie  throne.  The  consjMrators  were  executed  and 
then  Henry  sailed  for  France.  He  landed  at  tlie  month  of  the 
Seine  and  besieged  Harfleur.  Ilarfleur  fell  after  an  lieroic  defense. 
and  tlie  Seine  \  alley  lay  open  to  Henry.  On  account  of  losses  from 
sickness  he  v/as  unable  to  take  advantage  of  the  oppijrtun^iiy  to 
marcli  upon  Paris.  Henry  knew  that  if  he  went  back  witli  i)anFd 
hope^  iiis  throne  would  hardly  stand  the  sliock  and  he  resohvcd  to 


198  ENGLAND 

141S 

march  to  Calais.  It  might  be  that  he  would  find  a  Cregy  on  the 
way. 

Not  a  Frenchman  could  be  found  who  would  take  seriously 
Henry's  claim  to  be  the  true  king  of  France.  His  own  army  was 
by  this  time  scarcely  more  than  10,000  strong,  and  he  soon  learned 
that  a  mighty  French  host  of  at  least  50,000  men  blocked  the  way 
at  Agincourt.  Though  his  little  band  was  worn  with  hunger,  he 
joyfully  prepared  for  battle.  He  knew  that  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy had  kept  aloof,  and  that  the  Armagnac  army  opposed  to  him 
was  a  feudal  host  of  the  same  character  as  that  which  had  been 
defeated  at  Cregy.  There  were  no  recognized  commanders,  no 
subordination,  no  notion  of  the  superior  military  power  of  the 
English  archers. 

In  the  early  morning  mass  was  said  in  the  English  army,  and 
Henry's  scanty  followers  prayed  earnestly  that  their  king's  right, 
as  they  believed  it  to  be,  might  be  sliown  on  that  day.  Henry's 
own  prayers  were  long  and  fervid.  He  then  went  forth  to  marshal 
his  army.  Henry's  tactics  were  those  of  Cregy.  He  drew  up 
his  archers  between  thick  woods  which  defended  their  flanks,  and 
with  sharp  stakes  planted  in  the  ground  to  defend  them  in  front, 
placing  his  dismounted  horsemen  at  intervals  between  the  bodies  of 
archers.  The  French,  hov/ever,  showed  no  signs  of  attacking,  and 
Henry,  knowing  that,  unless  he  cut  his  way  through,  his  soldiers 
would  starve,  threw  tactics  to  the  winds  and  ordered  his  archers 
to  advance.  He  had  judged  wisely.  The  French  horsemen  were 
on  plowed  ground  soaked  with  rain,  and  when  at  last  they  charged, 
the  legs  of  their  horses  stuck  fast  in  the  clinging  mud.  The 
English  arrows  played  thickly  on  them.  Immovable  and  helpless, 
they  were  slaughtered  as  they  stood.  In  vain  their  dismounted 
horsemen  pushed  forward  in  three  columns  upon  the  English 
knights.  Their  charge  was  vigorously  resisted,  and  the  archers, 
overlapping  each  column,  drew  forth  the  heavy  laden  mallets  which 
each  man  carried,  and  fell  upon  the  helpless  rout  with  blows  which 
crashed  through  the  iron  headpieces  of  the  Frenchmen.  Such  as 
could  escape  fled  hastily  to  the  rear,  throwing  into  wild  confusion 
the  masses  of  their  countrymen  who  had  not  as  yet  been  engaged. 
The  battle  was  won,  but  unfortunately  the  victorv  was  stained  by 
a  cruel  deed.  Some  French  plunderers  had  got  into  the  rear 
to  seize  upon  the  baggage,  and  Henry,  believing  that  a  fresh 
enemy  was  upon  him,  gave  orders,  which  were  promptly  carried 


HENRY    IV   ^HENRY   V  199 

1416-1419 

out,  to  slay  the  prisoners.  The  loss  of  the  French  was  enormous, 
and  fell  heavily  on  their  nobility,  always  eager  to  be  foremost 
in  fight,  Among  the  prisoners  who  were  spared  was  the  young 
Duke  of  Orleans. 

If  Henry  had  not  yet  secured  the  crown  of  France,  he  had  at 
least  made  sure  of  the  crown  of  England.  When  he  landed  at 
Dover  he  was  borne  to  land  on  the  shoulders  of  the  multitude.  He 
entered  London  amid  wild  enthusiasm.  There  was  no  fear  of 
any  fresh  conspiracy  to  place  the  Earl  of  March  on  the  throne. 
In  14 1 6  he  was  diplomatically  active  in  an  attempt  to  win  over  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy  and  Sigismund,  King  of  the  Romans,  who 
actually  visited  him  in  England.  Sigismund  promised  much,  but 
had  little  power  to  fulfill  his  promises,  while  the  Duke  shifted  back- 
wards and  forwards,  looking  out  for  his  own  advantage  and  giving 
no  real  help  to  either  side.  In  14 17  the  quarrels  in  France  reached 
a  head,  and  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  levied  war  against  the  Arma- 
gnacs  and  marched  to  Paris. 

Henry  seized  the  opportunity  and  landed  in  Normandy.  Caen 
was  taken  by  storm,  and  in  a  few  weeks  all  Normandy  except  Rouen 
had  submitted  to  Henry.  There  had  been  a  terrible  butchery  when 
Caen  was  stormed,  but  when  once  submission  was  secured  Henry 
took  care  that  justice  and  order  should  be  enforced,  and  that  his 
soldiers  should  abstain  from  plunder  and  outrage.  In  Paris  affairs 
were  growing  worse.  The  citizens  rose  against  the  Armagnacs  and 
imprisoned  all  of  them  on  whom  they  could  lay  hands.  Then  the 
mob  burst  into  prison  and  massacred  the  prisoners,  the  Count  of 
Armagnac  himself  being  one  of  the  number.  Henry's  army  in 
the  meanwhile  closed  round  Rouen.  Famine  did  its  work  within 
as  well  as  without  the  walls,  and  on  January  19,  14 19-  Rouen,  the 
old  ducal  capital  of  the  Normans,  surrendered  to  Henry. 

In  the  summer  of  1419  Englisli  troops  swept  the  country  even 
up  to  the  walls  of  Paris.  Henry,  however,  gained  more  by  the 
follies  and  crimes  of  his  enemies  than  by  his  own  skill.  Terrified 
at  the  prospect  of  losing  all,  Burgundians  and  Armagnacs  seemed 
for  a  moment  to  forget  their  quarrel  and  to  be  ready  to  join  together 
in  defense  of  their  common  country;  but  the  hatred  in  their  hearts 
could  not  be  rooted  out.  At  a  conference  between  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy  and  the  Dauphin  on  the  bridge  of  :Montereau,  angry 
words  sprang  easily  to  the  lips  of  both.  The  Duke  put  his  hand 
on  the  pommel  of  his  sword,  and  some  of  ihe  Dauphin's  attendants. 


200  ENGLAND 

1420-1422 

believing  their  master's  life  in  danger,  fell  on  the  Duke  and  slew 
him.  After  this  an  agreement  between  the  factions  was  no  longer 
possible.  The  new  Duke  of  Burgundy,  Philip  the  Good,  at  once 
joined  the  English  and  in  1420  was  signed  the  Treaty  of  Troyes, 
by  which  the  Dauphin  was  disinherited  in  favor  of  Henry,  who 
was  to  be  king  of  France  on  the  death  of  Charles  VI.  In  accord- 
ance with  its  terms,  Henry  married  Charles's  daughter  Catherine, 
and  ruled  France  as  regent  till  the  time  came  when  he  was  to  rule 
it  as  king. 

Henry  V.  presumed  to  rule  over  a  foreign  nation,  the  leaders 
of  which  had  only  accepted  him  in  a  momentary  fit  of  passion. 
He  never  got  the  whole  of  France  into  his  power.  He  held  Paris 
and  the  north,  while  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  held  the  east.  South 
of  the  Loire  the  Armagnacs  were  strong,  and  that  part  of  France 
stood  by  the  Dauphin,  though  even  here  the  English  possessed  a 
strip  of  land  along  the  sea-coast  in  Guienne  and  Gascony,  and  at 
one  time  drew  over  some  of  the  lords  to  adniit  Plenry's  feudal 
supremacy.  In  1420  Henry  fancied  it  safe  for  him  to  return  to 
England,  but  in  his  absence,  in  the  spring  of  1421,  his  brother,  the 
Duke  of  Clarence,  v.as  defeated  and  slain.  Henry  hurried  to  the 
rescue  of  his  followers,  and  drove  the  French  over  the  Loire;  and 
then  turned  sharply  round  northwards  to  besiege  Meaux,  which 
held  out  for  many  months.  When  at  last  it  fell,  in  1422,  Henry 
was  already  suffering  from  a  disease  which  carried  him  off  before 
the  end  of  the  year  at  the  age  of  thirty-five.  Henry  V.  had  given 
his  life  to  the  restoration  of  the  authority  of  the  Church  in  England, 
and  to  the  establishment  of  his  dynasty  at  home  by  means  of  the 
glory  of  foreign  conquest.  What  man  could  do  he  did,  but  he 
could  not  achieve  the  impossible. 


Chapter    XX 


HENRY   VI     AND    THE    LOSS    OF    FRANCE 

1422 — 1 45 1 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  Henry  VI.,  A.D.  1422-1461— The  Accession  of  Henry 
VI.,  1422 — The  Relief  of  Orleans,  1429 — End  of  the  Alliance  with 
THE  Duke  of  Burgundy,  1435 — Marriage  of  Henry  VI.  with  Mar- 
garet OF  Anjou,  1445 — Murder  of  the  Duke  of  Suffolk  and  Jack 
Cade's  Rebellion,  1450 — Loss  of  the  Last  French  Possessions  Except 
Calais,  1451 

IN  England  Henry  V.  was  succeeded  in  1422  by  his  son,  Henry 
VI.,  a  child  of  nine  months.  In  the  same  year  in  consequence 
of  the  death  of  Charles  VI.,  the  infant  was  acknowledged  as 
king  of  France  in  the  north  and  east  of  that  country.  The  Dauphin, 
holding  the  lands  south  of  the  Loire,  and  some  territory  even  to  the 
north  of  it,  claimed  to  reign  over  the  whole  of  France  by  hereditary 
right  as  Charles  VII.  Henry  V.  had  appointed  his  eldest  sur- 
viving brother,  John,  Duke  of  Bedford,  regent  in  France,  and 
his  youngest  brother,  LIumphrey.  Duke  of  Gloucester,  regent  in 
England.  In  England  there  were  no  longer  any  parties  banded 
against  the  Crown,  and  the  title  of  tlie  Earl  of  March  had  not  a 
single  supporter;  but  both  the  Privy  Council  and  the  Parnament 
agreed  that  the  late  king  could  not  dispose  of  the  regency  l)y  will. 
Holding  that  Bedford  as  the  elder  brother  liad  the  better  claim, 
they  nevertheless,  in  consequence  of  his  absence  in  I'Vance,  ap- 
pointed Gloucester  Protector,  Vv'ith  the  proviso  that  he  should  give 
up  his  authority  to  Bedford  if  the  latter  were  to  return  to  England. 
They  also  imposed  limitations  u])on  llie  authority  of  the  Protector, 
requiring  him  to  act  Ijv  the  advice  of  the  Council. 

The  English  nation  was  bent  upon  maintaining  its  supremacy 
in  France.  Bedford  was  a  good  warrior  and  an  able  statesman. 
In  1423  he  prudently  married  tlie  sister  of  Philip  of  Burgundy, 
hoping  thereby  to  secure  permanently  the  all-important  fidelity  of 
the  Duke.      His  next  step  was  to  place  difficulties  in  the  way  of 


202  ENGLAND 

T423-1428 

the  Scottish  auxiharies  who  poured  into  France  to  the  help  of 
Charles,  Through  his  influence  the  captive  James  I.  was  lib- 
erated and  sent  home  to  Scotland,  on  the  understanding  that  he 
would  prevent  his  subjects  from  aiding  the  enemies  of  England. 
Bedford  needed  all  the  support  he  could  find,  as  the  French  had 
lately  been  gaining  ground.  In  1424,  however,  Bedford  defeated 
them  at  Verneuil.  In  England  it  was  believed  that  Verneuil  was 
a  second  Agincourt,  and  that  the  French  resistance  would  soon  be 
at  an  end. 

Bedford's  progress  in  France  was  checked  by  the  folly  of  his 
brother  Gloucester,  who  was  as  unwise  and  capricious  as  he  was 
greedy  of  power.  Gloucester  had  lately  married  Jacqueline,  the 
heiress  of  Holland  and  Hainault,  In  1424  he  overran  Hainault, 
thereby  giving  offense  to  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  a  coolness 
arose  between  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  and  the  English  which  was 
never  completely  removed. 

In  England  as  well  as  on  the  Continent  Gloucester's  self-willed 
restlessness  roused  enemies,  the  most  powerful  of  them  being  his 
uncle,  the  Chancellor  Henry  Beaufort,  Bishop  of  AMnchester, 
a  wealthy  and  ambitious  prelate  not  without  those  statesman- 
like qualities  which  were  sadly  lacking  to  Gloucester.  If 
Beaufort  ruled  the  Council,  Gloucester  had  the  art  of  making 
himself  popular  with  the  multitude,  whose  sympathies  were  not 
likely  to  be  given  to  a  bishop  of  the  tvpe  of  Beaufort,  who  practiced 
no  austerities  and  who  had  nothing  in  him  to  appeal  to  the  popular 
imagination.  So  bitter  was  the  feud  between  Gloucester  and  Beau- 
fort that  in  1426  Bedford  v/as  obliged  to  visit  England  to  keep 
the  peace  between  them.  He  persuaded  Beaufort  to  leave  England 
for  a  time.  In  1428.  after  he  had  returned  to  France.  Beaufort 
came  back,  bringing  with  him  from  Rome  the  title  of  Cardinal, 
and  authority  to  raise  soldiers  for  a  crusade  against  heretics 
in  Bohemia.  A  storm  was  at  once  raised  against  him.  Beau- 
fort, however,  was  too  prudent  to  press  his  clamis.  He  absented 
himself  from  the  Council  and  allowed  the  men  whom  he  had  raised 
for  Bohemia  to  be  sent  to  France  instead.  Before  the  end  of  the 
year  the  outcry  against  him  died  away,  and.  Cardinal  as  he  was, 
he  resumed  his  old  place  in  the  Council. 

The  time  had  arrived  when  the  presence  of  every  English 
soldier  was  needed  in  France.  Bedford  Iiad  made  himself  master 
of  almost  the  whole  countrv  north  of  the  Loire  except  Orleans. 


HENRY     VI  203 

1428-1429 

If  he  could  gain  that  city  it  would  be  easy  for  him  to  overpower 
Charles,  who  kept  court  at  Chinon.  In  1428,  therefore,  he  laid 
siege  to  Orleans.  The  city,  however,  defended  itself  gallantly, 
though  all  that  the  French  outside  could  hope  to  do  was  to  cut 
off  the  supplies  of  the  besiegers.  Frenchmen  were  indeed  weary  of 
the  foreign  yoke  and  of  the  arrogant  insolence  of  the  rough  island 
soldiers.  Yet  in  France  all  military  and  civil  organization  had 
hitherto  come  from  the  kings,  and  unfortunately  for  his  subjects 
Charles  was  easy-tempered  and  entirely  incapable  either  of  carrying 
on  war  successfully  or  of  inspiring  that  enthusiasm  without  which 
the  most  careful  organization  is  as  the  twining  of  ropes  of  sand. 
It  would  need  a  miracle  to  inspire  Frenchmen  with  the  belief  that 
it  was  possible  for  them  to  defeat  the  victors  of  Agincourt  and 
Verneuil,  and  yet  without  such  a  miracle  irretrievable  ruin  was  at 
hand. 

The  miracle  was  wrought  by  a  young  maiden  of  seventeen, 
Jeanne  Dare,  the  daughter  of  a  peasant  of  Domremi,  in  the  duchy 
of  Bar.  While  she  was  still  little  more  than  a  child,  tales  of  horror, 
reaching  her  from  afar,  had  filled  her  with  "  pity  for  the  realm  of 
France  "  and  for  its  young  king,  whom  she  idealized  into  the  pat- 
tern of  every  virtue.  As  she  brooded  over  the  thought  of  possible 
deliverance,  her  warm  imagination  summoned  up  before  her  bright 
and  saintly  forms,  St.  Michael,  St.  Catherine,  and  St.  Margaret, 
who  bade  her,  the  chosen  of  God,  to  go  forth  and  save  the  king, 
and  conduct  him  to  Rheims  to  be  crowned  and  anointed.  At  last 
in  1428  her  native  hamlet  was  burned  down  and  the  voices  of  the 
saints  bade  her  go  to  Vaucouleurs,  where  she  would  find  a  knight, 
Robert  de  Baudricourt,  who  would  conduct  her  to  Charles. 
Months  passed  before  Baudricourt  consented  to  take  her  in  his 
train.  She  found  Charles  at  Chinon,  and,  as  the  story  goes,  con- 
vinced him  of  her  Divine  mission  by  recognizing  him  in  disguise  in 
the  midst  of  his  courtiers.  Soldiers  and  theologians  alike  dis- 
trusted her,  but  her  native  good  sense,  her  simple  and  earnest  faith,, 
and  above  all  her  purity  of  heart  and  life  disarmed  all  opposition, 
and  she  was  sent  forth  to  lead  an  army  to  the  relief  of  Orleans. 
She  rode  on  horseback  clothed  in  armor  as  a  man,  with  a  sword 
which  she  had  taken  from  behind  the  altar  of  St.  Catherine  by  her 
side  and  a  consecrated  banner  in  her  hand.  She  Iirought  with  her 
hope  of  victory,  enthusiasm  built  on  confidence  in  Divine  protection, 
and  wide-reaching  patriotism.     "  Pity  for  the  realm  of  France  "'  in- 


204  ENGLAND 

1429-1433 

Spired  her,  and  even  the  rough  soldiers  who  followed  her  forsook 
for  a  time  their  debaucheries  that  they  might  be  fit  to  follow  God's 
holy  maid.  Such  an  army  was  invincible.  On  May  7,  1429,  she  led 
the  storm  of  one  of  the  English  fortified  posts  by  which  the  town 
was  hemmed  in.  After  a  sharp  attack  she  planted  her  standard  on 
the  wall.  The  English  garrison  was  slain  to  a  man.  The  line  of 
the  besiegers  was  broken  through,  and  Orleans  was  saved.  On  the 
1 2th  the  English  army  was  in  full  retreat. 

The  Maid  followed  up  her  victory,  and  pressed  the  English 
hard,  driving  them  northwards  and  defeating  them  at  Patay.  She 
insisted  on  conducting  Charles  to  Rheims.  Hostile  towns  opened 
their  gates  to  her  on  the  way,  and  on  July  ly  she  saw  with  chastened 
joy  the  man  whom  she  had  saved  from  destruction  crowned  in  the 
great  cathedral  of  Rheims.  For  her  part,  she  was  eager  to  push 
on  the  war,  but  Charles  was  slothful.  In  the  spring  of  1430  the 
iMaid  was  allowed  again  to  attack  the  English,  but  she  had  no  longer 
the  support  which  she  had  once  had.  On  ]\Iay  23,  in  a  skirmish 
before  Compiegne.  her  countrvmen  doing  nothing  to  save  or  to 
rescue  her,  the  ]\Iaid  was  taken  by  Burgundian  soldiers.  Before 
the  end  of  the  year  her  captors  sold  her  to  the  English,  who  firmly 
believed  her  to  be  a  witch. 

The  English  had  no  difficulty  in  finding  an  ecclesiastical  court 
to  judge  their  prisoner,  and  in  spite  of  an  intelligent  and  noble 
defense  she  was  condemned  to  be  burned.  At  the  stake  she  behaved 
with  heroic  simplicity.  When  the  flames  curled  round  her  she 
called  upon  the  saints  who  had  befriended  her.  Her  last  utterance 
was  a  cry  of  "  Jesus !  "'  i\n  Englishman  who  had  come  to  triumph 
hung  his  head  for  shame.  "  AVe  are  lost,"  he  said;  "we  have 
burned  a  saint!  " 

The  English  gained  nothing  by  their  unworthy  vengeance. 
It  was  in  vain  that  towards  the  end  of  1431  Bedford  carried  the 
young  Henry,  now  a  boy  of  ten  years,  who  had  already  been 
crowned  in  England  the  year  before,  to  be  crowned  at  Xotre  Dame, 
the  cathedral  of  Paris.  In  1432  tlie  armies  of  Charles  VII.  stole 
forward  step  by  step,  and  Bedford,  who  had  no  money  to  pay  his 
troops,  could  do  notliing  to  resist  tliem.  The  English  Parliament, 
which  had  cheerfully  voted  supplies  as  long  as  there  seemed  a 
prospecr  of  concjuering  France,  hung  back  from  granting  them 
when  victories  were  no  longer  won.  In  1433  Bedford  was  again 
forced  to  return  to  England  to  oppose  the  intrigues  of  Gloucester, 


HENRY    VI  205 

1434-1439 

who,  though  he  had  lost  the  title  of  Protector  when  the  young  king 
was  crowned,  had  thrown  the  government  into  confusion  by  his 
intrigues.  When  Bedford  went  back  to  France  in  1434  he  found 
the  tide  running  strongly  against  him.  Little  more  than  Paris  and 
Normandy  were  held  by  the  English,  and  the  Duke  of  Burgundy 
was  inclining  more  and  more  towards  the  French.  In  1435  a  con- 
gress was  held  at  Arras,  under  the  Duke  of  Burgundy's  presidency, 
in  the  hope  that  peace  might  be  made.  The  congress,  however, 
failed  to  accomplish  anything,  and  soon  after  the  English  ambassa- 
dors were  withdrawn  Bedford  died  at  Rouen.  If  so  wise  a  states- 
man and  so  skillful  a  warrior  had  failed  to  hold  down  France,  no 
other  Englishman  was  likely  to  achieve  the  task. 

After  Bedford's  death  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  renounced  his 
alliance  with  the  English  and  entered  into  a  league  with  Charles 
VII.  By  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Brabant  and  of  his  wife,  he,  being 
already  Count  of  Flanders,  became  ruler  over  vvcllnigh  the  whole 
of  the  Netherlands  in  addition  to  his  own  territories  in  Burgundy. 
The  vassal  of  the  king  of  France  was  now  a  European  potentate. 
England  had  therefore  to  count  on  the  enmity  of  a  ruler  whose 
power  of  injuring  her  was  indeed  serious. 

Bedford's  successor  was  the  young  Ricliard.  Duke  of  York, 
now,  through  his  mother,  the  heir  of  Lionel,  Duke  of  Clarence, 
and  thus,  if  hereditary  right  was  to  be  regarded,  lieir  to  the  throne. 
That  a  man  with  such  claims  should  luive  been  entrusied  with 
such  an  office  shows  how  firmly  the  victories  of  Henry  V.  had  estab- 
lished the  House  of  Lancaster  in  England.  In  April,  1436,  before 
he  could  arrive  in  France,  Paris  was  lost,  while  tl-.e  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy besieged  Calais.  England,  stung  ])y  the  defection  of  Bur- 
gundy, made  an  unusual  effort.  One  army  drove  the  Burgundians 
away  from  before  Calais,  while  anotlier  under  llx  Duke  of  \  ork 
himself  regained  several  fortresses  in  Normandy,  and  in  1437  Lord 
Talbot  drove  the  Burgundians  bcliind  the  Somme. 

Both  in  England  and  France  tlie  suffering  was  terrible,  and 
England  would  find  neither  men  nor  money  to  su])i)(irt  a  failing 
cause.  Fn  1439  a  ])cace  conference  was  hold  ;it  Calais,  but  the 
English  concinued  arrogantly  to  claim  the  crown  of  h'rancc,  and 
peace  was  not  to  be  had. 

The  chief  advocate  in  England  of  tlie  attempt  to  make  peace 
at  Calais  in  1439  ^^^^^  1^^'""  Cardinal  Beaufort,  whose  immense 
wealth  gave  him   authority  over  a  Council   which   was  always  at 


206  ENGL  A  N  D 

1440-1444 

its  wits'  end  for  money.  Beaufort  was  wise  enough  to  see  that  the 
attempt  to  reconquer  the  lost  territory,  or  even  to  hold  Normandy, 
was  hopeless.  Such  a  view,  however,  was  not  likely  to  be  popular. 
Of  the  popular  feeling  Gloucester  made  himself  the  mouthpiece, 
and  it  was  by  his  influence  that  exhorbitant  pretensions  had  been 
put  forward  at  Calais.  In  1440  he  accused  Beaufort  of  using  his 
authority  for  his  own  private  interests.  Gloucester's  domestic 
relations,  on  the  other  hand,  offered  an  easy  object  of  attack. 

In  1442  Henry  was  in  his  twenty-first  year.  Unfeignedly 
religious  and  anxious  to  be  at  peace  with  all  men,  his  character  was 
far  too  weak  and  gentle  to  fit  him  for  governing  in  those  rough 
times.  He  had  attached  himself  to  Beaufort  because  Beaufort's 
policy  was  pacific,  and  because  Gloucester's  life  was  scandalous. 
Beaufort's  position  was  secured  at  court,  but  the  situation  w^as  not 
one  in  which  a  pacific  statesman  could  hope  for  success.  The 
French  would  not  consent  to  make  peace  till  all  that  they  had  lost 
had  been  recovered ;  yet,  hardly  bested  as  the  English  in  France 
were,  it  was  impossible  in  the  teeth  of  English  public  opinion  for 
any  statesman,  however  pacific,  to  abandon  lands  still  commanded 
by  English  garrisons.  Every  year,  however,  brought  the  problem 
nearer  to  the  inevitable  solution.  In  1442  the  French  attacked 
the  strip  of  land  which  was  all  that  the  English  now  held  in  Gui- 
enne  and  Gascony,  and  with  the  exception  of  Bordeaux  and  Bay- 
onne  captured  almost  every  fortified  town.  The  command  in 
France  was  given  to  Cardinal  Beaufort's  nephew,  John  Beaufort, 
Duke  of  Somerset.  Somerset,  who  was  thoroughly  incompetent, 
did  not  even  leave  England  till  the  autumn  of  1443,  and  when  he 
arrived  in  France  accomplished  nothing  worthy  of  his  office. 

Henry  now  fell  under  the  influence  of  William  de  la  Pole,  Earl 
of  Sufifolk,  a  descendant  of  the  favorite  of  Richard  II.  Suffolk 
had  fought  bravely  in  France,  and  had  learned  by  sad  experience 
the  hopelessness  of  the  English  cause.  In  1444,  with  the  consent 
of  the  king  and  the  Parliament,  he  negotiated  at  Tours  a  truce  of 
ten  months.  In  order  to  make  it  more  lasting  there  was  to  be  a 
marriage  between  Henry  and  ^largaret  of  Anjou.  Her  father, 
Rene,  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  was  titular  king  of  Jerusalem  and  Sicily, 
in  neither  of  which  did  he  possess  a  foot  of  ground,  while  his  duchy 
of  Anjou  was  almost  valueless  to  him  in  cr)nsequence  of  the  forays 
of  the  English,  who  still  held  posts  in  ]\Iaine.  Charles  had  the 
more  readily  consented  to  the  truce,  because  it  was  understood  that 


H  E  N  R  Y     V I  207 

1445-1451 

the  surrender  of  Maine  would  be  a  condition  of  the  marriage. 
In  1445  Suffolk  led  Margaret  to  England,  where  her  marriage  to 
Henry  was  solemnized.  A  French  queen  who  brought  with  her 
no  portion  except  a  truce  bought  by  the  surrender  of  territory  could 
hardly  fail  to  be  unpopular  in  England. 

The  truce  was  renewed  from  time  to  time,  and  Suffolk's 
authority  seemed  firmly  established.  In  1447  Gloucester  was 
charged  with  high  treason  in  a  Parliament  held  at  Bury  St.  Ed- 
munds, but  before  he  had  time  to  answer  he  was  found  dead  in  his 
bed.  His  death  may,  with  strong  probability,  be  ascribed  to  nat- 
ural causes,  but  it  was  widely  believed  that  he  had  been  murdered 
and  that  Suffolk  was  the  murderer.  A  few  weeks  later  Gloucester's 
old  rival,  Cardinal  Beaufort,  the  last  real  statesman  who  supported 
the  throne  of  Henry  VI.,  followed  him  to  the  grave,  and  Suffolk 
was  left  alone  to  bear  the  responsibility  of  government  and  the  dis- 
grace of  failure. 

Suffolk  had  undertaken  more  than  he  was  able  to  fulfill.  Som- 
erset had  died  in  1444,  and  Suffolk  being  jealous  of  all  authority 
but  his  own,  sent  York  to  govern  Ireland.  He  could  not  secure 
the  fulfillment  of  the  conditions  which  he  had  made  with  the  king 
of  France.  The  English  commanders  refused  to  evacuate  :\Iaine, 
and  in  1448  a  French  army  entered  the  province  and  drove  out  the 
English.  Rouen  fell  in  1450,  and  in  1450  the  whole  of  Normandy 
was  lost.  In  145 1  the  French  attacked  Bordeaux  and  Bayonne, 
two  port  towns  which,  in  consequence  of  their  close  commercial 
intercourse  with  England,  had  no  wish  to  transfer  their  allegiance 
to  Charles.  England,  however,  sent  them  no  succor,  and  before 
the  end  of  the  year  they  were  forced  to  capitulate.  The  relics  of 
Guienne  and  Gascony  tlius  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  French, 
and  of  all  the  possessions  which  the  kings  of  England  had  once 
held  on  the  Continent  Calais  alone  remained. 


Chapter    XXI 

THE    LATER   YEARS    OF    HENRY   VI.     1450— 1461 

LEADING    DATES 

Reigk  of  Hekry  VI.,  A.D.  1422-1461 — Murder  of  the  Duke  of 
Suffolk  and  Jack  Cade's  Rebellion',  1450 — First  Protectorate  of 
THE  Duke  of  York,  1453 — First  B\ttle  of  St.  Albaks  avd  Secovd 
Protectorate  of  the  Duke  of  York,  1455 — After  a  Yorkist  Vic- 
tory AT  Northampton'  the  Duke  of  York  is  Declared  Heir  to  the 
Crowk,  but  is  Defeated  and  Slaik  at  Wakefield,  1460 — Battles  of 
Mortimer's  Cross,  St.  Alba\s,  akd  To\\ton,  1461 — Coronation  of 
Edward  IV.,  1461 

SIXCE  the  insurrection  of  the  peasants  in  1381  villeinage 
had  to  a  great  extent  been  dying  out,  in  consequence  of 
the  difficuhy  felt  by  the  lords  in  enforcing  their  claims. 
Yet  the  condition  of  the  classes  connected  with  the  land  was  by 
no  means  prosperous.  The  lords  of  manors  indeed  abandoned 
the  old  system  of  cultivating  their  own  lands  by  the  labor  of 
villeins,  or  by  laborers  hired  with  money  paid  by  villeins  in  com- 
mutation for  bodily  service.  Tliey  began  to  let  out  their  land  to 
tenants  who  paid  rent  for  it :  but  even  the  new  system  did  not  bring 
in  anything  like  the  old  profit.  The  soil  had  been  exhausted  for 
want  of  a  proper  system  of  manuring,  and  arable  land  scarcely 
repaid  the  expenses  of  its  cultivation.  For  this  evil  a  remedy  was 
found  in  the  inclosure  of  lands  for  pasturage.  This  change,  which 
in  itself  was  beneficial  by  increasing  the  productiveness  of  the  coun- 
try, and  by  giving  rest  to  the  exiiau.-'.ed  soil,  became  oppressive 
because  all  the  benefit  v.'ent  to  th.e  If •■■.']  of  tlie  manors,  wliile  the 
tenants  of  the  manors  were  left  to  struggle  on  as  best  they  might. 
Not  only  had  they  no  share  in  tlie  increase  of  wealth  which  was 
brought  about  by  the  inclosure  of  what  \\?.d  formerlv  been  the  com- 
mon land  of  tlie  manors,  but  the  p':iOrer  among  tliem  had  less 
employment  than  ijcfore,  as  it  requiref!  fewer  men  to  look  after 
sheep  than  to  grov;  corn. 

The  dispropurtionate  increase  of  the  wealth  of  the  landowners 
threw  into  their  'iiands  a  disproportionate  amount  of  power.      The 

■208 


LATERYEARS  209 

1450 

great  landowner  especially  was  able  to  gather  bands  of  retainers 
and  to  spread  terror  around  him.  The  evil  of  liveries  and  main- 
tenance, which  had  become  prominent  in  the  reign  of  Richard 
II.,  had  increased  since  his  deposition.  It  was  an  evil  which 
the  kings  were  powerless  to  control.  Again  and  again  com- 
plaints were  raised  of  "  want  of  governance."  Henry  V.  had 
abated  the  mischief  for  a  time  b}^  employing  the  unruly  elements 
in  his  wars  in  France,  but  it  was  a  remedy  Vv'hich,  when  defeat  suc- 
ceeded victory,  only  increased  the  disease  which  it  was  meant 
to  cure.  When  France  w^as  lost  bands  of  unruly  men  accustomed  to 
deeds  of  violence  poured  back  into  England,  where  they  became 
retainers  of  the  great  landowners,  who  with  their  help  set  king  and 
laws  at  defiance. 

The  difficulty  of  obtaining  justice  was  great,  and  a  jury  was  not 
to  be  trusted  to  do  justice.  In  the  first  place  it  was  selected  by  the 
sheriff,  and  the  sheriff  took  care  to  choose  such  men  as  would  give 
a  verdict  pleasing  to  the  great  men  whom  he  wished  to  serve,  and 
in  the  second  place,  supposing  tliat  the  sheriff  did  not  do  this,  a 
juryman  who  offended  great  men  by  giving  a  verdict  according  to 
his  conscience,  but  contrary  to  their  desires,  ran  the  risk  of  being 
knocked  on  the  head  before  he  reached  home. 

A  government  which  was  too  weak  to  redress  injuries  was 
certain  to  be  unpopular.  The  loss  of  the  French  possessions  made 
it  still  more  unpopular.  The  brunt  of  tlie  public  displeasure  fell 
on  Suffolk,  who  had  just  been  made  a  duke,  and  who,  through  the 
queen's  favor,  was  all-powerful  at  court.  It  was  believed  that  he 
had  sold  himself  to  France,  and  it  was  known  tliat  wlnle  the 
country  was  impoverished  large  grants  liad  been  made  to  court 
favorites.  An  outcry  was  raised  that  the  king  '"  sliould  live  off  his 
own,"  and  ask  for  no  more  grants  from  liis  pcf-i])lc.  In  F450  Suf- 
folk was  impeached.  Though  the  charge  brouglit  against  him  was 
a  tissue  of  falsehoods,  Henry  did  not  dare  t(i  shield  him  entirely, 
and  ordered  him  into  banishment  for  five  years,  and  on  his  way  to 
the  Continent  he  \\'as  murdered. 

Suft'olk's  supporters  remained  in  office  after  liis  death.  The 
men  of  Kent  njse  against  them,  and  fouiid  a  leader  in  an  Insli 
adventurer,  Jack  Cade,  wlio  called  liimscli  Mortimer,  and  gave  out 
that  he  was  an  illegitimate  son  of  the  lale  Earl  ai  March,  lie 
established  himself  on  Blackhealh  at  the  liead  of  30,000  men,  asking 
that  the  burdens  of  tlie  people  should  he  diminished,   the  Crown 


210  ENGLAND 

1450-1453 

estates  recovered,  and  the  Duke  of  York  recalled  from  Ireland  to 
take  the  place  of  the  present  councilors.  Jack  Cade's  rebellion, 
in  short,  unlike  that  of  Wat  Tyler,  was  a  political,  not  a  social 
movement.  In  demanding  that  the  government  should  be  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  Duke  of  York,  Jack  Cade  virtually  asked  that 
the  Duke  should  step  into  the  place,  not  of  the  Council,  but  of  the 
king — that  is  to  say,  that  a  ruler  who  could  govern  should  be  sub- 
stituted for  one  who  could  not,  and  in  whose  name  the  great  fami- 
lies plundered  England.  It  was  this  demand  which  opened  the 
long  struggle  which  was  soon  to  devastate  the  country.  At  first 
it  seemed  as  if  Jack  Cade  would  carry  all  before  him.  When,  how- 
ever, he  was  tested  by  success,  he  was  found  wanting.  His  follow- 
ers gave  themselves  up  to  wild  excesses.  They  beheaded  Lord 
Say  and  his  son-in-law,  the  Sheriff  of  Kent,  and  carried  about  their 
heads  on  pikes.  They  plundered  houses  and  shops.  The  citizens 
who  had  invited  them  to  enter  now  turned  against  them.  After  a 
fight  on  London  Bridge  the  insurgents  agreed  to  go  home  on  the 
promise  of  a  pardon.  Jack  Cade  himself,  attempting  to  gather  a 
fresh  force,  was  chased  into  Sussex  and  slain. 

In  the  summer  of  1450  Richard,  Duke  of  York,  the  real  leader 
of  the  opposition,  came 'back  from  Ireland.  He  found  that  Somer- 
set had  succeeded  Suffolk  in  the  king's  confidence.  Somerset, 
however,  was  not  merely  the  favorite  of  Henry  and  the  queen. 
The  bulk  of  the  nobility  was  on  his  side,  while  York  was  supported 
by  the  force  of  popular  discontent  and  by  such  of  the  nobility  as 
cherished  a  personal  grudge  against  Somerset  and  his  friends. 
In  145 1  the  loss  of  Guienne  and  Gascony  increased  the  weight  of 
Somerset's  unpopularity.  In  1452  both  parties  took  arms;  but  this 
time  civil  war  was  averted  by  a  promise  from  the  king  that  York 
should  be  admitted  to  the  Council,  and  that  Somerset  should  be 
placed  in  confinement  till  he  answered  the  charges  against  him.  On 
this  York  dismissed  his  army.  Henry,  however,  was  not  allowed 
to  keep  his  promise,  and  Somerset  remained  in  power,  while  York 
was  glad  to  be  allowed  to  retire  unhurt. 

Henry's  mind  had  never  been  strong,  and  in  1453  it  entirely 
gave  way.  His  insanity  was  probably  inherited  from  his  maternal 
grandfather,  Charles  VI.  The  queen  bore  him  a  son,  named  Ed- 
ward, but  though  the  infant  was  brought  to  his  father,  Henry  gave 
no  sign  of  recognizing  his  presence.  It  was  necessary  to  place  the 
government  in  other  hands,  and  in   1454  the  Duke  of  York  was 


LATER     YEARS  211 

1454-1460 

named  Protector  by  the  House  of  Lords,  which,  as  the  majority  of 
its  members  were  at  that  time  ecclesiastics,  did  not  always  reecho 
the  sentiments  of  the  great  families.  If  only  the  king  had  remained 
permanently  insane  York  might  have  established  an  orderly  govern- 
ment. Henry,  however,  soon  recovered  as  much  sense  as  he  ever 
had,  and  York's  Protectorate  came  to  an  end. 

The  restoration  of  Henry  was  in  reality  the  restoration  of 
Somerset.  In  1455  York,  fearing  destruction,  took  arms  against 
his  rival.  A  battle  was  fought  at  St.  Albans,  in  w^hich  Somerset 
v^as  defeated  and  slain.  This  was  the  first  battle  in  the  wars  known 
as  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  because  a  red  rose  was  the  badge  of  the 
House  of  Lancaster,  to  which  Henry  belonged,  and  a  white  rose 
the  badge  of  the  House  of  York.  After  the  victory  York  accom- 
panied the  king  to  London.  Though  the  bulk  of  the  nobility  was 
against  him,  he  had  on  his  side  the  pow^erful  family  of  the  Nevills, 
as  he  had  married  Cicely  Nevill,  the  sister  of  the  head  of  that  fam- 
ily, the  Earl  of  Salisbury.  Still  more  pow^erful  was  Salisbury's 
eldest  son,  wdio  had  married  the  heiress  of  the  Beauchamps,  Earls 
of  Warwick,  and  who  held  the  earldom  of  Warwick  in  right  of  his 
wife.  In  June,  1455,  the  king  was  again  insane,  and  York  was  for 
the  second  time  named  Protector.  This  Protectorate,  however, 
did  not  last  long,  as  early  in  1456  the  king  recovered  his  senses, 
and  York  had  to  resign  his  post. 

For  two  years  Henry  exercised  such  authority  as  he  was  capa- 
ble of  exercising.  In  1458  he  tried  his  hand  at  effecting  a  recon- 
ciliation. The  chiefs  of  the  two  parties  walked  hand  in  hand  in 
procession  to  St.  Paul's,  York  himself  leading  the  queen.  The 
Yorkists  founded  masses  for  the  repose  of  the  souls  of  their  enemies 
slain  at  St.  Albans,  and  paid  money  to  their  widows.  Warwick 
retired  to  Calais,  of  which  he  was  governor,  and  the  Yorkists 
spent  the  winter  in  preparing  for  w^ar.  The  two  parties  with  their 
whole  forces  prepared  for  a  battle  near  Ludlow,  but  the  Yorkists 
found  themselves  no  match  for  their  enemies,  and.  without  fighting, 
York,  wath  his  second  son.  the  Earl  of  Rutland,  took  refuge  in 
Ireland.  His  eldest  son,  Edward  Earl  of  March,  with  Salisbuiy 
and  Warwick,  made  his  way  to  Calais. 

In  1460  the  Yorkist  Earls  of  Salisljury,  \\'arwick  and  March 
were  once  more  in  England.  They  defeated  the  royal  army  at 
Northampton  and  captured  the  king.  York  returned  from  Ireland, 
and,  as  soon  as  Parliament  met,  took  an  unexpected  step.     If  heredi- 


212  ENGLAND 

1460-1461 

tary  descent  was  to  count  for  anything,  his  claim  to  the  throne  was 
superior  to  that  of  Henry  himself,  as  he  was  the  heir  of  Edward  IIL 
through  his  mother  Anne,  the  sister  of  the  last  Earl  of  March.  The 
Duke  of  York  now  placed  his  hand  on  the  throne,  claiming  it  in 
right  of  birth.  The  Lords  decided  that  Henry,  to  whom  they  had 
sworn  oaths  of  fealty,  should  retain  the  crown,  but  that  York 
should  succeed  him,  to  the  exclusion  of  Henry's  son,  Edward, 
Prince  of  Wales. 

The  struggle,  which  had  at  first  been  one  between  two  unequal 
sections  of  the  nobility,  each  nominally  acknowledging  Henry  VL 
as  their  king,  thus  came  to  be  one  between  the  Houses  of  Lancaster 
and  York.  The  queen,  savage  at  the  wrong  done  to  her  son,  re- 
fused to  accept  the  compromise.  Withdrawing  to  the  north,  she 
summoned  to  her  aid  the  Earl  of  Northumberland  and  the  Lancas- 
trian lords.  An  army  composed  of  18,000  of  these  rough  warriors 
placed  itself  at  tlie  queen's  disposal.  With  these  she  routed  her 
enemies  at  Wakefield.  York  himself  was  slain.  His  son,  Rutland, 
was  stabbed  to  death  by  Lord  Clifford,  whose  father  had  been  slain 
at  St.  Albans.  Salisbury  was  subsequently  beheaded  by  the  popu- 
lace at  Pontefract.  By  command  of  Margaret,  York's  head  was 
cut  off,  and,  adorned  in  mockery  with  a  paper  crown,  was  fixed  with 
those  of  Salisbury  and  Rutland  above  one  of  the  gates  of  York. 

The  battle  of  Wakefield  differed  in  character  from  the  earlier 
battles  of  the  war.  They  had  been  but  conflicts  between  bands  of 
noblemen  and  their  armed  retainers,  in  which  the  general  popula- 
tion took  little  part,  while  the  ordinary  business  of  the  country 
went  on  much  as  usual  At  Wakefield  not  only  were  cruel  passions 
developed,  but  a  new  danger  appeared.  When  [Margaret  attempted 
to  gain  her  ends  with  the  help  of  her  rude  northern  followers,  she 
roused  against  her  the  fears  of  the  wealthier  and  more  prosperous 
south.  The  south  found  a  leader  in  York's  son.  Edward.  Though 
only  in  his  nineteenth  year,  Edward  showed  that  he  had  the  quali- 
ties of  a  commander.  Rapid  in  his  movements,  he  fell  upon  some 
Lancastrian  forces  and  defeated  them  on  Feloruary  2,  1461,  at  Mor- 
timer's Cross.  In  the  meanwhile  ^Margaret  was  marching  with  her 
northern  host  upon  London,  plundering  and  destroying  as  she  went. 
Warwick,  carrying  the  king  with  him,  met  her  on  the  way,  but  in 
the  second  l)attle  of  St.  Albans — fought  on  February  17 — was 
driven  back,  leaving  the  king  behind  him. 

With  a  civilized  armv  at  her  back,  ^Margaret  might  have  made 


L  A  T  E  R     Y  E  A  R  S  213 

1461 

her  way  to  London,  and  established  her  authority,  at  least  for  a 
time.  Her  unbridled  supporters  celebrated  their  victory  by  robbery 
and  rape,  and  Margaret  was  unable  to  lead  them  forward.  The 
Londoners  steeled  their  hearts  against  her.  Edward  was  marching 
to  their  help,  and  on  February  25  lie  entered  London.  The  men 
of  the  neighboring  counties  flocked  in  to  his  support.  On  March  2 
the  crown  was  ofifered  to  him  at  Clerkenwell  by  such  lords  as  hap- 
pened to  be  in  London.  On  his  presenting  himself  to  the  multitude 
in  Westminster  Hall,  he  was  greeted  with  shouts  of  "  Long  live  the 
king ! "  Edward  IV.  represented  to  peace-loving  England  the 
order  which  had  to  be  upheld  against  the  barbarous  host  which 
Margaret  and  the  Lancastrian  lords  had  called  to  tlieir  aid.  He 
had  yet  to  justify  the  choice.  The  northern  host  had  retreated  to 
its  own  country,  and  Edward  swiftly  followed  it  up.  His  advanced 
guard  was  surprised  and  driven  back  at  Ferry  Bridge ;  but  his  main 
army  pressed  on,  and  on  March  29  gained  a  decisive  victory  at 
Towton,  The  slaughter  of  the  defeated  side  was  enormous.  Mar- 
garet escaped  v^dth  Henry  to  Scotland,  and  Edward,  returning 
southwards,  was  crowned  at  Westminster  on  June  29. 


Chapter    XXII 

THE   YORKIST    KINGS.      1461-1483 

EDWARD    IV.,   1 46 1— 1483.     EDWARD   V.,   1483. 
RICHARD    III.,    1483— 1485 

LEADING    DATES 

CORONATIO>:    OF   EDWARD    IV.,    A.D.    1461 — RESTORATION    OF    HekRY    VI., 

1470 — Edward  IV.  Recovers  the  Crowx — Battles  of  Barnet  avd 
Tewkesbury,  1471 — Edward  V.,  1483 — Richard  III.  Deposes  Edward 
v.,  1483 — Richard  III.  Killed  at  Bosworth,  1485 

ON  June  29,  1461,  Edward  lY.  was  crowned,  and  created 
his  two  brothers,  George  and  Richard,  Dukes  of  Clarence 
and  Gloucester.  His  first  Parliament  declared  the  three 
Lancastrian  kings  to  have  been  usurpers,  and  Henry  VI.,  his 
wife,  his  son,  and  his  chief  supporters,  to  be  traitors.  At  the  end 
of  the  session  Edward  thanked  the  Commons  for  their  support,  and 
assured  them  of  his  resolution  to  protect  them  at  the  hazard  of  his 
own  life.  It  was  the  first  time  that  a  king  had  addressed  the  Com- 
mons, and  his  doing  so  was  a  sign  that  a  new  era  had  begun,  in 
which  the  wishes  of  the  middle  class  in  town  and  country  were  to 
prevail  over  those  of  the  great  nobles.  It  did  not  follow  that  the 
House  of  Commons  would  take  the  control  of  the  governmiCnt 
into  its  own  hands,  as  it  does  at  the  present  day.  For  a  long  time 
the  election  of  the  members  had  been  carried  out  under  pressure 
from  tlie  local  nobility.  If  the  great  men  in  a  county  resolved 
that  certain  persons  should  be  returned  as  members,  those  who  came 
to  the  place  of  election  in  support  of  others  would  be  driven  off, 
and  perhaps  beaten  or  wounded.  Consequently  each  House  of  Com- 
mons had  hitherto  represented  the  dominant  party.  Lancastrian  or 
Yorkist,  as  the  case  might  be.  Before  there  could  be  a  House  of 
Commons  capable  of  governing,  the  interference  of  the  nobles 
with  elections  would  have  to  be  brought  to  an  end.  and  it  was  only 
by   a   strong   king   that   their   power   could   be   overthrown.     The 

214 


YORKIST   KINGS  215 

1461-1465 

Strengthening  of  the  kingship  was  the  only  road  to  future  constitu- 
tional progress. 

Before  the  end  of  the  15th  century  the  English  people  had  lost 
all  the  ideals  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  attempt  of  Henry  V.  to 
revive  the  old  ecclesiastical  feeling  had  broken  down  through  the 
race  for  material  power  opened  by  his  French  wars,  and  through 
the  savagery  of  the  wars  of  the  Roses.  The  new  religious  feeling 
of  Wycliffe  and  the  nobler  Lollards  had  perished  with  Sir  John 
Oldcastle  from  the  same  causes.  Neither  the  Church  nor  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  Church  had  any  longer  a  sway  over  men's  hearts. 
The  clergy  continued  to  perform  their  part  in  the  services  of  the 
Church  not  indeed  without  belief,  but  without  the  spiritual  fervor 
which  influences  the  lives  of  men.  The  chivalry  of  the  Middle  Ages 
was  as  dead  as  its  religion.  Men  spoke  of  women  as  coarsely  as 
they  spoke  of  their  cattle.  Human  nature  indeed  could  not  be 
entirely  crushed.  But  the  system  of  wardship  made  marriages 
a  matter  of  bargain  and  sale.  The  low  and  material  view  of 
domestic  life  had  led  to  an  equally  low  and  material  view  of  political 
life,  and  the  cruelty  which  stained  the  wars  of  the  Roses  was 
but  the  outcome  of  a  state  of  society  in  which  no  man  cared  much 
for  anything  except  his  own  greatness  and  enjoyment.  The 
ideal  which  shaped  itself  in  the  minds  of  the  men  of  the  middle 
class  was  a  king  acting  as  a  kind  of  chief  constable,  who,  by  keeping 
great  men  in  order,  would  allow  their  inferiors  to  make  money  in 
peace. 

Edward  IV.  only  very  partially  responded  to  this  demand. 
He  was  swift  in  action  when  a  crisis  came,  and  was  cruel  in  his 
revenge,  but  he  was  lustful  and  indolent  when  the  crisis  was  passed, 
and  he  had  no  statesmanlike  abilities  to  lay  the  fouTKlations  of  a 
powerful  government.  The  wars  were  not  ended  by  his  victory  at 
Towton.  In  1462  Queen  Margaret  reappeared  in  the  north,  and  it 
was  not  till  1464  that  Warwick's  brntlier.  Lord  Montague,  thor- 
oughly defeated  her  forces.  ^lontague's  \ictory  was  marked  by 
the  usual  butcheries.  In  1465  Henry  himself  w\as  taken  prisoner 
and  lodged  in  the  Tower. 

While  these  battles  were  being  fought  Edward  was  lingering 
in  the  south  courting  the  young  widow  r»f  Sir  John  Grey,  usually 
known  by  her  maiden  name  as  Elizabeth  Woodville.  His  marriage 
to  her  gave  offense  to  his  noble  supporters,  who  disdained  to 
acknowledge  a  queen  of  birth  so  undistinguished;  and  their  ill-will 


216  ENGLAND 

1465-1470 

was  increased  when  they  found  that  Edward  distributed  among 
his  wife's  kindred  estates  and  preferments  wdiich  they  had  hoped 
to  gain  for  themselves.  The  queen's  father  became  Earl  Rivers 
and  Lord  Constable,  and  her  brothers  and  sisters  were  enriched  by 
marriages  wnth  noble  weirds  of  the  Crown.  One  of  her  brothers, 
a  youth  of  twenty,  was  married  to  the  old  Duchess  of  Norfolk,  who 
was  over  eighty. 

No  doubt  there  was  as  much  of  policy  as  of  affection  in  the 
slight  shown  by  Edward  to  the  Yorkist  nobility.  Warwick — the 
King-maker,  as  he  was  called — had  special  cause  for  ill-humor.  He 
had  expected  to  be  a  king-ruler  as  well  as  a  king-maker,  and  he 
took  grave  offense  when  he  found  Edward  slipping  av.ay  from  his 
control.  It  seemed  as  if  Edw^ard  had  the  settled  purpose  of  raising 
up  a  new  nobility  to  counterbalance  the  old.  In  1467  Warw^ick's 
brother,  the  Archbishop  of  York,  was  deprived  of  his  chancellorship. 
In  foreign  politics,  too,  Edward  and  Warwick  disagreed.  War- 
wick was  anxious  for  an  alliance  with  the  astute  Louis  XI.  Ed- 
ward declared  for  an  alliance  with  Burgundy.  Charles  the  Rash 
succeeded  his  father,  Philip  the  Good,  as  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  in 
1468  married  Edward's  sister,  Margaret.  The  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
the  rival  of  the  king  of  France,  was  the  lord  of  the  seventeen  prov- 
inces of  the  Netherlands,  and  his  friendship  brought  with  it  that 
peaceful  intercourse  with  the  manufacturing  towns  of  Flanders 
which  it  w^as  always  the  object  of  English  policy  to  secure. 

Warwick,  disgusted  with  Edward,  found  an  ally  in  Edward's 
brother,  Clarence,  who,  like  Warwick,  was  jealous  of  the  Wood- 
villes.  To  him  he  gave  his  daughter  Isabelle  in  marriage.  Edward 
had  by  this  time  lost  much  of  his  popularity.  His  extravagant  and 
luxurious  life  made  men  doubt  whether  anything  had  been  gained 
by  substituting  him  for  Henry,  and  in  1469  and  1470  there  were 
risings  fomented  by  W'arwick.  In  the  latter  year  Edward,  w'ith 
the  help  of  his  cannon,  the  importance  of  which  in  battles  was  now 
great,  struck  such  a  panic  into  his  enemies  at  a  battle  near  Stamford 
that  the  place  of  action  came  to  be  knowm  as  Losecoat  Field,  from 
the  haste  with  wdiich  the  fugitives  stripped  themselves  of  their 
armor  to  make  their  flight  the  easier.  Warwick  and  Clarence  fled 
across  the  sea.  Warwick  was  the  governor  of  Calais,  but  his  own 
ofiicer  there  refused  to  admit  him,  and  he  was  forced  to  take  refuge 
in  France. 

Warwick  knew  that  he  had  no  chance  of  recovering  power 


YORKIST    KINGS  217 

1465-1470 

without  the  support  of  the  Lancastrian  party,  and,  disagreeable  as 
it  was  to  him,  he  allowed  Louis  XI.  to  reconcile  him  to  Queen  ]\Iar- 
g-aret,  the  wife  of  that  Henry  VL  of  whom  he  had  been  the  bitter- 
est enemy.  Louis,  who  dreaded  Edward's  alliance  with  the  Duke 
of  Burgundy,  did  everything  to  support  Edward's  foes,  and  sent 
Warwick  off  to  England,  where  he  was  subsequently  to  be  joined 
by  the  queen.  Edward,  who  was  in  his  most  careless  mood,  was 
foolish  enough  to  trust  Warwick's  brother,  Montague,  who  turned 
against  him,  and  Edw^ard,  fearing  for  his  life,  fled  to  Holland. 
Warwick  became  master  of  England,  and  this  time  the  King-maker 
drew  Henry  from  the  Tower  and  placed  him  once  more  on  the 
throne,  imbecile  as  he  now  was. 

In  the  spring  of  1471  Edward  was  back  in  England,  landing 
at  Ravenspur,  where  Henry  IV.  had  landed  in  1399.  Like  Henry 
IV.,  he  lyingly  declared  that  he  had  come  merely  to  claim  his  duchy 
and  estates.  He  found  a  supporter  in  an  Earl  of  Northumberland, 
and  Clarence,  too — false,  fleeting,  perjured  Clarence,  as  Shakespeare 
truly  calls  him — had  offered  to  betray  W^arwick.  Edward  gathered 
a  sufficient  force  to  march  unassailed  to  London,  where  he  was 
enthusiastically  received.  Taking  with  him  the  unfortunate  Henry 
he  won  a  complete  victory  at  Barnet.  Warwick  and  Montague  were 
among  the  slain.  By  this  time  Margaret  had  landed  with  a  fresh 
army  at  Weymouth.  Edward  caught  her  and  her  army  at  Tewks- 
bury,  where  he  inflicted  on  her  a  crushing  defeat.  Her  son, 
Edward,  Prince  of  Wales,  was  either  slain  in  the  battle,  or  more 
probably  murdered  after  the  fight  was  over.  Others  who  had 
taken  refuge  in  the  abbey  were  afterwards  put  to  death,  though 
Edward  had  solemnly  promised  them  their  lives.  On  the  night 
after  Edward's  return  to  London  Henry  VI.  ended  his  life  in  the 
Tower.  There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  he  was  murdered, 
and  that,  too,  by  Edward's  directions. 

Edward  IV.  was  now  all-powerful.  He  had  no  competitor  to 
fear.  No  descendant  of  Henry  IV.  remained  alive.  Of  the  Beau- 
forts,  the  descendants  of  John  of  Gaunt  by  Catherine  Swynford, 
the  male  line  had  perished,  and  the  only  representative  was  young 
Henry,  Earl  of  Richmond,  whose  mother,  the  Lady  Margaret, 
was  the  daughter  of  the  first  Duke  of  Somerset.  His  father, 
Edmund  Tudor,  Earl  of  Richmond,  who  died  ])efore  his  birth,  was 
the  son  of  a  Welsh  gentleman  of  no  great  mark,  who  had  had  the 
luck  to  marrv  Catherine  of  France,  the  widow  of  Henry  V.     The 


218  ENGLAND 

1475-1483 

young  Richmond  was,  however,  an  exile,  and,  as  he  was  only  four- 
teen years  of  age  when  Edward  was  restored,  no  serious  danger 
was  as  yet  to  be  apprehended  from  that  side.  Moreover,  the 
slaughter  among  both  the  Yorkish  and  the  Lancastrian  nobility 
had,  for  the  time,  put  an  end  to  all  danger  of  a  rising.  Edward 
was,  therefore,  at  liberty  to  carry  out  his  own  foreign  policy.  He 
obtained  grants  from  Parliament  to  enable  him,  in  alliance  with 
Charles  of  Burgundy,  to  make  war  against  Louis  XL  The  grants 
were  insufficient,  and  he  supplemented  them  by  a  newly  invented 
system  of  benevolences,  which  were  nominally  free  gifts  made  to 
him  by  the  well-to-do,  but  which  were  in  reality  exactions,  because 
those  from  whom  they  were  required  dared  not  refuse  to  pay.  The 
system  raised  little  general  ill-will,  partly  because  the  small  owners 
of  property  who  were  relieved  from  taxation  were  not  touched  by 
the  benevolences,  and  partly  because  the  end  which  Edward  had  put 
to  the  civil  war  made  his  government  welcome. 

In  1475  Edward  invaded  France.  If  he  could  have  secured  the 
steady  support  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  he  might  have  accomplished 
something,  but  the  Duke's  dominions  were  too  scattered  to  enable 
him  to  have  a  settled  policy.  Louis  XL,  who  preferred  a  victory 
of  diplomacy  to  one  of  force,  wheedled  Edward  into  a  seven  years' 
truce  by  a  grant  of  75,000  crowns,  together  with  a  yearly  pension 
of  50,000,  and  a  promise  to  marry  the  dauphin  Charles  to  Elizabeth, 
the  eldest  daughter  of  the  king  of  England.  Louis  also  made  pres- 
ents to  Edward's  chief  followers,  and  was  delighted  when  the  Eng- 
lish army  turned  its  back  on  France.  In  consequence  of  this  under- 
standing Queen  ^Margaret  recovered  her  libertv. 

Soon  after  Edward's  return  he  became  suspicious  of  his  brother 
Clarence,  who  took  upon  himself  to  interfere  with  the  course  of 
justice.  He  was  also  a  suitor  for  the  hand  and  lands  of  Mary  of 
Burgundy.  Edward,  who  had  no  wish  to  see  his  brother  an  inde- 
pendent sovereign,  forbade  him  to  proceed  with  his  wooing.  Other 
actions  of  Clarence  were  displeasing  to  the  king,  and  when  Parlia- 
ment met.  1478.  Edward  with  his  own  mouth  accused  his  brother 
of  treason.  Clarence  was  condemned  to  death,  and  perished 
secretly  in  the  Tower,  being,  according  to  rumor,  drowned  in  a 
butt  of  malmsey. 

The  remainder  of  Edward's  life  was  spent  in  quiet,  as  far  as 
domestic  affairs  were  concerned.  In  foreign  affairs  he  m^et  with 
a  grave  disappointment,   and  it  has  been   said  that  tlie  treaty  of 


1483 


YORKIST    KINGS  219 


Arras,  which  extended  French  influence  in  the  Netherlands,  brought 
about  his  death,  April  9,  1483.  It  is  more  reasonable  to 'attribute 
it  to  the  dissoluteness  of  his  life. 

Edward  IV.  left  two  sons.  The  elder,  a  boy  of  twelve,  was 
now  Edward  V.,  and  his  younger  brother,  Richard,  was  Duke  of 
York.  The  only  grown-up  man  of  Ihe  family  was  the  youngest 
brother  of  Edward  IV.,  Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester.  Gloucester 
had  shown  himself  during  his  brother's  reign  to  be  possessed  of 
the  qualities  which  fit  a  man  to  fulfill  the  duties  of  a  high  po- 
sition. He  was  not  only  a  good  soldier  and  an  able  com- 
mander, but,  unlike  his  brother  Clarence,  was  entirely  faithful  to 
Edward,  though  he  showed  his  independence  by  refusing  to  take 
part  in  Edward's  treaty  with  Louis  of  France.  He  had  a  rare  power 
of  winning  popular  sympathy,  and  was  most  liked  in  Yorkshire, 
where  he  was  best  known.  He  had,  however,  grown  up  in  a  cruel 
and  unscrupulous  age,  and  had  no  more  hesitation  in  clearing  his 
way  by  slaughter  than  had  Edward  IV.  or  Margaret  of  Anjou. 
Though  absolute  proof  is  wanting,  there  is  strong  reason  to  believe 
that  he  took  part  in  cutting  down  Prince  Edward  after  the  Ijattle 
of  Tewkesbury,  and  that  he  executed  his  brother's  orders  in  pro- 
viding for  the  murder  of  Henry  VI.,  in  the  Tower.  He  made  no 
remonstrance  against,  though  he  took  no  part  in,  the  death  of 
Clarence,  with  whom  he  was  on  bad  terms.  Gloucester  was  now  to 
be  tried  as  he  had  never  been  tried  before,  his  brorher  having  ap- 
pointed him  by  will  to  be  the  guardian  of  his  young  nephew  and  of 
the  kingdom.  If  the  authority  thus  conferred  upon  him  met  with 
general  acceptance,  he  would  probably  make  an  excellent  ruler.  If 
it  were  questioned  he  would  strike  out,  and  show  no  mercy. 
Gloucester  had  strong  reasons  for  believing  that  the  Greys  intended 
to  keep  the  young  king  in  their  hands  and,  having  him  crowned  at 
once,  so  as  to  put  an  end  to  his  own  guardianship,  to  make  them- 
selves masters  of  the  kingdom.  He  theref(^rc  struck  the  first  blow. 
Accompanied  by  his  friend  and  supporter,  the  Duke  of  Buckingham, 
he  overtook  the  cavalcade  which  was  conveying  Edward  to  Lon- 
don, and  sent  Earl  Rivers  and  Sir  Richard  Grey  prisoners  to  Ponte- 
fract.  The  queen-mother  at  once  took  refuge  in  the  sanctuary  at 
Westminster,  whence  no  one  could  remove  her  without  violating 
the  privileges  of  the  Church. 

The  young  king  arrived  in  London  on  ]\Iay  4,     The  Council 
acknowledged   Gloucester  as   Protector,  and  removed   Edward  to 


220  ENGLAND 

1483 

the  Tower,  which  in  those  days  was  a  place  of  safety  rather  than  a 
prison.  Dorset,  however,  had  equipped  a  fleet,  and  Gloucester  was 
afraid  lest  a  fresh  attempt  might  be  made  by  the  queen's  party  to 
overthrow  him.  His  fears  were  increased  because  Lord  Hastings, 
the  leading  member  of  the  Council,  who  had  taken  his  part  against 
the  Woodvilles,  now  turned  against  him  and  began  to  intrigue  with 
the  queen's  supporters.  Armed  men  rushed  into  the  Council  cham- 
ber on  June  13,  dragged  Hastings  out,  and  cut  off  his  head  on  a  log 
of  wood.  Of  the  causes  of  Hasting's  desertion  of  Gloucester  it  is 
impossible  to  speak  with  certainty.  It  is  a  probable  conjecture  that 
he  had  discovered  that  Gloucester  entertained  the  thought  of  mak- 
ing himself  more  than  Protector.  Young  Edward's  coronation 
would  make  the  boy  capable,  formally  at  least,  of  exercising  royal 
power,  and  as  it  was  known  that  the  boy  loved  his  mother's  rela- 
tions, it  was  almost  certain  that  he  would  place  the  Woodvilles  in 
power.  Now  that  Gloucester  had  imprisoned  Rivers  and  Grey,  it 
was  certain  that  the  first  thing  done  by  the  Woodvilles,  if  they  got  a 
chance,  would  be  to  send  Gloucester  to  the  scaffold,  and  Gloucester 
was  not  the  man  patiently  to  allow  himself  to  be  crushed.  It  is 
ridiculous  to  speak  of  Gloucester  as  an  accomplished  dissembler. 
His  story  to  get  Hastings  out  of  the  way  was  the  stupid  lie  of  a  man 
who  had  not  hitherto  been  accustomed  to  lying. 

The  execution  of  Hastings  was  promptly  followed  by  the  exe- 
cution of  Rivers  and  Grey.  Dorset  saved  himself  by  escaping 
beyond  sea.  By  threats  Gloucester  got  the  Duke  of  York  into  his 
hands,  and  lodged  him  with  his  brother  in  the  Tower.  He  was  now 
in  a  temper  which  would  stop  at  no  atrocity.  He  put  up  a  Dr. 
Shaw  to  preach  a  sermon  against  Edward's  claim  to  the  throne. 
Further,  Shaw  declared  that  Gloucester  was  the  only  legitimate  son 
of  the  Duke  of  York,  both  Edward  IV.  and  Clarence  being  the  sons 
of  their  mother  by  some  other  man.  That  Richard  should  have 
authorized  so  base  an  attack  upon  his  mother's  honor  shows  the 
depth  of  infamy  to  which  he  had  now  sunk.  At  first  it  seemed  as 
if  he  had  lowered  himself  to  no  purpose.  The  hearers  of  the  ser- 
mon, instead  of  shouting,  "  God  save  King  Richard !  "  held  their 
peace.  At  a  meeting  in  the  City  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  told  the 
same  story  as  had  been  told  by  Shaw,  and  there  the  servants  of  the 
two  dukes  shouted  for  "  King  Richard,"  and  their  voice  was  taken 
as  the  voice  of  the  City.  On  June  25  Parliament  declared  Glouces- 
ter to  be  the  lawful  heir,  and  on  July  6  he  was  crowned  as  Richard 


YORKIST   KINGS  221 

1483-1485 

III.  The  Woodvilles  were  not  popular,  and  the  bloodshed  with 
which  Richard  had  maintained  himself  against  them  was  readily 
condoned. 

Richard's  enemies  were  chiefly  to  be  found  among  the  nobil- 
ity. No  nobleman  could  feel  his  life  secure  if  he  crossed  Richard's 
path.  The  first  to  revolt  was  Buckingham,  who  had  played  the 
part  of  a  king-maker,  and  who  was  disappointed  because  Richard  did 
not  reward  him  by  conceding  his  claim  to  estates  so  vast  that  if  he 
possessed  them  he  would  have  been  master  of  England.  Bucking- 
ham, who  was  descended  from  Edward  III.  through  his  youngest 
son,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  at  first  thought  of  challenging  a  right 
to  the  throne  for  himself,  but  afterwards  determined  to  support  the 
claim  of  the  Earl  of  Richmond,  the  Tudor  heir  of  the  House  of 
Lancaster.  Richmond  was  to  sail  from  Brittany,  where  he  was  in 
exile,  and  Buckingham  was  to  raise  forces  in  Wales,  where  the 
Welsh  Tudors  were  popular,  while  other  counties  were  to  rise 
simultaneously.  The  rebellion  came  to  nothing.  Heavy  rains 
caused  a  flood  of  the  Severn,  and  Buckingliam,  in  Shropshire,  was 
cut  off  from  his  army  in  Wales.  Buckingliam  was  betrayed  to 
Richard,  and  on  November  2  was  beheaded  at  Salisbury. 

At  some  time  in  the  summer  or  autumn  the  princes  in  the 
Tower  ceased  to  live.  There  had  been  movements  in  th.eir  favor 
in  some  counties,  and  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  Richard 
had  them  secretly  killed.  It  was  only  by  degrees  that  the  truth 
leaked  out.  Wherever  it  was  believed  it  roused  indignation.  Mur- 
ders there  had  been  in  plenty,  but  the  murdered  as  yet  liad  lieen 
grown  men.     To  butcher  children  was  reserved  for  Richard  alone. 

As  long  as  the  last  tale  of  murder  was  still  regarded  as  doubt- 
ful, Richard  retained  his  popularity.  In  a  Parliament  wliich  met  in 
January,  1484,  lie  enacted  good  hivvs,  among  which  was  one 
declaring  benevolences  illegal.  In  the  summer  he  was  welcomed  as 
he  moved  about,  yet  he  knew  that  danger  tiircalened.  Richmond 
was  preparing  invasion,  and  the  hollow  friendship  of  the  English 
nobility  was  not  to  be  trusted.  In  xivn  Richard  scattered  gifts  in 
profusion  among  th.em.  They  took  the  gifts  and  hoped  for  deliv- 
erance. The  popular  good-will  grew  cooler,  and  in  the  winter 
Richard,  needing  money,  and  not  \enturing  to  summon  another 
Parliament,  raised  a  forced  loan.  A  ukui  not  being  a  gift,  he  clid  not 
technically  break  the  statute  against  benevolences,  though  practically 
he  set  it  at  naught.   Domestic  misfortunes  came  to  add  t.)  Richard's 


222  ENGLAND 

148S 

political  troubles.  His  only  son,  Edward,  died  in  1484.  His  wife, 
Anne,  died  in  1485.  Richard  was  now  eager,  if  he  had  not  been 
eager  before,  to  marry  his  niece,  Elizabeth  of  York,  the  daughter  of 
Edward  IV.  This  monstrous  proposal  was  scouted  by  his  own 
supporters,  and  he  had  reluctantly  to  abandon  the  scheme.  If  there 
could  be  queens  in  England,  Elizabeth  was  on  hereditary  principles 
the  heiress  of  the  throne.  Richmond  was  naturally  as  anxious  as 
Richard  could  be  to  win  her  hand,  and  his  promise  to  marry  her 
was  the  condition  on  which  he  obtained  the  support  of  those  York- 
ists who  were  Richard's  enemies. 

In  June.  1485.  Richmond  landed  at  Milford  Haven.  As  he 
marched  on  he  was  joined  by  considerable  numbers,  but  on  August 
22  he  found  Richard  waiting  for  him  near  Bosworth.  with  a  host 
far  larger  than  his  own.  Richard,  however,  could  not  count  on  the 
fidelity  of  his  own  commanders.  Lord  Stanley  and  the  Earl  of 
Northumberland,  who  were  nominally  on  Richard's  side,  withdrew 
their  forces  and  stood  aloof.  Knowing  that  defeat  was  certain, 
Richard,  with  the  crown  on  his  head,  rushed  into  the  thick  of  the 
fight  and  met  a  soldier's  death.  After  the  battle  the  fallen  crown 
was  discovered  on  a  bush,  and  placed  by  Stanley,  amidst  shouts  of 
''King  Henry!  "  on  Richmond's  head. 


Chapter  XXIII 

HEN.RY  VII.     1485— 1509 

LEADING    DATES 

Accession  of  Henry  VII.,  A.D.  1485— The  Battle  of  Stoke,  1487— 
PoYNiNGs'  Acts,  1494— Capture  of  Perkuv  Warbeck,  1497— Alliance 
WITH  Scotland,  1503 — Death  of  Henry  VII.,  1509 

HENRY  VII.  owed  his  success  not  to  a  general  uprising 
against  Richard,  but  to  a  combination  of  the  nobles  who 
had  hitherto  taken  opposite  sides.  To  secure  this  combi- 
nation he  had  promised  to  marry  Elizabeth,  the  heiress  of  the  York- 
ist family.  He  was  indeed  unwilling  to  have  it  thought  that  he 
derived  his  title' from  a  wife,  and  when  Parliament  met  on  No>-em- 
ber  7  he  obtained  from  it  a  recognition  of  his  own  right  to  the 
throne,  though  it  would  have  puzzled  the  most  acute  controversialist 
to  discover  in  what  the  right  consisted.  Parliament,  therefore,  con- 
tented itself  with  declaring  that  the  inheritance  of  the  crown  was  to 
"  be,  rest,  and  abide  in  King  Henry  VII.  and  his  heirs,"  without 
giving  any  reasons  why  it  was  to  be  so.  As  far  as  the  House  of 
Lords  was  concerned  the  attendance  when  this  declaration  was  made 
was  scanty.  Only  twenty-nine  lay  peers  were  present,  not  because 
many  of  the  great  houses  had  become  extinct,  but  because  some  of 
the  principal  Yorkist  peers  had  been  attainted,  and  others  had  been 
left  without  a  summons.  In  the  quieter  times  which  followed 
this  slur  upon  them  was  removed,  and  the  House  of  Lords  was 
again  filled.  On  January  18,  i486,  Henry  married  Elizabeth. 
This  marriage  and  the  blending  of  the  white  and  red  rose  in  the 
Tudor  badge  was  Henry's  way  of  announcing  that  he  intended  to 
be  the  king  of  both  parties. 

Henry  could  not  maintain  himself  on  the  throne  merely  by 
the  support  of  the  nobility.  The  middle  classes,  as  in  the  days  of 
Edward  IV.,  called  out  for  a  strong  king,  and  were  ready  to  over- 
look violence  and  cruelty  if  only  order  could  be  secured.  Henry 
was  shrewd  enough  to  know  that  their  aid  was  indispensable,  and, 
Lancastrian  as  lie  was,  he  adopted  the  policy  of  the  Yorkist  kings. 

2i?3 


224.  ENGLAND 

1486-1487 

Economical  and  patient,  he  might  succeed  where  Edward  IV.  had 
partially  failed.  He  had  no  injuries  to  avenge,  no  cruelties  to 
repay.  He  clearly  saw  that  both  the  throne  and  the  lives  and 
properties  of  the  middle  classes  were  rendered  insecure  by  main- 
tenance and  livery — the  support  given  by  the  great  landowners 
to  their  retainers,  and  the  granting  of  badges  by  which  the  retain- 
ers might  recognize  one  another,  and  thus  become  as  it  were  a 
uniformed  army  ready  to  serve  their  lords  in  the  field.  Against 
these  abuses  Richard  H.  had  directed  a  statute,  and  that  statute 
had  been  confirmed  by  Edward  lY.  These  laws  had,  however, 
been  inoperative;  and  Henry,  in  his  first  Parliament,  did  not  ven- 
ture to  do  more  than  to  make  the  peers  swear  to  abandon  their 
evil  courses. 

In  i486  Lord  Lovel.  who  had  been  one  of  Richard's  ministers, 
rose  in  arms  and  seized  \\'orcester.  Henry  found  warm  support 
even  in  Yorkshire,  where  Richard  had  been  more  popular  than 
elsewhere.  At  short  warning  a  "  marvelous  great  number  of 
esquires,  gentlemen,  and  yeomen  "  gathered  round  him,  and  the 
rebellion  was  easily  put  down.  Before  long  a  new  attack  upon 
Henry  was  developed.  For  the  first  time  an  English  king  had  to 
ward  off  danger  from  Ireland. 

Since  the  ex|)edition  of  Richard  II.  no  king  had  visited 
Ireland,  and  the  English  colonists  were  left  to  defend  themselves 
against  the  Celtic  tribes  as  best  they  could.  In  1459  a  bargain  was 
soon  struck  between  the  Duke  of  York  and  the  English  colony. 
They  gave  him  troops  which  fought  gallantlv  for  him  at  Wakefield, 
and  he,  claiming  to  be  Lord  Lieutenant,  assented  to  an  act  in  which 
they  asserted  the  complete  legislative  independence  of  the  Parlia- 
ment of  the  colony.  The  colony,  therefore,  became  distinctly 
Yorkist,  its  leader  was  tlie  Earl  of  Kildare,  and  for  the  time  Kil- 
dare  was  supreme  in  the  English  r\'ile. 

Kildare  and  the  colonists  had  every  reason  to  distrust  Henry, 
but  to  oppose  him  they  needed  a  pretender.  Tliev  f^jund  one  in 
ihe  S'ln  '.'f  an  0:"i'>rd  tradesman,  a  b' iv  of  ten.  named  Lan.ibert 
Simnel,  wlio  lia'l  been  persuaded  to  give  liimself  out  as  tlie  Earl 
of  V\  arwick.  whr'.  as  it  was  said,  had  escaped  from  the  Tower.  In 
1487  Snrniel  ]::n,le  I  in  Ireland,  wliere  \\c  v.-as  S'jjn  joined  by  Lord 
Lovel  from  Flanders,  and  by  the  Earl  f^i  Lincoln,  of  the  familv  of 
Pole  or  De  la  Pole.  Lincoln  and  Lovel.  after  crowning  Simnel  at 
Dublin,  crossed  tu  Lancashire,  taking  with  tliem  the  pretender,  and 


H  E  N  R  Y     V  1 1  225 

1487-1489 

2,000  trained  German  soldiers  under  ^Martin  Schwarz;  as  well  as 
an  Irish  force  furnished  by  Kildare.  Scarcely  an  Englishman 
would  join  them,  and  on  June  16  they  were  utterly  defeated  by 
Henry  at  Stoke,  a  village  between  Nottingham  and  Newark.  Lin- 
coln and  Schwarz  were  slain.  Lovel  was  either  dro\\'ned  in  the 
Trent  or,  according  to  legend,  was  hidden  in  an  underground  vault, 
where  he  was  at  last  starved  to  death  through  the  neglect  of  the 
man  whose  duty  it  was  to  provide  him  with  food.  Simnel  was 
pardoned,  and  employed  by  Henry  as  a  turnspit  in  his  kitchen. 

Nothing  could  serve  Henry  better  than  this  abortive  rising. 
At  Bosworth  he  had  been  the  leader  of  one  party  against  the  other. 
At  Stoke  he  was  the  leader  of  the  nation  against  Irishmen  and 
Germans.  He  felt  himself  strong  enough  in  his  second  Parlia- 
ment to  secure  the  passing  of  an  act  to  insure  the  execution  of  the 
engagements  to  which  the  lords  had  sworn  two  years  before. 
A  court  was  to  be  erected,  consisting  of  certain  specified  mem- 
bers of  the  Privy  Council  and  of  two  judges,  empowered  to 
punish  with  fine  and  imprisonment  all  who  were  guilty  of  inter- 
fering with  justice  by  force  or  intrigue.  The  new  court,  reviving, 
to  some  extent,  the  disused  criminal  authority  of  the  king's  Council, 
sat  in  the  Star  Chamber  at  \W^stminster.  The  results  of  its  es- 
tablishment were  excellent.  Wealthy  landowners,  the  terror  of 
their  neighbors,  who  had  bribed  or  bullied  juries  at  their  pleasure, 
and  had  sent  their  retainers  to  inflict  punishment  on  those  who  luid 
displeased  them,  were  brought  to  Westminster  to  be  tried  before  a 
court  in  which  neither  fear  nor  favor  could  avail  them.  It  was  the 
greatest  merit  of  the  new  court  that  it  was  not  dependent  on  a  jury, 
because  in  those  days  juries  were  unable  or  unwilling  to  give  ver- 
dicts according  to  their  conscience. 

Henry  VII.  was  a  lover  of  peace  by  calculation,  and  would 
gladly  have  let  France  alone  if  it  had  been  possil^le  to  do  so.  France, 
however,  was  no  longer  the  divided  power  which  it  had  been  in  the 
days  of  Henry  V.  When  Louis  XI.  died  in  1483.  he  left  to  liis 
voung  son,  Charles  VIII.,  a  territory  the  whole  of  which,  with  the 
exception  of  Brittany,  was  directly  governed  by  the  king.  In 
England  there  was  a  stro-ng  feeling  against  allowing  Anno,  the 
Duchess  of  Brittany,  to  be  overwb.elmcd.  At  tlie  beginning  of 
1489  Henrv,  having  received  from  rarliamcnt  large  snpi^lies,  sent 
6,000  Englislmien  to  Anne's  assistance.  Maximilian — wh^'-e  hold 
on  the  Netherlar.ds.  where  h.e  rnl'.'l  in  the  nante  of  his  y(jung  son, 


226  ENGLAND 

1490-1492 

Philip,  was  always  slight — proposed  marriage  to  the  young 
duchess,  and  in  1490  was  wedded  to  her  by  proxy.  He  was 
a  restless  adventurer,  always  aiming  at  more  than  he  had  the  means 
of  accompHshing.  Though  he  could  not  find  time  to  go  at  once 
to  Brittany  to  make  good  his  claim,  yet  in  1491  he  called  on  Henry 
to  assist  him  in  asserting  it. 

Henry,  who  knew  how  unpopular  a  general  taxation  was,  fell 
back  on  the  system  of  benevolences,  excusing  his  conduct  on  the 
plea  that  the  statute  of  Richard  HI.  abolishing  benevolences  was 
invalid,  because  Richard  himself  was  a  usurper.  In  gathering  the 
benevolence  the  Chancellor,  Cardinal  Morton,  who  had  been  help- 
ful to  Henry  in  the  days  of  his  exile,  invented  a  new  mode  of  put- 
ting pressure  on  the  wealthy,  which  became  known  as  Cardinal 
Morton's  fork.  If  he  addressed  himself  to  one  who  lived  in  good 
style,  he  told  him  that  his  mode  of  living  showed  that  he  could 
afford  to  give  money  to  the  king.  If  he  had  to  do  with  one  who 
appeared  to  be  economical,  he  told  him  that  he  must  have  saved  and 
could  therefore  afford  to  give  money  to  the  king.  Before  Henry 
could  put  the  money  thus  gained  to  mAich  use,  Anne,  pressed  hard 
by  the  French,  repudiated  her  formal  marriage  with  Maximilian, 
who  had  never  taken  the  trouble  to  visit  her,  and  gave  her  hand 
to  Charles  VIII.,  who  on  his  part  refused  to  carry  out  his  contract 
to  marry  ^Maximilian's  daughter  Margaret.  From  that  time  Brit- 
tany, the  last  of  the  great  fiefs  to  maintain  its  independence,  passed 
under  the  power  of  the  king  of  France.  Feudality  was  everywhere 
breaking  down,  and  in  France,  as  in  England,  a  strong  monarchy 
was  being  erected  on  its  ruins. 

Maximilian's  alliance  had  proved  but  a  broken  reed,  but  there 
was  now  arising  a  formidable  power  in  the  south  of  Europe,  which 
might  possibly  give  valuable  support  to  the  enemies  of  France. 
This  was  Spain,  which  was  now  united  by  the  marriage  of  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella.  In  the  meanwhile  all  England  was  indignant 
with  the  king  of  France  on  account  of  his  marriage  with  the  heiress 
of  Brittany.  IVIoney  was  voted  and  men  were  raised,  and  on 
October  2,  1492,  Henry  crossed  to  Calais  to  invade  France.  He 
was,  however,  cool  enough  to  discover  that  both  Ferdinand  and 
^Maximilian  wanted  to  play  their  own  game  at  his  expense,  and  as 
France  was  ready  to  meet  him  half-way,  lie  concluded  a  treaty  with 
the  French  king  on  November  3  at  Etaples,  receiving  large  sums  of 
monev  for  abandoning:  a  war  in  which  he  had  nothins:  to  train.     In 


H  E  N  R  Y     V  1 1  227 

1493-1495 

1493  the  Spaniards  followed  Henry's  example,  and  made  a  peace 
with  France  to  their  own  advantage. 

Henry's  prudent  relinquishment  of  a  war  of  conquest  was  not 
likely  to  bring  him  popularity  in  England,  and  his  enemies  were 
now  on  the  watch  for  another  pretender  to  support  against  him. 
Such  a  pretender  was  found  in  Perkin  Warbeck,  a  Fleming,  who 
had  landed  at  Cork,  and  under  the  name  of  Richard,  Duke  of  York, 
the  younger  of  the  princes  who  had  been  murdered  in  the  Tower, 
had  received  support  from  Desmond,  and  probably  from  Kildare, 
upon  which  Henry  deprived  Kildare  of  the  office  of  Lord  Deputy. 
Perkin  crossed  to  France,  and  ultimately  made  his  way  to  Flanders, 
where  he  was  supported  by  Margaret  of  Burgundy.  In  1493 
Henry  demanded  his  surrender,  and  on  receiving  a  refusal  broke 
off  commercial  intercourse  between  England  and  Flanders.  The 
interruption  of  trade  did  more  harm  to  England  than  to  Flanders, 
and  gave  hopes  to  the  Yorkist  party  that  it  might  give  rise  to  ill- 
will  between  the  nation  and  the  king.  For  some  time,  however, 
no  one  gave  assistance  to  Perkin,  and  in  1494  Charles  VIII.  crossed 
the  Alps  to  invade  Italy,  and  drew  the  attention  of  the  Continental 
powers  away  from  the  affairs  of  England. 

Henry  seized  the  opportunity  to  bring  into  obedience  the 
English  colony  in  Ireland.  He  sent  over  as  Lord  Deputy  Sir  lul- 
ward  Poynings,  a  resolute  and  able  man.  At  a  Parliament  held  by 
him  at  Drogheda  two  acts  were  passed.  By  the  one  it  was  enacted 
that  all  English  laws  in  force  at  that  time  should  be  obeyed  in 
Ireland  ;  by  the  other,  known  for  many  generations  afterwards  as 
Poynings'  Law,  no  bill  was  to  be  laid  before  the  Irish  Parliament 
which  had  not  been  previously  approved  by  the  king  and  his  Coun- 
cil in  England. 

Henry's  firm  government  in  England  had  given  offense  even 
to  men  who  were  not  Yorkists.  Early  in  1495  he  discovered  that 
Sir  William  Stanley,  who  had  helped  him  to  victory  at  Boswortli. 
had  turned  against  him.  Stanley,  who  was  probably  involved  in 
a  design  for  sending  Perkin  to  invade  England,  was  tried  and  exe- 
cuted. In  the  summer  of  1495  Perkin  actually  arrived  off  Deal, 
then  sailed  to  Ireland,  was  repulsed  at  Waterford,  and  ultimately 
took  refuge  in  Scotland,  where  King  James  IV.,  anxious  to  dis- 
tinguish himself  in  a  war  with  England,  acknowledged  him  as  the 
Duke  of  York,  and  found  him  a  wife  of  noble  birth,  Lady  Catherine 
Gordon.     It  was  probably,  in  order  to  rally  even  the  most    timid 


228  ENGLAND 

1496-1497 

around  him,  in  face  of  such  a  danger,  that  Henry  obtained  the  con- 
sent of  ParHament  to  an  act  declaring  that  no  one  supporting  a 
king  in  actual  possession  of  the  crown  could  be  subjected  to  the 
penalty  of  treason  in  the  event  of  that  king's  dethronement. 

The  danger  of  a  Scottish  invasion  made  Henry  anxious  to  be 
on  good  terms  with  his  neighbors.  He  concluded,  in  1496,  there- 
fore, with  the  Archduke  Philip,  who  now  ruled  the  Netherlands,  a 
treaty  known  as  the  Interciirsiis  Magnus,  for  the  encouragement  of 
trade  between  England  and  the  Netherlands,  each  party  engaging 
at  the  same  time  to  give  no  shelter  to  each  other's  rebels. 

In  Ireland  also  Henry  was  careful  to  avert  danger.  In  1496 
Henry  sent  Kildare  back  as  Lord  Deputy.  A  bargain  seems  to 
have  been  struck  between  them.  Henry  abandoned  his  attempt  to 
govern  Ireland  from  England,  and  Kildare  was  allowed  to  use  the 
king's  name  in  any  enterprise  upon  which  his  heart  was  set,  pro- 
vided that  he  did  not  support  any  more  pretenders  to  the  English 
throne. 

In  the  autumn  of  1496  James  IV,  made  an  attack  on  England 
in  Perkin's  name,  but  it  was  no  more  than  a  plundering  foray. 
Henry,  however,  early  in  1497,  obtained  from  Parliament  a  grant 
of  money,  to  enable  him  to  resist  any  attempt  to  repeat  it.  This 
grant  had  unexpected  consequences.  The  Cornishmen,  refusing 
payment,  marched  up  to  Blackheath,  where  on  June  18  they  were 
overpowered  by  the  king's  troops.  James  IV.,  thinking  it  time 
to  be  quit  of  Perkin,  sent  him  off  by  sea.  In  July  Perkin  arrived 
at  Cork,  but  there  was  no  shelter  for  him  there  now  that  Kildare 
was  Lord  Deputy,  and  in  September  he  made  his  way  to  Cornwall. 
Followed  by  6.000  Cornishmen  he  reached  Taunton,  but  the  news 
of  the  defeat  of  the  Cornish  at  Blackheath  depressed  him,  and  the 
poor  coward  ran  away  from  his  army  and  took  sanctuan.-  in  Beau- 
lieu  Abbey.  He  was  brought  to  London,  where  he  publicly  ac- 
knowledged himself  to  be  an  impostor.  Henry  was  too  humane 
to  do  more  than  place  him  in  confinement. 

The  expedition  of  Charles  \lll.  into  Italy  and  the  danger  of 
a  renewed  attack  from  France  made  the  other  Continental  powers 
anxious  to  unite,  and  in  1496  the  Arcliduke  Philip  married  Juana, 
the  eldest  daughter  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  who  became  the 
heiress  of  Spain  the  next  year  and  would  tliiis  unite  Franche 
Comte.  the  Netherlands,  tlie  German  dominions  of  the  House  of 
Austria,  and  Spain.     Moreover  Spain,  following  in  the  vv-ake  of  the 


HENRY     VII  229 

1499-1503 

Portuguese  navigators,  had  become  adventurous  and  in  1492 
Columbus  had  discovered  the  West  Indies,  and  the  kings  of  Spain 
became  masters  of  the  untold  wealth  produced  by  the  gold  and 
silver  mines  of  the  New  World.  It  was  impossible  but  that  the 
huge  power  thus  brought  into  existence  would  one  daj-  arouse  the 
jealousy  of  Europe,  although  for  the  present  the  dangerous  com- 
bination of  territories  was  not  expected.  In  1499  France  gave  a 
fresh  shock  to  her  neighbors.  Charles  VIII.  had  died  the  year 
before,  and  his  successor,  Louis  XII.,  invaded  Italy  and  subdued 
the  duchy  of  Milan,  to  which  he  had  set  up  a  claim.  Naturally  the 
powers  jealous  of  France  sought  to  have  Henry  on  their  side. 
There  had  been  for  some  time  a  negotiation  for  a  marriage  between 
Henry's  eldest  son,  Arthur,  Prince  of  Wales,  and  Catherine  of 
Aragon,  the  youngest  daughter  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  but 
hitherto  nothing  had  been  concluded. 

Perkin  had  long  been  eager  to  free  himself  from  prison.  In 
1498  he  was  caught  attempting  to  escape,  but  Henry  contented 
himself  with  putting  him  in  the  stocks.  He  was  then  removed  to 
the  Tower,  where  he  persuaded  the  unhaj^py  Earl  of  Warwick 
to  join  him  in  flight.  It  is  almost  certain  that  Warwick  was  guiltv 
of  no  more,  but  Flenry,  soured  by  the  repeated  attempts  to  de- 
throne him,  resolved  to  remove  him  from  bis  path.  On  trumixnl 
up  evidence  Warwick  was  convicted  and  executed,  and  Perkin 
shared  his  fate. 

Warwick's  death  was  the  one  judicial  murder  of  Henry's 
reign.  To  the  Spaniards  it  appeared  to  be  a  prudent  action  which 
had  cleared  away  the  last  of  Henry's  serious  competitors.  The 
negotiations  for  the  Spanish  marriage  were  pushed  on.  and  in 
1 501  Catherine,  a  bride  of  fifteen,  gave  b.cr  hand  to  Arthur,  a 
bridegroom  of  fourteen.  In  1502  the  prince  died,  and  the  attempt 
to  bind  England  and  Spain  together  seemed  to  ha\-e  come  to  an 
end.  Another  marriage  treaty  proved  ultimately  to  be  of  far  greater 
importance.  Henry  was  sutTiciently  above  tlie  prejudices  of  Ins 
time  to  be  anxious  to  be  on  good  terms  witli  Scotland.  Fov  some 
time  a  negotiation  had  been  in  progress  for  a  marriage  between 
James  IV." and  Henry's  daughter,  TNlargarct.  The  marriage  took 
place  in  1503.  To  the  counselors  who  urged  that  in  tlie  case  of 
failure  of  Hcnrv's  heirs  in  the  male  line  h:ng]and  would  become 
subject  to  Scotland.  Henry  shrewdly  replied  tliat  thei-e  was  n^)  fear 
of  that,  as  "the  greater  would  draw  tlie  less." 


230  ENGLAND 

1497-1503 

Henry's  chief  merit  was  that  he  had  re-estabhshed  order. 
Commercial  prosperity  followed,  though  the  commerce  was  as  yet 
on  a  small  scale.  It  is  probable  that  the  population  of  England 
was  no  more  than  2,500,000.  London  contained  but  130,000  in- 
habitants, while  Paris  contained  400,000.  There  was  no  royal 
navy,  as  there  was  no  royal  army,  but  merchant  vessels  were  armed 
to  protect  themselves.  The  company  of  Merchant  Adventurers 
made  voyages  to  the  Baltic,  and  the  men  of  Bristol  sent  out  fleets 
to  the  Iceland  fishery.  Henry  did  what  he  could  to  encourage 
maritime  enterprise.  He  had  offered  to  take  Columbus  into  his 
service  before  the  great  navigator  closed  with  Spain,  and  in  1497 
he  sent  the  Venetian,  John  Cabot,  and  his  sons  across  the  Atlantic, 
where  they  landed  in  Labrador  before  any  Spaniards  had  set  foot 
on  the  American  continent.  England,  however,  was  as  yet  too 
poor  to  push  these  discoveries  farther,  and  the  lands  beyond  the 
sea  were  for  the  present  left  to  Spain. 

The  improvement  in  the  general  well-being  of  the  country  had 
been  rendered  possible  by  the  extension  of  the  royal  power,  and  the 
price  paid  for  order  was  the  falling  into  abeyance  of  the  consti- 
tutional authority  of  Parliaments.  The  loss  indeed  was  greater  in 
appearance  than  in  reality.  In  the  fifteenth  century  the  election 
of  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  depended  more  upon  the 
will  of  the  great  lords  than  upon  the  political  sentiments  of  the 
community.  In  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  they  de- 
pended on  the  will  of  the  king.  The  peculiarity  of  the  Tudor  rule 
was  that  its  growing  despotism  was  exercised  without  the  support 
of  the  army.  It  rested  on  the  good-will  of  the  middle  classes. 
Treading  cautiously  in  the  steps  of  Edward  IV.,  Henry  VII.  rec- 
ognized that  in  order  to  have  a  full  treasury  it  was  less  dangerous 
to  exact  payments  illegally  from  the  few  than  to  exact  them 
legally  from  the  many.  Hence  his  recourse  in  times  of  trouble  to 
benevolences.  Hence,  too,  the  eagerness  with  which  he  gathered 
in  fines.  The  Cornish  rebels  were  fined  individually.  The  great 
lords  who  persisted  in  keeping  retainers  were  fined. 

As  Henry  grew  older  the  gathering  of  money  became  a  pas- 
sion. His  chief  instruments  were  Empson  and  Dudley,  who  under 
pretense  of  enforcing  the  lav/  established  the  worst  of  tyrannies. 
Even  false  charges  were  brought  for  the  sake  of  extracting  money. 
At  the  end  of  his  reign  Henry  had  accumulated  a  hoard  of 
1,800,000/.^   mainly   gathered   by   injustice   and   oppression.     The 


HENRYVII  231 

1502-1509 

despotism  of  one  man  was  no  doubt  better  than  the  despotism  of 
many,  but  the  price  paid  for  the  change  was  a  heavy  one. 

On  the  death  of  Prince  Arthur  in  1502,  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella proposed  that  their  daughter  Catharine  should  marry  her 
brother-in-law,  Henry,  the  only  surviving  son  of  the  king  of 
England,  though  the  boy  was  six  years  younger  than  herself.  They 
had  already  paid  half  their  daughter's  marriage  portion,  and  they 
believed,  probably  with  truth,  that  they  had  little  chance  of  recov- 
ering it  from  Henry  VII.,  and  that  it  would  therefore  be  more  eco- 
nomical to  re-marry  their  daughter  where  they  would  get  off  with 
no  more  expense  than  the  payment  of  the  other  half.  Henry  on 
the  other  hand  feared  lest  the  repayment  of  the  first  half  might  be 
demanded  of  him,  and  consequently  welcomed  the  proposal.  In 
1503  a  dispensation  for  the  marriage  was  obtained  from  Pope 
Julius  II.,  but  in  1505,  when  the  time  for  the  betrothal  arrived,  the 
young  Henry  protested,  no  doubt  at  his  father's  instigation,  that 
he  would  proceed  no  farther.  Various  other  marriage  plans  were 
discussed,  but  in  1509,  before  any  of  these  plans  could  take  effect, 
Henry  VII.  died.  He  deserves  to  be  reckoned  among  the  kings 
who  have  accomplished  much  for  England.  If  he  was  not  chival- 
rous or  imaginative,  neither  was  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  His 
contemporaries  needed  a  chief  constable  to  keep  order,  and  he  gave 
them  what  they  needed. 

Architecture,  which  in  England,  as  upon  the  Continent,  had 
been  the  one  great  art  of  the  iMiddle  Ages,  was  already,  though 
still  instinct  with  beauty,  giving  signs  in  its  over-elaboration  of 
approaching  decadence.  Art  in  this  direction  could  go  no  farther. 
To  the  town  of  Fotheringhay  Church  had  succeeded  the  town  of 
St.  Alary's,  Taunton,  in  pretentious  heiglit  losing  much  of  the 
beauty  of  proportion.  To  the  roof  of  the  nave  of  Winchester  Ca- 
thedral had  succeeded  the  roof  of  the  Divinity  School  at  Oxford, 
and  of  the  chapel  of  King's  College.  Caml)ridge.  The  lancet  and 
geometric  styles  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  had  been 
entirely  superseded  by  the  perpendicular — the  change  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  stone  traceries  in  the  window  openings  giving  name 
to  the  whole  of  each  period.  The  new  conditions  in  which  the  fol- 
lowing age  was  to  move  were  indicated  by  the  discovery  of  America 
and  the  invention  of  printing.  New  objects  of  knowledge  pre- 
sented themselves,  and  a  new  mode  of  spreading  knowdedge  was  at 
hand.     In  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.,  Caxton.  the  earliest  English 


^9 


ENGLAND 


1509 


printer,  set  up  his  press  at  Westminster,  in  1476,  and  a  year  later 
appeared  what  is  thought  to  be  the  first  book  printed  in  England — 
the  "  Dictes  and  Sayings  of  the  Philosophers."  The  king  and  his 
nobles  came  to  gaze  at  the  press  as  at  some  new  toy,  little  knowing 


how  profoundly  it  was  to  modify  their  methods  of  government. 
Henry  VII.  had  enough  to  do  without  troubling  himself  with  such 
matters.  It  was  his  part  to  close  an  epoch  of  English  history,  not 
to  open  a  fresh  one. 


PART  V 

THE  RENAISSANCE  AND  THE  REFORMATION 

1509—1603 


Chapter    XXIV 

HENRY   VIII    AND   WOLSEY.     1509— 1527 

LEADING   DATES 

Reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  A.D.  1509-1547 — Accession  of  Henry  VIII., 
1509 — Henry's  First  War  with  France,  1512 — Peace  with  France, 
1514 — Charles  V.  Elected  Emperor,  1519 — Henry's  Second  French 
War,  1522 — Francis  I.  Taken  Captive  at  Pavia,  1525 — The  Sack  of 
Rome  and  the  Alliance  Between  England  and  France,  1527 

HENRY  VIII.  inherited  the  handsome  face,  the  winning 
presence,  and  the  love  of  pleasure  which  distinguished  his 
mother's  father,  Edward  IV.,  as  well  as  the  strong  will 
of  his  own  father,  Henry  VII.  He  could  ride  better  than  his 
grooms,  and  shoot  better  than  the  archers  of  his  guard.  Yet, 
though  he  had  a  ready  smile  and  a  ready  jest  for  ever3^on€,  he 
knew  how  to  preserve  his  dignity.  Though  he  seemed  to  live  for 
amusement  alone,  and  allowed  others  to  toil  at  the  business  of  ad- 
ministration, he  took  care  to  keep  his  ministers  under  control.  He 
was  no  mean  judge  of  character,  one  of  the  chief  secrets  of  his  suc- 
cess. He  was  well  aware  that  the  great  nobles  were  his  only  pos- 
sible rivals,  and  that  his  main  support  was  to  be  found  in  the 
country  gentry  and  the  townsmen.  Partly  because  of  his  youth, 
and  partly  because  the  result  of  the  political  struggle  had  already 
been  determined  when  he  came  to  the  throne,  he  thought  less  than 
his  father  had  done  of  the  importance  of  possessing  stored  up 
wealth  by  which  armies  might  be  equipped  and  maintained,  and 
more  of  securing  that  popularity  which  at  least  for  the  purposes  of 
internal  government  made  armies  unnecessary.  The  first  act  of 
the  new  reign  was  to  send  Empson  and  Dudley  to  the  Tower,  and 
it  was  significant  of  Henry's  policy  that  they  were  tried  and  exe- 
cuted, not  on  a  charge  of  having  extorted  money  illegally  from 
subjects,  but  on  a  trumped-up  charge  of  conspiracy  against  the  king. 
It  was  for  the  king  to  see  tliat  offenses  were  not  committed  against 
the  people,  but  the  people  must  be  taught  that  the  most  serious 
crimes  were  those  committed  against  the  king.  Henry's  next  act 
was   to   marry  Catharine.      Though   he   was  but  nineteen,   while 

935 


236  ENGLAND 

1509-1519 

his  bride  was  twenty-five,  the  marriage  was  for  many  years  a 
happy  one. 

For  some  time  Henry  hved  as  though  his  only  object  in  hfe 
was  to  squander  his  fathers  treasure  in  festivities.  Before  long, 
however,  he  bethought  himself  of  aiming  at  distinction  in  war  as 
well  as  in  sport.  Since  Louis  XII.  had  been  king  of  France 
there  had  been  constant  wars  in  Italy,  where  Louis  was  striv- 
ing for  the  mastery  with  Ferdinand  of  Aragon.  In  151 1  Fer- 
dinand allied  himself  with  Pope  Julius  II.  and  Venice  in  the  Holy 
League,  the  object  of  which  was  to  drive  the  French  out  of  Italy. 
After  a  while  the  new  league  was  joined  by  the  Emperor  Max- 
imilian, and  every  member  of  it  was  anxious  that  Henry  should 
join  it  too. 

England  had  nothing  to  gain  by  an  attack  on  France,  but 
Henry  was  young,  and  the  English  nation  was,  in  a  certain  sense, 
also  young.  It  was  conscious  of  the  strength  brought  to  it  by 
restored  order,  and  was  quite  ready  to  use  this  strength  in  an  at- 
tack on  its  neighbors.  In  the  new  court  it  was  ignorantly  thought 
that  there  was  no  reason  why  Henry  VIII.  should  not  take  up  that 
work  of  conquering  France  which  had  fallen  to  pieces  in  the  feeble 
hands  of  Henry  VI.  To  carry  on  his  new  policy  Henry  needed  a 
new  minister.  The  whole  military  organization  of  the  country  had 
to  be  created  afresh,  and  neither  Fox  nor  Surrey  was  equal  to  such 
a  task.  The  work  was  assigned  to  Thomas  Wolsey,  the  king's 
almoner,  who,  though  not,  as  his  enemies  said,  the  son  of  a  butcher, 
was  of  no  exalted  origin.  Wolsey's  genius  for  administration  at 
once  manifested  itself.  He  was  equally  at  home  in  sketching  out 
a  plan  of  campaign,  in  diplomatic  contests  with  the  wariest  and 
most  experienced  statesmen,  and  in  providing  for  the  minutest 
details  of  military  preparation. 

It  was  not  Wolsey's  fault  that  his  first  enterprise  ended  in 
failure.  A  force  sent  to  attack  France  on  the  Spanish  side  was 
not  supported  by  Ferdinand.  In  15 13.  however,  Henry  himself 
landed  at  Calais,  and,  with  the  Emperor  ^Maximilian  serving  under 
him,  defeated  the  French  in  an  engagement  known,  from  the 
rapidity  of  the  flight  of  the  French,  as  the  Battle  of  the  Spurs. 
War  with  France,  as  usual,  led  to  a  war  witli  Scotland.  James 
IV.,  during  Henry's  absence,  invaded  Northumberland,  but  his 
army  was  destroyed  by  the  Earl  of  Surrey  at  Flodden,  where  he 
himself  was  slain.     Henry  soon  found  that  his  allies  were  thinking 


(Horn      i  (0  1.         I  lir.l      i  5  c'l 

/•..•/»//»-■     hy     If, HIS     Ih'lhrln 

irin,!snr    Casl/r 


HENRY    VIII  237 

1514-1518 

exclusively  of  their  own  interests,  and  when  they  had  got  what 
they  wanted,  he  discovered  that  to  conquer  France  was  beyond  his 
power.  Louis  was  ready  to  come  to  terms.  He  was  now  a 
widower.  Old  in  constitution,  though  not  in  years,  he  was  foolish 
enough  to  want  a  young  wife.  Henry  was  ready  to  gratify  him 
with  the  hand  of  his  younger  sister  Mary,  The  poor  girl  had 
fallen  in  love  with  Henry's  favorite,  Charles  Brandon,  Duke  of 
Suffolk,  a  man  of  sturdy  limbs  and  weak  brain,  and  pleaded  hard 
against  the  marriage.  Love  counted  for  little  in  those  days,  and 
all  that  she  could  obtain  from  her  brother  was  a  promise  that  if 
she  married  this  time  to  please  him,  she  should  marry  next  time 
to  please  herself.  Louis  soon  relieved  her  by  dying  on  January 
I,  1 5 15,  after  a  few  weeks  of  wedlock,  and  his  widow  took  care, 
by  marrying  Suffolk  before  she  left  France,  to  make  sure  that  her 
brother  should  keep  his  promise. 

In  1 5 14  the  king  made  Wolsey  Archbishop  of  York.  In  15 15 
the  Pope  made  him  a  Cardinal,  Before  the  end  of  the  year  he 
was  Henry's  Chancellor.  The  whole  of  the  business  of  the  gov- 
ernment passed  through  his  hands.  The  magnificence  of  his  state 
was  extraordinary.  To  all  observers  he  seemed  to  be  more  a  king 
than  the  king  himself.  Behind  him  was  Henry,  trusting  him  with 
all  his  power,  but  self-willed  and  uncontrollable,  quite  ready  to 
sacrifice  his  dearest  friend  to  satisfy  his  least  desire.  As  yet  the 
only  conflict  in  Henry's  mind  was  the  conflict  about  peace  or  war 
with  France.  Henry's  love  of  display  and  renown  had  led  him 
to  wish  to  rival  the  exploits  of  Edward  III.  and  Henry  V.  Wolsey 
preferred  the  old  policy  of  Richard  II.  and  Flenry  VI.,  but  he  knew 
that  he  could  only  make  it  palatable  to  the  king  and  the  nation  by 
connecting  the  idea  of  peace  with  the  idea  of  national  greatness. 
He  aspired  to  be  the  peace-maker  of  Europe,  and  to  make  Eng- 
land's interest  in  peace  the  law  of  the  world.  Francis  I.  of  France 
and  Charles  of  Spain  now  stood  forth  as  the  rivals  for  supremacy 
on  the  Continent.  Wolsey  tried  his  best  to  maintain  a  balance 
between  the  two,  and  it  was  owing  to  his  ability  that  England, 
thinly  populated  and  without  a  standing  army,  was  eagerly  courted 
by  the  rulers  of  states  far  more  powerful  than  herself.  In  15 18  a 
league  was  struck  between  England  and  France,  in  which  Pope 
Leo  X.,  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  and  Charles,  king  of  Spain, 
agreed  to  join,  thus  converting  it  into  a  league  of  universal  peace. 
Yet   Wolsey   was    no    cosmopolitan    philanthropist.      He    believed 


238  ENGLAND 

1514-1518 

that  England  would  be  more  influential  in  peace  than  she  could 
be  in  war. 

In  scheming  for  the  elevation  of  his  own  country  by  peace 
instead  of  by  conquest,  Wolsey  reflected  the  higher  aspirations  of 
his  time.  No  sooner  had  internal  order  been  secured,  than  the 
best  men  began  to  crave  for  some  object  to  which  they  could  devote 
themselves,  larger  and  nobler  than  that  of  their  own  preservation. 
Wolsey  gave  them  the  contemplation  of  the  political  importance  of 
England  on  the  Continent.  The  noblest  minds,  however,  would 
not  be  content  with  this,  and  an  outburst  of  intellectual  vigor  told 
that  the  times  of  internal  strife  had  passed  away.  This  intel- 
lectual movement  was  not  of  native  growth.  The  Renaissance, 
or  new  birth  of  letters,  sprung  up  in  Italy  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
and  received  a  further  impulse  through  the  taking  of  Constanti- 
nople by  the  Turks  in  1453,  when  the  dispersal  of  Greek  teachers 
from  the  East  revived  the  study  of  the  Greek  language.  ]Men 
were  weary  of  the  medieval  system,  and  craved  for  other  ideals 
than  those  of  the  devotees  of  the  Church.  While  they  learned  to 
admire  the  works  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  authors  as  models  of  lit- 
erary form,  they  caught  something  of  the  spirit  of  the  ancient 
world.  They  ceased  to  look  on  man  as  living  only  for  God  and 
a  future  world,  and  regarded  him  as  devoting  himself  to  the  service 
of  his  fellow  men,  or  even — in  lower  minds  the  temptation  lay 
perilously  near — as  living  for  himself  alone.  The  spirit  of  the 
Renaissance  was  slow  in  reaching  England.  In  the  days  of  Rich- 
ard II.  Chaucer  visited  Italy,  and  Italian  influence  is  to  be  traced 
in  his  "  Canterbury  Tales."  In  the  days  of  Henry  VI.  Humphrey, 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  gave  to  Oxford  a  collection  which  was  the 
foundation  of  what  was  afterwards  known  as  the  Bodleian  Library. 
Even  in  the  wars  of  the  Roses  tliere  were  patrons  of  letters.  The 
invention  of  printing  brought  literature  within  reach  of  those  to 
whom  it  had  hitherto  been  strange.  Edward  IV.  patronized 
Caxton,  the  first  English  printer.  In  the  peaceful  reign  of  Henry 
VII.  the  seed  thus  sown  sprang  into  a  crop.  There  was,  however, 
a  great  difference  between  the  followers  of  tlie  new  learning  in 
England  and  in  Italy.  In  Italy,  for  the  most  part,  scholars  mocked 
at  Christianity,  or  treated  it  with  tacit  contempt.  In  England  there 
was  no  such  breach  with  the  religion  of  the  past.  Those  who 
studied  in  England  sought  to  permeate  their  old  faith  with  the  new 
thoughts. 


H  E  N  R  Y     V  1 1 1.  239 

1B18 

Especially  was  this  the  case  with  a  group  of  Oxford  Re- 
formers, Grocyn,  Linacre,  and  Colet,  who  were  fighting  hard  to 
introduce  the  study  of  Greek  into  the  University.  Among  these 
Colet  specially  addicted  himself  to  the  explanation  of  the  epistles 
of  St.  Paul.  In  1 5 10  he  founded  St.  Paul's  School,  that  boys  might 
be  there  taught  without  being  subjected  to  the  brutal  flogging  which 
was  in  those  days  the  lot  even  of  the  most  diligent  of  schoolboys. 
The  most  remarkable  member  of  this  group  of  scholars  was  Thomas 
More.  Young  More,  who  had  hoped  much  from  the  accession  of 
Henry  VIII.,  had  been  disappointed  to  find  him  engaging  in  a  war 
with  France  instead  of  cultivating  the  arts  of  peace.  In  151 5  and 
15 16  More  produced  a  book  which  he  called  "  Utopia,"  or  Nowhere, 
intending  it  to  serve  as  a  satire  on  the  defects  of  the  government  of 
England,  by  praising  the  results  of  a  very  different  government  in 
his  imaginary  country.  The  Utopians,  he  declared,  fought  against 
invaders  of  their  own  land  or  the  land  of  their  allies,  or  to  deliver 
other  peoples  from  tyranny,  but  they  made  no  wars  of  aggression. 
In  peace  no  one  was  allowed  either  to  be  idle  or  overworked.  Every- 
one must  work  six  hours  a  day,  and  then  he  might  listen  to  lectures 
for  the  improvement  of  his  mind.  As  for  the  religion  of  Utopia, 
no  one  was  to  be  persecuted  for  his  religious  opinions,  as  long  as 
he  treated  respectfully  those  who  differed  from  him.  If,  however, 
he  used  scornful  and  angry  words  towards  them,  he  w'as  to  be 
banished,  not  as  a  despiser  of  the  established  religion,  but  as  a 
stirrer  up  of  dissension.  Men  of  all  varieties  of  opinion  met  to- 
gether in  a  common  temple,  the  worship  in  which  was  so  arranged 
that  all  could  take  part  in  it.  Among  their  priests  were  women 
as  well  as  men.  More  practical  was  the  author's  attack  on  the 
special  abuses  of  the  times,  England  swarmed  with  vagrants,  who 
easily  passed  into  robbers,  or  even  murderers.  The  author  of 
"  Utopia  "  traced  the  evil  to  its  roots.  Soldiers,  he  said,  were  dis- 
charged on  their  return  home,  and,  being  used  to  roving  and 
dissolute  habits,  naturally  took  to  vagrancy.  Robbery  was  their 
only  resource,  and  the  law  tempted  a  robber  to  murder.  Hanging 
was  the  penalty  both  for  robbing  and  murder,  and  the  robber,  there- 
fore, knowing  that  he  would  be  hanged  if  he  were  detected,  usually 
killed  the  victim  whom  he  had  plundered  in  order  to  silence  evidence 
against  himself;  and  More  consequently  argued  that  the  best  way 
of  checking  murder  would  be  to  abolish  the  penalty  of  death  for 
robbery.    Another  great  complaint  of  More's  was  against  the  ever- 


240  ENGLAND 

1519-1521 

grcnving  increase  of  inclosures  for  pasturage.  More  saw  the  evil, 
but  he  did  not  see  that  the  best  remedy  lay  in  the  establishment  of 
manufactures,  to  give  employment  in  towns  to  those  who  lost  it  in 
the  country.  He  wished  to  enforce  by  law  the  reversion  of  all  the 
new  pasturage  into  arable  land. 

Henry  VHI.  was  intolerant  of  those  who  resisted  his  will,  but 
he  was  strangely  tolerant  of  those  who  privately  contradicted  his 
opinions.  He  took  pleasure  in  the  society  of  intelligent  and  witty 
men,  and  he  urged  More  to  take  office  under  him.  More  refused 
for  a  long  time,  but  in  1518 — the  year  of  the  league  of  universal 
peace — believing  that  Henry  was  now  a  convert  to  his  ideas,  he  con- 
sented, and  became  Sir  Thomas  More  and  a  Privy  Councilor. 
Henry  was  so  pleased  with  his  conversation  that  he  tried  to  keep 
him  always  with  him,  and  it  was  only  by  occasionally  pretending 
to  be  dull  that  More  obtained  leave  to  visit  his  home. 

In  January,  15 19,  the  Emperor  Maximilian  died.  His  grand- 
son Charles  was  now  possessed  of  more  extensive  lands  than  any 
other  European  sovereign.  He  ruled  in  Spain,  in  Austria,  in 
Naples  and  Sicily,  in  the  Netherlands,  and  in  the  County  of  Bur- 
gundy, usually  known  as  Franche  Comte.  Between  him  and 
Francis  I.  a  struggle  was  inevitable.  The  chances  were  apparently, 
on  the  whole,  on  the  side  of  Charles.  In  the  Imperial  election 
Charles  bribed  highest,  and  being  chosen  became  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.  Wolsey  tried  hard  to  keep  the  peace.  In  1520  Henry 
met  Francis  on  the  border  of  the  territory  of  Calais,  and  the  mag- 
nificence of  the  display  on  both  sides  gave  to  the  scene  the  name 
of  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold.  In  the  same  year  Henry  had 
interviews  v/ith  Charles.  Peace  was  for  a  time  maintained,  because 
both  Charles  and  Francis  were  still  too  much  occupied  at  home  to 
quarrel,  but  it  could  hardly  be  maintained  long. 

Henry  was  entirely  master  in  England,  and  in  1521  the  Duke 
of  Buckingham  was  tried  and  executed  as  a  traitor.  His  fault  was 
that  he  had  not  only  cherished  some  idea  oi  claiming  the  throne 
after  Henry's  death,  but  had  chattered  about  his  prospects.  One 
despot  had  stepped  into  the  place  of  many.  The  legal  forms  of 
trial  were  now  as  before  observed.  Tlicse,  however,  were  no  more 
than  f(irms.  It  was  probably  a  mingled  feeling  of  gratitude  antl 
fear  which  made  peers  as  well  as  ordinary  juries  ready  to  take 
Flenry's  word  for  the  guilt  of  any  offender. 

The  diplomacy  of  those  days  was  a  mere  tissue  of  trickery  and 


HENRY     VIII  241 

1521-1525 

lies.  Behind  the  falsehood,  however,  Wolsey  had  a  purpose  of  his 
own,  the  maintenance  of  peace  on  the  Continent.  Yet,  in  1521  war 
broke  out  between  Charles  and  Francis,  both  of  whom  laid  claim 
to  the  Duchy  of  Milan,  and  it  was  evident  that  Wolsey  would  be 
unable  to  keep  England  out  of  the  struggle.  If  there  was  to  be 
fighting  Henry  preferred  to  fight  France  rather  than  to  fight 
Charles.  In  1523  Henry  was  in  high  spirits.  He  fancied  that 
a  way  would  be  opened  into  the  heart  of  France.  If  Henry  was 
to  be  crowned  at  Paris,  which  was  the  object  on  which  he  was 
bent,  he  must  have  a  supply  of  money  from  his  subjects.  Though 
no  Parliament  had  been  summoned  for  nearly  eight  years,  one  was 
summoned  now,  of  which  ]\Iore  was  the  Speaker.  Wolsey  asked 
for  an  enormous  grant  of  800,000/.,  nearly  equal  to  12,000,000/. 
at  the  present  day.  Finding  that  the  Commons  hesitated,  he  swept 
into  the  House  in  state  to  argue  with  them.  Expecting  a  reply, 
and  finding  silence,  he  turned  to  More,  who  told  him  that  it  was 
against  the  privilege  of  the  House  to  call  on  it  for  an  immediate 
answer.  He  had  to  depart  unsatisfied,  and  after  some  days  the 
House  granted  a  considerable  sum,  but  far  less  than  that  which  had 
been  demanded.  Wolsey  was  now  in  a  position  of  danger.  His 
own  policy  was  pacific,  but  his  master's  policy  was  warlike,  and 
he  had  been  obliged  to  make  himself  the  unquestioning  mouthpiece 
of  his  master  in  demanding  supplies  for  war.  He  had  long  been 
hated  by  the  nobles  for  thrusting  them  aside.  He  was  now  begin- 
ning to  be  hated  by  the  people  as  the  supposed  author  of  an 
expensive  war,  which  he  would  have  done  his  best  to  prevent. 
Pie  had  not  even  the  advantage  of  seeing  his  master  win  kuu'els  in 
the  field.  The  national  spirit  of  France  was  roused,  and  the  com- 
bined attack  of  Henry  and  Charles  proved  a  f.-iilure.  The  year  1524 
\vas  spent  by  Wolsey  in  diplomatic  intrigue  and  in  attempts  to  gain 
1  promise  of  the  papal  tiara  for  himself. 

Early  in  1525  Euroj)e  was  startled  by  the  news  that  Francis 
had  been  signally  defeated  by  the  Imperialists  at  Pavia,  and  had 
been  carried  prisoner  to  Spain.  Wolsey  knew  that  Charles's  intlii- 
ence  was  now  likely  to  preelominatc  in  Eurojx',  and  that  unless 
England  was  to  be  overshadowed  by  it,  lleiny's  alliance  must  be 
transferred  to  Francis.  Henry,  however,  saw  in  the  imprisonment 
of  Francis  only  a  fine  opportunity  for  conquering  France.  \\\)lsey 
had  again  to  carry  out  his  master's  wishes  as  though  they  were  his 
own.    Raking  up  old  precedents,  he  suggested  that  the  people  should 


242  ENGLAND 

1525-1527 

be  asked  for  what  was  called  an  Amicable  Loan,  on  the  plea  that 
Henry  was  about  to  invade  France  in  person.  He  obtained  the 
consent  of  the  citizens  of  London  by  telling  them  that,  if  they  did 
not  pay,  it  might  "  fortune  to  cost  some  their  heads."  All  over 
England  Wolsey  was  cursed  as  the  originator  of  the  loan.  There 
were  even  signs  that  a  rebellion  was  imminent.  Wolsey,  seeing 
that  it  was  impossible  to  collect  the  money,  took  all  the  unpopularity 
of  advising  the  loan  upon  himself.  Henry  had  no  such  nobility  of 
character  as  to  refuse  to  accept  the  sacrifice.  He  liked  to  make 
his  ministers  scapegoats,  to  heap  on  their  heads  the  indignation  of 
the  people  that  he  might  himself  retain  his  popularity.  For  three 
centuries  and  a  half  it  was  fully  believed  that  the  Amicable  Loan 
had  originated  with  W'olsey. 

All  idea  of  continuing  the  war  being  now  abandoned,  Wolsey 
cautiously  negotiated  for  an  alliance  with  France,  and  in  the  autumn 
of  1525  peace  was  signed  between  France  and  England.  In  1527 
Charles  took  and  sacked  Rome.  Wolsey  was  too  worldly-minded 
to  be  shocked  at  the  Pope's  misfortunes ;  but  he  had  much  to  fear 
from  the  enormous  extension  of  the  Emperor's  power.  For  some 
weeks  he  had  been  negotiating  a  close  alliance  with  France  on  the 
basis  of  a  marriage  between  Henry's  only  surviving  child,  Mary, 
and  the  wornout  voluptuary  Francis.  Suddenly  the  scheme  was 
changed  to  a  proposal  for  a  marriage  between  ]Mary,  who  was  ten 
years  old,  and  the  second  son  of  Francis,  who  was  but  six.  The 
bargain  was  concluded,  and  for  a  time  there  was  some  thought  of 
carrying  it  out.  At  all  events  when  the  news  of  the  sack  of  Rome 
arrived,  England  and  France  were  already  in  alliance.  Wolsey's 
position  was,  to  all  outward  appearance,  secure. 


Chapter   XXV 

THE    BREACH    WITH    THE    PAPACY.     1527— 1534 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  A.D.  1509-1547 — Hexry  Seeks  a  Divorce, 
1527 — His  Suit  Before  a  Legatine  Court,  1529 — Fall  of  Wolsey, 
1529 — The  Clergy  Acknowledge  Henry  to  be  Supreme  Head  of  the 
Church  of  England,  1531 — The  First  Act  of  Annates,  1532 — The 
King's  Marriage  to  Anne  Boleyn  and  the  Act  of  Appeals,  1533 — 
Cranmer's  Sentence  of  Divorce,  1533 — The  Final  Separation 
from  Rome,  1534 

THE  Renaissance  alone  could  not  make  the  world  better,  and 
in  many  respects  it  made  it  worse.  The  respect  which  it 
paid  to  humanity,  which  was  its  leading  characteristic, 
allied  itself  in  More  with  a  reverence  for  God,  which  led  him  to 
strive  to  mellow  the  religious  teaching  of  the  Middle  Ages,  by 
fitting  it  for  the  needs  of  the  existing  world.  Too  many  threw  off 
all  religious  restraints,  and  made  it  their  first  thought  to  seek  their 
own  enjoyment,  or  the  triumphs  of  their  own  intellectual  skill. 
Sensual  delights  were  pursued  with  less  brutal  directness,  but 
became  more  seductive  and  more  truly  debasing  by  the  splendor 
and  gracefulness  of  the  life  of  which  they  formed  a  part.  In  Italy 
the  Popes  swam  with  the  current.  Spiritual  guidance  was  no 
longer  to  be  expected  of  them. 

By  Wolsey  and  his  master  the  Papacy  was  respected  as  a 
venerable  and  useful  institution,  the  center  of  a  religious  organiza- 
tion which  they  believed  to  be  of  divine  origin,  though  when  it  came 
in  conflict  with  their  own  projects  they  were  quite  ready  to  thwart 
it.  In  1 521  Leo  X.  died,  and  Wolsey  liad  some  hopes  of  being  him- 
self elected.  But  Charles,  though  in  the  previous  year  he  had 
offered  to  support  Wolsey's  candidature  at  the  next  vacancy,  now 
deserted  him,  and  the  new  Pope  was  Adrian  VI. 

It  is  unlikely  that  Wolsey  was  much  disappointed.  His  chief 
sphere  of  action  was  England,  where  since  1518  he  had  held  un- 
wonted authority,  as  in  that  year  he  had  been  appointed  Legate 
a  latere  ^  by  Leo  X.  at  Henry's  request,  and  the  powers  of  a  Legate 

1  /.  c,  a  Legate  sent  from  the  Pope's  side,  and  therefore  having  power  to 
speak  almost  with  full  Papal  authority. 

243 


244  ENGLAND 

1521-1524 

a  latere  were  superior  even  to  those  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury. Wolsey  was  therefore  clothed  with  all  the  authority  of  king 
and  Pope  combined.  His  own  life  was,  indeed,  like  those  of  many 
churchmen  in  his  day,  very  far  from  the  ideal  of  Christianity;  but 
for  all  that  he  had  that  respect  for  religious  order  which  often 
lingers  in  the  hearts  of  men  who  break  away  from  the  precepts  of 
religion,  and  he  was  too  great  a  statesman  to  be  blind  to  the  danger 
impending  over  the  Church.  The  old  order  was  changing,  and 
Wolsey  was  as  anxious  as  More,  though  from  more  worldly 
motives,  that  the  change  should  be  effected  without  violence.  He 
knew  that  the  Church  was  wealthy,  and  that  wealth  tempted  plun- 
derers, and  he  also  knew  that,  with  some  bright  exceptions,  the 
clergy  were  ignorant,  and  even  when  not  absolutely  dissolute  were 
remiss  and  easy-going  in  their  lives.  He  was,  therefore,  anxious 
to  make  them  more  worthy  of  respect,  and,  with  the  consent  of  king 
and  Pope,  he  began  in  1524  to  dissolve  several  small  monasteries, 
and  to  apply  their  revenues  to  two  great  colleges,  the  one  founded 
by  him  at  Oxford  and  the  other  at  Ipswich.  He  hoped  that  without 
any  change  of  doctrine  or  organization  the  Church  would  gradually 
be  purified  by  improved  education,  and  would  thus  once  more 
command  the  respect  of  the  lait3^ 

With  Wolsey's  object  Henry,  being  himself  well  educated 
and  well  read,  fully  sympathized.  For  many  years  there  had  been 
a  tacit  understanding  between  the  king  and  the  Pope,  yet  Henry 
had  made  up  his  mind  that  whenever  there  was  a  conflict  of  juris- 
diction in  ecclesiastical  matters  his  own  will,  and  not  that  of  the 
clergy,  was  to  be  predominant.  Henry  VKI..  in  short,  took  up  the 
position  which  Heiiry  H.  had  assumed  towards  the  clergy  of  his 
day,  and  he  was  far  more  powerful  to  give  effect  to  his  views  than 
Henry  H.  had  ever  been.  Such  an  act  of  self-assertion  would 
probably  have  caused  a  breach  with  the  great  Popes  of  the  I\Iiddle 
Ages,  such  as  Gregory  VH.  or  Innocent  III.  Leo  X.  was  far  too 
much  a  man  of  the  world  to  trouble  liimselt  about  such  matters. 

Before  many  years  liad  passed  the  beginnings  of  a  great  relig- 
ious revolution  wliich  appeared  in  Germany  served  to  bind  Henry 
and  Leo  more  closely  together.  Martin  Luther,  a  Saxon  friar,  had 
been  disgusted  by  tlie  proceedings  of  a  liawker  of  indulgences,  who 
extracted  small  sums  from  the  ignorant  by  the  sale  of  the  remission 
of  the  pains  (jf  purgattjry.  What  gave  world-wide  importance  to 
Luther's  resistance  was  that  he  was  not  only  an  eloquent  preacher 


BREACH  WITH  PAPACY       245 

1521-1524 

of  morality,  but  the  convinced  maintainer  of  a  doctrine  which, 
though  not  a  new  one,  had  long  been  laid  aside.  He  preached 
justification  by  faith,  and  the  acceptance  of  his  teaching  implied 
even  more  than  the  acceptance  of  a  new  doctrine.  For  centuries 
it  had  been  understood  that  each  Christian  held  intercourse  with 
God  through  the  sacraments  and  ordinances  of  the  Church.  Luther 
taught  each  of  his  hearers  that  the  important  thing  was  his  faith, 
that  is  to  say,  his  immediate  personal  relation  with  God,  and  that 
the  intervention  of  human  beings  might,  indeed,  be  helpful  to  him, 
but  could  be  no  more.  Such  a  doctrine  touched  all  human  activity. 
The  man  who  in  religion  counted  his  own  individual  faith  as  the 
one  thing  necessary  was  likely  to  count  his  own  individual  convic- 
tions in  social  or  political  matters  as  worth  more  to  him  than  his 
obedience  to  the  authority  of  any  government.  In  Luther's  teach- 
ing was  to  be  found  the  spirit  of  political  as  well  as  of  religious 
liberty.  This  side  of  it,  however,  was  not  likely  to  reveal  itself  at 
once.  After  a  time  Luther  shook  off  entirely  the  claims  of  the 
Papacy  upon  his  obedience,  but  he  magnified  the  duty  of  obeying 
the  princes  who  gave  him  their  support  in  his  struggle  with  the 
Pope. 

Luther,  when  once  he  was  engaged  in  controversy  with  the 
Papacy,  assailed  other  doctrines  than  those  relating  to  justification. 
In  1 521  Henry,  vain  of  his  theological  learning,  wrote  a  book 
against  him  in  defense  of  the  seven  sacraments.  Luther,  despising 
a  royal  antagonist,  replied  with  scurrilous  invective.  Pope  Leo 
was  delighted  to  have  found  so  influential  a  champion,  and  con- 
ferred on  Henry  the  title  of  Defender  of  the  Faith.  If  Henry  had 
not  been  moved  by  stronger  motives  than  controversial  vanity  he 
might  have  remained  the  Pope's  ally  till  the  end  of  his  life. 

It  was  a  great  disappointment  to  Henry  that  he  had  no  sur- 
viving male  children.  Fngland  had  never  been  ruled  by  a  queen, 
and  it  was  uncertain  whether  Henry's  daughter,  Alary,  would  be 
allowed  to  reign.  Henry  had  already  begun  to  ask  himself  whether 
he  might  not  get  rid  of  his  wife,  on  the  pica  tliat  a  marriage  with 
his  brother's  wife  was  unlawful,  and  this  consideration  had  the 
greater  weight  with  him  because  Catharine  was  five  years  older 
than  himself  and  was  growing  distasteful  to  him.  At  all  events  his 
scruples  regarding  his  marriage  with  Catliarine  were  quickened  in 
1522  by  the  appearance  at  court  of  Anne  Boleyn,  a  spriglitly  black- 
eyed  flirt  in  her  sixteenth  year,  who  took  his  fancy  as  she  grew  into 


246  ENGLAND 

1527-1529 

womanhood.  Flirt  as  she  was,  she  knew  her  power,  and  refused 
to  give  herself  to  him  except  in  marriage.  The  king,  on  his  part, 
being  anxious  for  a  legitimate  son,  set  his  heart  on  a  divorce  which 
would  enable  him  to  marry  Anne.  Wolsey,  knowing  the  obstacles 
in  the  way,  urged  him  to  abandon  the  project;  but  it  was  never 
possible  to  turn  Henry  from  his  course,  and  Wolsey  set  himself,  in 
this  as  in  all  things  else,  to  carry  out  his  master's  wishes,  though 
he  did  so  very  reluctantly.  There  were  strong  political  reasons 
against  the  deed,  as  England  was  in  alliance  with  Catharine's 
nephew,  the  Emperor  Charfes  V.,  and  a  divorce  would  be  certain 
to  endanger  the  alliance. 

Two  years  later,  in  1527,  as  Henry  was  veering  round  towards 
a  French  alliance,  he  had  no  longer  much  reason  to  consider  the 
feelings  of  the  Emperor.  On  the  other  hand,  the  strong  position 
which  Charles  occupied  in  Italy  after  the  sack  of  Rome  made  it 
improbable  that  Clement  VH.,  who  was  then  Pope,  and  who  thought 
more  of  his  political  than  of  his  ecclesiastical  position,  would  do 
anything  to  thwart  the  Emperor.  An  attempt  made  by  Henry  in 
1527  to  draw  Clement  to  consent  to  the  divorce  failed,  and  in  1528 
Wolsey  sent  to  Rome  his  secretary,  Stephen  Gardiner,  an  adroit 
man  of  business,  to  induce  Clement  to  appoint  legates  to  decide  the 
question  in  Henry's  favor.  Clement,  anxious  to  please  all  parties, 
appointed  Wolsey  and  another  cardinal,  Campeggio,  as  his  legates, 
but  took  care  to  add  that  nothing  done  by  them  should  be  valid 
until  it  had  received  his  own  approval. 

The  court  of  the  two  legates  was  opened  at  Blackfriars  in  1529. 
Before  proceeding  to  business  they  tried  hard  to  induce  either 
Henry  to  abstain  from  asking  for  a  divorce  or  Catharine  to  abstain 
from  resisting  his  demand.  In  such  a  matter  Catharine  was  as 
firm  as  the  self-willed  Henry.  She  would  not  acknowledge  that 
she  had  never  been  a  wife  to  Henry,  or  suffer  her  daughter  to  be 
branded  with  illegitimacy.  When  king  and  queen  were  at  last 
cited  to  appear,  Catharine  appealed  to  Rome.  The  queen's  cause 
was  popular  witli  the  masses.  The  legates  refused  to  consider  the 
queen's  appeal,  but  wlien  they  came  to  hear  arguments  on  the  merits 
of  the  case  they  were  somewhat  startled  by  the  appearance  of  the 
aged  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  one  of  the  holiest  and  most 
learned  prelates  of  the  day,  who  now  came  voluntarily,  though  he 
knew  that  Henry's  wrath  was  deadly,  to  support  the  cause  of 
Catharine.     After  several  delays  Clement  annulled  all  the  proceed- 


BREACH  WITH  PAPACY        247 

1529-1530 

ings  in  England  and  revoked  the  cause  to  Rome.  Most  probably 
he  was  alarmed  at  the  threats  of  the  Emperor,  but  he  had  also 
reasons  of  his  own  for  the  course  which  he  took.  Henry  did  not  ask 
for  a  divorce  on  any  of  the  usual  grounds,  but  for  a  declaration  that 
his  marriage  had  been  null  from  the  beginning.  As,  however, 
his  marriage  had  been  solemnized  with  a  Papal  dispensation, 
Clement  was  asked  to  set  aside  the  dispensation  of  one  of  his 
predecessors,  a  proceeding  to  which  no  Pope  with  any  respect  for 
his  office  could  reasonably  be  expected  to  consent. 

Henry  was  very  angry  and  made  Wolsey  his  victim.  Wolsey's 
active  endeavors  to  procure  the  divorce  counted  as  nothing.  It  was 
enough  that  he  had  failed.  He  was  no  longer  needed  to  conduct 
foreign  affairs,  as  Henry  cared  now  only  for  the  divorce,  and  raised 
no  objection  when  Charles  and  Francis  made  peace  without  consult- 
ing his  interests.  The  old  nobility  had  long  hated  Wolsey  bitterly, 
and  the  profligate  courtiers,  together  with  the  friends  and  relatives 
of  Anne,  hated  him  no  less  bitterly  now.  Before  the  end  of  the 
year  proceedings  under  the  Statute  of  Praemunire  were  taken  against 
him  on  the  ground  that  he  had  usurped  legatine  powers.  It  was 
notorious  that  he  had  exercised  them  at  the  king's  wish,  and  he 
could  have  produced  evidence  to  show  that  this  had  been  the  case. 
In  those  days,  however,  it  was  held  to  be  a  subject's  duty  not  to 
contest  the  king's  will,  and  Wolsey  contented  himself  with  an  abject 
supplication  for  forgiveness.  He  was  driven  from  his  offices,  and 
all  his  goods  and  estates  seized.  The  college  which  he  had  founded 
at  Ipswich  was  sold  for  the  king's  use,  and  his  college  at  Oxford 
was  also  seized,  though  it  was  afterward  refounded  under  the  name 
of  Christchurch.  Wolsey  was  reduced  to  extreme  poverty.  In 
1530  he  was  allowed  to  return  to  the  possession  of  the  arch- 
bishopric of  York;  but  he  imprudently  opened  communications  with 
the  French  ambassador,  and  harmless  as  they  were,  they  gave  a 
handle  to  his  enemies.  Henry  ordered  him  to  be  charge'd  with 
treason.  The  sufferings  of  his  mind  aft'ected  his  body,  and  on  his 
way  to  London  he  knew  that  he  was  a  dying  man.  "  If  I  had 
served  my  God,"  he  acknowledged  as  he  was  passing  away,  "  as 
diligently  as  I  have  done  my  king.  He  would  not  have  given  me 
over  in  my  gray  hairs.'' 

No  king  ever  felt  the  importance  of  popularity  like  Henry,  and 
the  compassion  which  had  been  freely  given  to  Catharine  by  the 
crowd,  on  her  appearance  in  the  Legatine  Court,  made  it  necessary 


248  ENGLAND 

1530-1531 

for  him  to  find  support  elsewhere.  It  had  been  Wolsey's  policy  to 
summon  Parliament  as  seldom  as  possible.  It  was  to  be  Henry's 
policy  to  summon  it  as  frequently  as  possible.  He  no  longer  feared 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  either  he  or  Wolsey's  late  servant,  Thomas 
Cromwell,  an  able  and  unscrupulous  man,  who  rose  rapidly  in 
Henry's  favor,  perceived  the  use  which  might  be  made  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  By  his  influence  the  king  could  carry  the 
elections  as  he  pleased,  and  when  Parliament  met  in  1529  it  con- 
tained a  packed  House  of  Commons  ready  to  do  the  king's  bidding. 
The  members  were  either  lawyers  or  country  gentlemen,  the  main 
supports  of  the  Tudor  monarchy,  and  Henry  strengthened  his  hold 
upon  them  by  letting  them  loose  on  the  special  abuses  which  had 
grown  up  in  the  ecclesiastical  courts. 

Henry  had  as  yet  no  thought  of  breaking  with  the  Pope.  He 
wanted  to  put  pressure  on  him  to  make  him  do  what  he  had  come 
to  regard  as  his  right.  In  1530  he  sent  to  the  universities  of 
Europe  to  ask  their  opinion  on  the  question  whether  a  marriage 
with  a  brother's'  widow  was  contrary  to  the  law  of  God.  The 
whole  inquiry  was  a  farce.  Wherever  Henry  or  his  allies  could 
bribe  or  buHy  the  learned  doctors,  an  answer  was  usually  given  in 
the  affirmative.  Wherever  the  Emperor  could  bribe  or  bully,  then 
the  answer  was  usually  given  in  the  negative.  That  the  experiment 
should  have  been  tried,  however,  was  a  proof  of  the  strength  of  the 
spirit  of  the  Renaissance.  A  question  of  morals  which  the  Pope 
hesitated  to  decide  was  submitted  to  the  learning  of  the  learned. 

Toward  the  end  of  1530  Henry  charged  the  whole  clergy  of 
England  with  a  breach  of  the  Statute  of  Pnemunire  by  their  sub- 
mission to  Wolsey's  legatine  authority.  A  more  monstrous  charge 
was  never  brought,  as  when  that  authority  was  exercised  not  a 
priest  in  England  dared  to  offend  the  king  by  resisting  it.  When 
the  Convocation  of  Canterbury  met  in  1531,  it  offered  to  buy  the 
pardon  of  the  clergy  by  a  grant  of  100,000/.,  to  which  was  after- 
ward added  18,000/,  by  the  Convocation  of  York.  Henry  refused 
to  issue  the  pardon  unless  the  clergy  would  acknowledge  him  to  be 
supreme  liead  of  the  Church  of  England. 

The  title  demanded  by  Henry  was  conceded  by  the  clergy,  with 
the  qualification  that  he  was  Supreme  Head  of  the  English  Church 
and  clergy  so  far  as  was  allowed  by  the  law  of  Christ.  The  title 
thus  given  was  vague,  and  did  not  bar  the  acknowledgment  of  the 
Papal  authority  as  it  had  been  before  exercised,  but  its  interpreta- 


BREACH  WITH  PAPACY        249 

1531-1532 

tion  would  depend  on  the  will  df  the  stronger  of  the  two  parties. 
As  far  as  the  Pope  was  concerned,  Henry's  claim  was  no  direct 
invasion  of  his  rights.  The  Pope  had  exercised  authority  and 
jurisdiction  in  England,  but  he  had  never  declared  himself  to  be 
Supreme  Head  of  the  Church  either  in  England  or  anywhere  else. 
Plenry  indeed  alleged  that  he  asked  for  nothing  new.  Never- 
theless it  was  a  threat  to  the  Pope.  Everything  done  by 
Henry  at  this  crisis  was  done  with  a  view  to  the  securing  of  his 
purposed  divorce.  In  the  Parliament  which  sat  in  1532  the  Com- 
mons were  again  let  loose  upon  the  clergy,  and  Henry,  taking  their 
side,  forced  Convocation  to  sign  a  document  known  as  tlie  sub- 
mission of  the  clergy.  In  this  the  clergy  engaged  in  the  first  place 
neither  to  meet  in  Convocation  nor  to  enact  or  execute  new  canons 
without  the  king's  authority,  and,  secondly,  to  submit  all  past 
ecclesiastical  legislation  to  examination  with  a  view  to  the  removal 
of  everything  prejudicial  to  the  royal  prerogative.  The  second 
article  was  never  carried  into  effect,  as  the  first  was  enough  for 
Henry.  He  was  now  secure  against  any  attempt  of  the  clergy 
in  Convocation  to  protest  against  any  step  that  he  might  take  about 
the  divorce,  and  he  was  none  the  less  pleased  because  he  had  inci- 
dentally settled  the  question  of  the  relations  between  the  clerical 
legislature  and  the  Crown. 

The  submission  of  the  clergy  cost  Henry  the  services  of  the 
best  and  wisest  of  his  statesmen.  Sir  Thomas  ]\Iore  had  been  ap- 
pointed Chancellor  on  Wolsey's  fall  in  1529.  When  More  wrote 
the  "Utopia,"  Luther  had  not  yet  broken  away  from  the  Papacy, and 
the  tolerant  principles  of  the  author  of  that  book  had  not  been  put 
to  the  test.  Even  in  the  "  Utopia  "  More  had  confined  liis  tolerance 
to  those  who  argued  in  opposition  to  the  received  religion  without 
anger  or  spite,  and  when  he  came  to  be  in  office  he  learnetl  by  prac- 
tical experience  that  opposition  is  seldom  carried  on  in  the  spirit  of 
meekness.  Protestantism,  as  the  Lutheran  tenets  l)cgan  to  l)e  called 
in  1529,  spread  into  England,  though  as  yet  it  gained  a  hold  on  only 
a  few  scattered  individuals.  Even  the  best  of  these  could  hardly 
be  expected  to  treat  with  philosophic  calm  the  doctrines  which  they 
had  forsaken;  while  some  of  their  converts  took  a  pleasure  in 
reviling  the  clergy  and  the  common  creed  of  the  vast  majority  of 
Englishmen.  For  this  bitterness  of  speech  and  mind  ^lovc  had  no 
toleranxe,  and  while  he  pursued  Ins  antagonists  with  argument  and 
ridicule,  he  also  used  his  authority  to  support  the  clergy  in  putting 


250  ENGLAND 

1532-1533 

down  what  they  termed  heresy  by  the  process  of  burning  the 
obstinate  heretic. 

More  had  no  ground  for  fearing  that  the  increase  of  the  king's 
authority  over  the  clergy  would  at  once  encourage  revolt  against 
the  Church.  Henry  was  a  representative  Englishman,  and  neither 
he  nor  the  House  of  Commons  had  the  least  sympathy  with  heresy. 
They  wanted  to  believe  and  act  as  their  fathers  hacT  done.  More, 
however,  was  sufficiently  prescient  to  foresee  that  a  lay  authority 
could  not  forever  maintain  this  attitude.  Though  Henry  had  not 
yet  directly  attacked  that  organization,  he  might  be  expected  to 
attack  it  soon,  and  in  1532  Alore  retired  from  all  connection  with 
Henry's  government  rather  than  take  part  in  that  attack. 

Having  secured  himself,  as  it  were,  in  the  rear  by  the  submis- 
sion of  the  clergy,  Henry  proceeded  to  deal  with  the  Pope.  He 
still  wished  if  possible  to  win  him  to  his  side,  and  before  the  end  of 
1532  he  obtained  from  Parliament  an  Act  of  Annates.  Annates 
were  the  first-fruits  or  first  years'  income  of  ecclesiastical  benefices, 
and  by  this  Act  the  first-fruits  of  bishoprics,  which  had  hitherto 
been  paid  to  the  Pope,  were  to  be  kept  back.  The  Act  was  not, 
however,  to  come  into  force  till  the  king  had  ratified  it,  and  Henry 
refused  for  a  time  to  ratify  it,  hoping  to  reduce  Clement  to  sub- 
mission by  suspending  over  his  head  a  threat  upon  his  purse. 

Henry,  howexer,  found  that  Clement  was  not  to  be  moved, 
and  his  patience  coming  at  last  to  an  end,  he  was  secretly  married 
to  Anne  Boleyn  on  January  25,  1533.  Now  that  he  had  reluctantly 
given  up  hope  of  obtaining  a  favorable  decision  from  the  Pope,  he 
resolved  to  put  an  end  to  the  Papal  jurisdiction  in  England.  Other- 
wise if  he  obtained  a  sentence  in  an  English  ecclesiastical  court 
declaring  his  marriage  witli  Catharine  to  be  null  from  the  beginning, 
his  injured  wife  might  appeal  to  the  superior  court  of  the  Pope. 
He  accordingly  obtained  from  Parliament  the  Act  of  Appeals, 
declaring  tliat  the  king  lield  the  supreme  authority  in  England,  and 
that  as  under  liim  all  temporal  matters  were  to  be  decided  by  tem- 
poral judges,  and  all  spiritual  matters  by  spiritual  judges,  no  appeals 
should  hereafter  be  suffered  to  any  authority  outside  the  realm. 
Henry  was  capable  of  any  meanness  to  ser\-e  his  ends,  but  he  also 
knew  how  to  gain  mure  than  his  immediate  ends  by  connecting 
them  with  a  large  national  policy.  He  almost  made  men  forget 
the  low  design  which  prompted  the  Act  of  Appeals  by  fixing  their 
eyes  on  the  great  object  of  national  independence. 


BREACH  WITH  PAPACY        251 

1532-1533 

Henry  found  a  convenient  instrument  for  his  personal  as  well 
as  for  his  national  policy  in  Thomas  Cranmer,  whom  he  appointed 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  the  spring  of  1533.  Cranmer  was  in- 
tellectually acute,  but  he  was  weak  morally.  He  had  already  thrown 
himself  as  an  active  agent  into  the  cause  of  Henry's  divorce,  and 
he  was  now  prepared  as  archbishop  to  give  effect  to  his  arguments. 
In  March  Convocation  was  half  persuaded,  half  driven  to  declare 
Catharine's  marriage  to  be  void,  and  in  May  Cranmer,  sitting  at 
Dunstable  in  his  archiepiscopal  court,  pronounced  sentence  against 
her.  In  accordance  with  the  Act  of  Appeals  the  sentence  was  final, 
but  both  Henry  and  Cranmer  feared  lest  Catharine  should  send  her 
counsel  to  make  an  appeal  to  Rome,  and  they  were  therefore  mean 
enough  to  conceal  from  her  the  day  on  which  sentence  was  to  be 
given.  The  temporal  benefits  which  the  Pope  derived  from  England 
were  now  to  come  to  an  end  as  well  as  his  spiritual  jurisdiction,  and 
in  July  the  king  ratified  the  Act  of  Annates. 

When  a  man  of  special  intellectual  acquirements  like  Cranmer 
could  descend  to  the  trick  which  he  had  played  at  Dunstable,  it  was 
time  that  someone  should  be  found  who,  in  the  steadfastness  of  his 
faith,  would  refuse  to  truckle  to  the  king,  and  would  maintain  the 
rights  of  individual  conscience  as  well  as  those  of  national  inde- 
pendence. The  teaching  of  Zwingii,  a  Swiss  reformer,  who  held 
that  the  bread  and  wine  in  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
was  a  mere  sign  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  the  Redeemer,  was 
beginning  to  influence  the  English  Protestants,  and  its  reception  was 
one  more  reason  for  the  mass  of  Englishmen  to  send  to  prison  or 
the  stake  those  who  maintained  what  was,  in  their  eyes,  so  mon- 
strous a  heresy.  Among  the  noblest  of  the  persecuted  was  John 
Frith,  who,  while  he  stoutly  held  to  the  belief  that  the  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation  was  untrue,  begged  that  men  should  be  left  "  to 
think  thereon  as  God  shall  instill  in  any  man's  mind,  and  that  neither 
part  condemn  the  other  for  this  matter,  but  receive  each  other  in 
brotherly  love,  reserving  each  other's  infirmity  to  God."  Frith 
was  in  advance  of  his  time  as  the  advocate  of  religious  liberty  as  well 
as  of  a  special  creed,  and  he  was  burned  alive.  Henry  meant  it 
to  be  understood  that  his  supreme  headsliip  made  it  easier,  and  not 
harder,  to  suppress  heresy.  He  might  have  succeeded  if  he  had 
had  merely  to  deal  with  a  few  heroes  h'ke  Frith.  That  which  was 
beyond  his  control  was  the  sapping  process  of  the  spirit  of  the 
Renaissance,  leading  his  bishops,  and  even  himself,  to  examine  and 


252  ENGLAND 

1533-1534 

explain  received  doctrines,  and  thus  to  transform  them  without 
knowing  what  they  were  doing.  Hugh  Latimer,  for  instance,  a 
favorite  chaplain  of  the  king,  was,  indeed,  a  preacher  of  righteous- 
ness, testing  all  things  rather  by  their  moral  worth  than  by  their 
conformity  to  an  intellectual  standard.  The  received  doctrines 
about  Purgatory,  the  worship  of  the  saints,  and  pilgrimages  to  their 
images  seemed  to  him  to  be  immoral ;  but  as  yet  he  wished  to  purify 
opinion,  not  to  change  it  altogether,  and  in  this  he  had  the  support 
of  the  king,  who,  in  1535,  made  him  Bishop  of  Worcester. 

Before  1533  was  over  Henry  appealed  from  the  Pope  to  a 
General  Council.  Clement  not  only  paid  no  heed  to  his  appeal,  but 
gave  sentence  in  favor  of  Catharine.  When  Parliament  met  in 
1534,  therefore,  Henry  was  obliged  to  strengthen  his  position  of 
hostility  to  the  Pope.  He  procured  from  it  three  Acts.  The  first 
of  these  was  a  second  Act  of  Annates,  which  conferred  on  him  abso- 
lutely not  only  the  first-fruits  of  bishoprics  which  had  been  the  sub- 
ject of  the  conditional  Act  of  Annates  in  1532,  but  also  the  first- 
fruits  of  all  the  beneficed  clergy^,  as  well  as  a  tenth  of  each  year's 
income  of  both  bishops  and  beneficed  clergy,  all  of  which 
payments  had  hitherto  been  made  to  the  Pope.  Incidentally  this 
Act  also  regulated  the  appointment  of  bishops,  by  ordering  that  the 
king  should  issue  a  conge  d'clirc  to  the  chapter  of  the  vacant  see, 
together  with  a  letter  missive  compelling  the  choice  of  his  nominee. 
The  second  was  an  Act  concerning  Peter's  pence,  abolishing  all 
minor  payments  to  the  Pope,  and  cutting  away  all  interference  of 
the  Pope  by  transferring  his  right  to  issue  licenses  and  dispensa- 
tions to  the  Archbisliop  of  Canterbury.  The  third  confirmed  the 
submission  of  the  clergy  and  enacted  that  appeals  from  the  courts 
of  the  archbishops  should  be  heard  by  com.missioners  appointed  by 
the  king,  and  known  as  the  delegates  of  Appeals.  It  was  by  these 
Acts  that  the  separation  between  tlie  Churches  of  England  and 
Rome  was  finally  effected.  They  merely  completed  the  work  whicli 
had  been  done  by  the  great  Act  of  Appeals  in  1533.  The  Church 
of  England  had  indeed  always  been  a  national  Ciiurch  with  its  own 
ecclesiastical  assemblies,  and  with  ties  to  the  Crown  which  were 
stretched  more  tightly  or  more  loosely  at  various  times.  It  had, 
however,  maintained  its  connection  with  tlie  continental  cluirches  by 
its  subordinati(jn  to  the  J'ope,  and  this  subordination  had  been 
made  real  by  the  sul)jection  of  its  courts  to  appeals  to  Rome,  and 
by  the  necessity  of  recurring  to  Rome  for  permission  to  do  certain 


BREACH  WITH  PAPACY        253 

1533-1534 

things  prohibited  by  EngHsh  ecclesiastical  law.  All  this  was  now 
at  an  end.  The  old  supremacy  of  the  king  was  sharpened  and  de- 
fined. The  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope  was  abolished.  Nominally  the 
English  ecclesiastical  authorities  became  more  independent;  more 
capable  of  doing  what  seemed  to  them  to  be  best  for  the  Church  of 
the  nation.  Such  at  least  was  the  state  of  the  law.  In  practice  the 
English  ecclesiastical  authorities  were  entirely  at  Henry's  bidding. 
In  theory  and  in  sentiment  the  Church  of  England  was  still  a  branch 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  one  in  doctrine  and  discipline  with  the 
Continental  Churches.  Practically  it  was  now,  in  a  far  more 
unqualified  sense  than  before,  a  national  Church,  ready  to  drift  from 
its  moorings  and  to  accept  new  counsels  whenever  the  tide  of 
opinion  should  break  strongly  upon  it. 


Chapter  XXVI 

THE   ROYAL    SUPREMACY.     1534—1547 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  A.D.  1509-1547 — The  Acts  of  Succession 
AND  Supremacy,  1534 — Execution  of  Fisher  and  More,  1535 — Dis- 
solution OF  THE  Smaller  Monasteries  and  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace, 
1536 — Destruction  of  Relics  and  Images,  1538 — The  Six  Articles 
AND  THE  Act  Granting  to  the  King  the  Greater  Monasteries, 
1539 — Fall  of  Cromwell,  1540 — Henry  VIII.  King  of  Ireland, 
1 541 — SoLWAY  Moss,  1542 — Death  of  Henry  VIII.,  1547 

IN  September.  1533.  Anne  had  g-iven  birth  to  a  daughter,  who 
was  afterwards  Queen  Eh'zabeth.  In  1534  Parliament  passed 
an  Act  of  Succession.  Not  only  did  it  declare  Anne's  mar- 
riage to  be  lawful  and  Catharine's  to  be  unlawful,  and  consequently 
Elizabeth  and  not  rvlary  to  be  heir  to  the  crown,  but  it  required  all 
subjects  to  take  an  oath  acknowledging  their  approval  of  the  con- 
tents of  the  Act.  ]\Iore  and  Fisher  professed  themselves  ready 
U>  swear  to  any  succession  wliich  might  be  authorized  by  act  of 
Parliament ;  but  they  would  not  swear  to  the  illegitimacy  of  Cath- 
arine's marriage.  It  was  on  this  point  that  Henrv  was  most  sensi- 
tive, as  he  knew  public  opinion  to  be  against  him.  and  he  threw  both 
More  and  Fisher  into  the  Tower.  In  the  year  before  the  language 
held  in  the  pulpit  on  the  subject  of  Henry's  marriage  with  Anne  in 
liis  wife's  lifetime  had  been  so  strong  that  Cranmer  had  forbidden 
all  preaching  on  the  subject  of  the  king's  laws  or  the  succession  to 
the  throne.  Of  the  clergy,  the  friars  were  still  the  most  resolute. 
FTenry  now  sent  commissioners  to  \-isit  tlie  friaries,  and  those  in 
wliich  the  oatli  was  refused  were  summarily  suppressed. 

Tn  1534  Parliament  also  passed  a  new  Act  of  Treasons  which 
made  it  higli  treason  to  wish  or  ])ractice  harm  to  tlie  king,  the  queen, 
and  their  lieirs,  to  use  words  denying  their  titles,  or  to  call  the  king 
a  "heretic,  schismatic,  tyrant,  infidel,  or  usurper  of  the  crown." 
Later  in  tlie  same  }car,  but  in  a  fresh  session,  Parliament  passed 
the  Act  of  Supremacy,  which  confirmed  the  title  of  Supreme  Head 
of  the  Church  of  England,  a  title  very  similar  to  that  to  which  the 

254 


ROYAL     S  U  P  R  E  AJ  A  C  Y  255 

1535-1536 

king  had  obtained  the  qtiah'fied  consent  of  the  clergy  in  1531.  From 
that  time  anyone  who  denied  the  king  to  be  the  Supreme  Head  of 
the  Church  of  England  was  liable  to  a  traitor's  death. 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  Henry's  chief  adviser  in  these 
tyrannical  measures  was  the  able  and  unscrupulous  Cromwell.  It 
was  Cromwell's  plan  to  exalt  the  royal  authority  into  a  despotism 
by  means  of  a  subservient  Parliament.  He  was  already  Henry's 
secretary;  and  in  1535  was  appointed  the  king's  Vicar-General  in 
ecclesiastical  matters.  His  first  object  was  to  get  rid  of  the  Friars 
Observant,  who  had  shown  themselves  more  hostile  to  what  they 
called  in  plainness  of  speech  the  king's  adultery.  All  their  houses 
were  suppressed,  and  some  of  the  inmates  put  to  death.  Then 
Cromwell  fell  on  the  London  Charterhouse,^  the  inmates  of  which 
had  been  imprisoned  in  the  year  before  simply  for  a  refusal  to  take 
the  oath  of  the  Act  of  Succession,  though  they  had  not  uttered  a 
word  against  the  king's  proceedings.  They  could  now  be  put  to 
death  under  the  new  Treason  Act.  for  denying  the  king's  supremacy, 
and  many  of  them  were  accordingly  executed  after  the  usual  bar- 
barous fashion,  while  others  perished  of  starv-ation  or  of  diseases 
contracted  in  the  filthy  prisons  in  which  they  were  confined. 

Fisher  and  More  were  the  next  to  suffer  on  the  same  charge, 
though  their  sentences  were  commuted  to  death  by  beheading. 
More  preserved  his  wit  to  the  last.  "  I  pray  you,"  he  said  as  he 
mounted  the  scaffold,  "  see  me  safe  up,  and  for  my  coming  down  I 
will  shift  for  myself." 

IVIoney  never  came  amiss  to  Henry,  and  Cromwell  now  rooted 
himself  firmly  in  his  master's  favor  by  pointing  out  to  him  fresh 
booty.  The  English  monasteries  were  rich  and  weak,  and  it  was 
easy  to  trump  up  or  exaggerate  charges  against  them.  Cromwell 
sent  commissioners  to  inquire  into  their  moral  state  ( 1535),  and  the 
commissioners,  who  were  as  unscrupulous  as  himself,  rushed  around 
the  monasteries  in  such  a  hurry  that  they  had  no  time  to  make  any 
real  inquiry,  but  nevertheless  returned  with  a  number  of  scandalous 
tales.  These  tales  referred  to  some  of  the  larger  monasteries  as 
well  as  the  smaller,  but,  when  Parliament  met  in  1536,  Henry  con- 
tented himself  with  asking  that  monasteries  having  property  worth 
less  than  200/.  a  year  should  be  dissolved,  and  their  estates  given  to 
himself,  on  the  ground  tliat  while  tlie  smaller  ones  were  dens  of 
vice  the  larger  ones  were  examples  of  virtue.  Parliament  granted 
^  The  Charterhouse  here  means  the  house  of  tlie  Carthusians. 


256  ENGLAND 

1535-1536 

his  request,  and  the  work  of  spoHation  began.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  vice  did  exist  in  the  monasteries,  though  there  was  not 
so  much  of  it  as  the  commissioners  asserted.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  monks  were  easy  landlords,  were  hospitable  to  the  stranger 
and  kindly  to  the  poor,  while  neither  the  king  himself  nor  those  to 
whom  he  gave  or  sold  the  lands  which  he  acquired  cared  for 
more  than  to  make  money.  The  real  weakness  of  the  monks  lay 
in  their  failure  to  conciliate  the  more  active  minds  of  the  age,  or 
to  meet  its  moral  needs.  The  attack  upon  the  vast  edifice  of  Henry's 
despotism  in  Church  and  State  could  only  be  carried  on  success- 
fully by  the  combined  effort  of  men  like  the  scholars  of  the  Renais- 
sance, whose  thoughts  were  unfettered,  and  of  those  who,  like  the 
Protestants,  were  full  of  aggressive  vigor,  and  who  substituted  for 
the  duty  of  obedience  the  duty  of  following  their  own  convictions. 

Before  the  end  of  1536  there  was  a  new  queen.  Henry  became 
tired  of  Anne,  as  he  had  tired  of  Catharine,  and  on  a  series  of 
monstrous  charges  he  had  her  tried  and  executed.  Her  unpardon- 
able crime  was  probably  that  her  only  living  child  was  a  daughter 
and  not  a  son.  Ten  days  after  Anne's  death  Henry  married  a 
third  wife,  Jane  Seymour.  As  Catharine  was  now  dead,  there 
could  be  no  doubt  of  the  legitimacy  of  Jane's  offspring,  but  to  make 
assurance  doubly  sure,  a  new  Parliament  passed  an  Act  settling  the 
succession  on  Jane's  children,  and  declaring  both  Aviary  and  Eliza- 
beth illegitimate. 

It  is  probable  that  when  Henry  took  the  title  of  Supreme  Head 
he  intended  to  maintain  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  Church 
exactly  as  he  found  them.  In  1536  the  clergy  were  crying  out 
not  merely  against  attacks  on  their  faith,  but  against  the  ribaldry 
with  which  these  attacks  v.-ere  often  conducted.  One  assailant,  for 
instance,  declared  the  oil  used  in  extreme  unction  to  be  no  more  than 
the  Bishop  of  Rome's  grease  or  butter,  and  another  that  it  was  of 
no  more  use  to  invoke  a  saint  than  it  was  to  wliirl  a  stone  against 
the  wind.  }vlany  of  the  clerg}-  would  have  been  well  pleased  with 
mere  repression.  Henry,  however,  and  tlie  bishops  whom  he  most 
trusted,  wished  repression  to  be  accompanied  witli  reasonable  ex- 
planations of  tlie  doctrines  and  practices  enforced.  The  result  was 
seen  in  the  Ten  Articles  which  were  drawn  up  ])y  Convocation,  and 
sent  abroad  with  the  authority  of  the  king.  Tliere  was  to  be  uni- 
formity, to  Ije  obtained  by  the  circulation  of  a  written  document,  in 
which   the   old   d^jctrines   were   stripped   of   niuch   that   had   given 


ROYAL    SUPREMACY  257 

1535-1536 

offense,  and  their  acceptance  made  easy  for  educated  men.  Of  the 
seven  sacraments,  three  only.  Baptism,  Penance,  and  the  Sacrament 
of  the  Altar,  were  explained,  while  the  other  four — those  of  Mar- 
riage, Orders,  Confirmation,  and  Extreme  Unction — were  passed 
over  in  silence.  On  the  whole  the  Ten  Articles  in  some  points 
showed  a  distinct  advance  in  the  direction  of  Lutheranism,  though 
there  was  also  to  be  discerned  in  them  an  equally  distinct  effort  to 
explain  rather  than  to  reject  the  creed  of  the  mediaeval  Church. 

The  same  tendency  to  appeal  to  educated  intelligence  showed 
itself  in  the  sanction  given  by  the  king  and  Cromwell  in  1536  to  a 
translation  of  the  Bible  which  had  been  completed  in  1535  by  Miles 
Coverdale,  whose  version  of  the  New  Testament  was  founded  on 
an  earlier  one  by  Tyndale.  The  Bible,  once  placed  in  the  hands  of 
everyone  who  could  read,  was  likely  to  promote  diversity.  It  would 
help  on  the  growth  of  those  individual  opinions  which  were 
springing  up  side  by  side  with  the  steady  forward  progress 
of  the  clergy  of  the  Renaissance.  The  men  who  attempted  to 
make  the  old  creed  intellectually  acceptable  and  the  men  who  pro- 
claimed a  new  one,  under  the  belief  that  they  were  recurring  to 
one  still  older,  were  together  laying  the  foundations  of  English 
Protestantism. 

Slight  as  these  changes  were,  they  were  sufficient  to  rouse 
suspicion  that  further  change  was  impending.  The  masses  who 
could  neither  read  nor  write  were  stirred  by  the  greed  and  violence 
with  which  the  dissolution  of  the  smaller  monasteries  was  carried 
on,  and  by  the  cessation  of  the  kindly  relief  which  these  monasteries 
had  afforded  to  the  wants  of  the  poor.  A  rumor  spread  that  when 
Cromwell  had  despoiled  the  monasteries  he  would  proceed  to  de- 
spoil the  parish  churches.  In  the  autumn  of  1536  there  was  a 
rising  in  Lincolnshire,  which  was  easily  suppressed,  but  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  more  formidable  rising  in  Yorkshire.  The  insurgents 
called  it  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  and  bore  a  banner  embroidered 
with  the  five  wounds  of  Christ.  They  asked  among  other  things 
for  the  restoration  of  the  monasteries,  the  punishment  of  Cromwell 
and  his  chief  supporters,  the  deprivation  of  tlie  reforming  bishops, 
the  extirpation  of  heresy,  and  the  resloratiDn  of  the  Papal  authority 
in  a  modified  form.  Their  force  grew  so  large  that  tlie  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  who  was  sent  to  disperse  it,  did  not  venture  to  make  the 
attempt,  and  the  king  found  himself  obHged  to  issue  a  general 
pardon   and  to  promise   that  a   Parliament  should   meet    in    the 


258  ENGLAND 

1537-1538 

North  for  the  redress  of  grievances.  On  this  the  insurgents 
returned  home.  Early  in  1537  Henry,  who  had  no  intention  of 
keeping  his  word,  took  advantage  of  some  new  troubles  in  the 
North  to  declare  that  his  engagement  was  no  longer  binding,  and 
seized  and  executed,  not  merely  the  leaders,  but  many  of  the  lesser 
supporters  of  the  insurrection.  Of  the  Parliament  in  the  North 
nothing  more  was  heard,  but  a  Council  of  the  North  was  established 
to  keep  the  people  of  those  parts  in  order,  and  to  execute  justice 
in  the  king's  name. 

In  1537  Jane  Seymour  gave  birth  to  a  boy,  who  was  after- 
wards Edward  VI.  Henry  had  at  last  a  male  heir  of  undoubted 
legitimacy,  but  in  a  few  days  his  wife  died. 

The  failure  of  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace  brought  in  fresh  booty 
to  Henry.  Abbots  and  priors  who  had  taken  part  in  it,  or  were 
accused  of  doing  so,  were  hanged,  and  their  monasteries  confis- 
cated. Where  nothing  could  be  proved  against  the  greater 
monasteries,  which  had  been  declared  by  Parliament  to  be  free 
from  vice,  their  heads  were  terrified  into  an  appearance  of  volun- 
tary submission.  Cromwell  had  his  spies  and  informers  every- 
where, and  it  was  as  easy  for  them  to  lie  as  to  speak  the  truth.  In 
1537  and  1538  many  abbots  bowed  before  the  storm,  and,  con- 
fessing that  they  and  their  monks  had  been  guilty  of  the  most  de- 
grading sins,  asked  to  be  allowed  to  surrender  their  monasteries  to 
the  king.  Cromwell's  commissioners  then  took  possession,  sold 
the  bells,  the  lead  on  the  roof,  and  every  article  which  had  its 
price,  and  left  the  walls  to  serve  as  a  quarry  for  the  neighborhood. 
The  lands  went  to  the  king.  It  not  un frequently  happened  that 
Henry  promoted  to  ecclesiastical  benefices  those  monks  who  had 
been  most  ready  to  confess  themselves  sinners  beyond  other  men. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  confessions  were  prepared  beforehand 
to  deceive  contemporaries,  and  there  is  therefore  no  reason  why 
they  should  deceive  posterity. 

The  attack  on  the  monasteries  was  accompanied  by  an  attack 
on  relics  and  such  images  as  attracted  more  than  ordinary  reverence. 
The  explanation  of  the  zeal  with  which  tliey  were  hunted  down  is 
in  many  cases  to  be  found  in  the  gold  and  jewels  with  which  they 
were  adorned.  Some  of  them  were  credited  with  miraculous 
powers.  In  Wales  Friar  Forest,  who  maintained  that  in  spiritual 
things  obedience  was  due  to  the  Pope  and  not  to  the  king,  was, 
instead  of  being  hanged  under  the  Treason  Act,  burned  as  a  heretic. 


ROYAL    SUPREMACY  259 

1538-1539 

It  was  the  first  and  only  time  when  the  denial  of  the  royal 
supremacy  was  held  to  be  heresy.  The  shrines  in  England  were 
usually  covered  with  gold  and  jewels.  The  images  in  parish 
churches  were  smashed  and  the  bones  of  the  saints  under  them 
burned.  The  images  in  parish  churches  not  being  attractive  to  the 
covetous,  and  being  valued  by  the  people  for  ordinary  purposes  of 
devotion,  were  still  left  untouched. 

Henry's  violence  against  monasticism  and  superstition  made 
him  extremely  anxious  to  show  his  orthodoxy.  The  opinion  held 
by  Zwingli,  the  reformer  of  Zurich,  that  the  Body  and  Blood  of 
Christ  were  in  no  way  present  in  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per was  now  spreading  in  England,  and  those  who  held  it  were 
known  as  Sacramentaries.  One  of  these,  John  Lambert,  was  tried 
before  Henry  himself.  Henry  told  Lambert  scornfully  that  the 
words  of  Christ,  "  This  is  My  Body,"  settled  the  whole  question,  and 
Lambert  was  condemned  and  burned.  Others  who  had  been  mut- 
tering dissatisfaction  were  executed,  including  the  king's  own 
cousin.  Those  who  denied  the  king's  supremacy  were  sent  to  the 
gallows,  those  who  denied  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  to  the 
stake. 

Cruel  and  unscrupulous  as  Henry  was,  he  was  in  many  respects 
a  representative  Englishman,  sympathizing  with  the  popular  dis- 
gust at  the  spread  of  ideas  hitherto  unheard  of.  In  a  new 
Parliament  which  met  in  1539  he  obtained  the  willing  consent  of 
both  Houses  to  the  statute  of  the  Six  Articles.  This  statute  de- 
clared in  favor  of :  ( i )  the  real  presence  of  "  the  natural  Body  and 
Blood  of  Christ"  in  the  Lord's  Supper;  (2)  the  sufficiency  of  com- 
munion in  one  kind;  (3)  clerical  celibacy;  (4)  the  perpetual  obliga- 
tion of  vows  of  chastity;  (5)  private  masses;  and  (6)  auricular 
confession.  Whoever  spoke  against  the  first  was  to  be  burned; 
whoever  spoke  against  the  other  five  was  to  suffer  imprisonment 
and  loss  of  goods  for  the  first  offense,  and  to  be  hanged  for  the 
second.  By  those  who  suffered  from  the  Act  it  was  known  as 
"  The  Whip  with  Six  Strings."  Cranmer.  who  was  a  married 
archbishop,  was  forced  to  dismiss  his  wife.  Bishops  Latimer  and 
Shaxton,  whose  opinions  had  gradually  advanced  beyond  the  line 
at  which  Henry's  orthodoxy  ended,  were  driven  from  their  sees; 
but  the  number  of  those  put  to  death  under  the  new  Act  was  not 
great. 

So  completely  was  the  Statute  of  the  Six  Articles  in  accordance 


260  ENGLAND 

1539-1540 

with  public  opinion  that  Henry  had  no  difficulty  in  obtaining 
the  consent  of  Parliament  to  an  act  giving  to  his  proclamations  the 
force  of  law,  and  to  another  act  securing  to  him  the  whole  of  the 
monasteries  whether  they  had  been  already  suppressed  or  not.  Be- 
fore the  end  of  1540  not  a  single  monastery  was  left.  The  disap- 
pearance of  the  abbots  from  the  House  of  Lords  made  the  lay  peers, 
for  the  first  time,  more  numerous  than  the  ecclesiastical  members  of 
the  House.  The  lay  peers,  on  the  other  hand,  were  reinforced  by 
new  creations  from  among  Henry's  favorites,  whom  he  had 
enriched  by  grants  of  abbey  lands.  The  new  peers  and  the  more 
numerous  country  gentlemen  who  had  shared  in  the  spoil  were  inter- 
ested in  maintaining  the  independence  of  the  English  Church,  lest 
the  Pope,  if  his  jurisdiction  were  restored,  should  insist  on  their  dis- 
gorging their  prey.  Of  that  which  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  king, 
a  small  portion  was  spent  on  the  foundation  of  five  new  bishoprics, 
while  part  of  the  rest  was  employed  on  shipbuilding  and  the  erection 
of  fortifications  on  the  coast,  part  in  meeting  the  general  expendi- 
ture of  the  Crown. 

In  all  that  had  been  done  Cromwell  had  been  the  leading  spirit. 
It  had  been  his  plan  to  erect  an  absolute  despotism,  and  thereby  to 
secure  his  own  high  position  and  to  enrich  himself  as  well  as  his 
master.  Lie  was  naturally  hated  by  the  old  nobility  and  by  all  who 
suffered  from  his  extortions  and  cruelty.  In  the  summer  of  1539  he 
was  eager  for  an  alliance  with  the  German  Protestants  against  the 
Emperor  Charles  V.,  and  suggested  to  Henry  a  fourth  marriage 
with  a  German  princess,  Anne  of  Cleves.  Holbein,  a  great  German 
painter  settled  in  England,  was  sent  to  take  a  portrait  of  the  lady, 
and  Henry  was  so  pleased  with  it  that  he  sent  for  her  to  make  her 
Iiis  wife.  When  she  arrived  he  found  her  anything  but  good-look- 
ing. In  1540  he  went  through  the  marriage  ceremony  with  her, 
but  he  divorced  her  shortly  afterwards.  Fortunately  for  herself, 
Anne  made  no  objection,  and  was  allowed  to  li\e  in  England  on  a 
good  allowance  till  her  death.  For  a  time  Cromwell  seemed  to  be 
as  high  as  ever  in  Henry's  good  opinion,  and  was  created  Earl  of 
Essex.  Henry.  ]iowe\'er,  was  inwardly  annoN'cd,  and  he  had  always 
the  habit  of  dropping  ministers  as  soon  as  their  unpopularity 
brought  discredit  on  himself.  Cromwell  was  charged  with  treason 
by  the  Duke  of  Norfolk.  A  bill  of  attainder  was  rapidly  passed, 
and  Cromwell  was  sent  to  the  scaffold  without  being  even  heard  in 
his  own  defense. 


ROYAL    SUPREMACY  261 

1540-1544 

In  1540  Henry  married  a  fifth  wife,  Catherine  Howard.  Before 
the  end  of  1540  Henry  discovered  that  his  young  wife  had,  before 
her  marriage,  been  gniUy  of  incontinency,  and  in  1542  she  was  be- 
headed. In  1543  Henry  married  a  sixth  wife,  Catherine  Parr,  who 
actually  survived  him. 

Henry's  masterful  rule  had  made  him  many  enemies  abroad 
as  well  as  at  home,  and  he  was  therefore  constantly  exposed  to  the 
risk  of  an  attack  from  the  Continent.  In  the  face  of  such  danger 
he  could  no  longer  allow  Ireland  to  remain  as  disorganized  as  it  had 
been  in  his  father's  reign  and  in  the  early  years  of  his  own,  lest  Ire- 
land should  become  the  stepping-stone  to  an  invasion  of  England. 
The  Geraldine  rebellion  broke  out  in  1534,  but  was  severely  re- 
pressed, and  Lord  Leonard  Grey,  the  deputy,  secured  from  the 
Parliament  acknowledgment  of  the  royal  supremacy  acts  for 
Anglicizing  the  population.  In  1541  Henry  received  the  title  of 
King  of  Ireland,  won  over  the  chiefs  and  gave  them  a  share  of  the 
plunder  of  the  Irish  monasteries.  For  a  time  he  gained  what  he 
wanted,  but  the  revenue  of  the  island  was  not  enough  to  enforce 
peace,  and  the  measures  he  proposed  led  after  a  while  to  revolts. 

Henry  was  probably  the  more  distrustful  of  a  possibly  in- 
dependent Ireland  because  an  actually  independent  Scotland  gave 
him  so  much  trouble.  James  V.,  the  son  of  Henry's  sister,  Mar- 
garet, strove  to  depress  the  nobles,  whose  power  was  still  great,  by 
allying  himself  with  the  Church  and  the  Commons.  Scotland  was 
always  ready  to  come  to  blows  with  England,  and  the  clergy  urged 
James  to  break  with  a  king  of  England  who  had  broken  with  the 
Pope. 

From  1532  to  1534  there  had  been  actual  war  between  the 
kingdoms.  In  1542  war  broke  out  again,  and  the  Duke  of  Norfolk 
crossed  the  Tweed  and  wasted  the  border  counties  of  Scotland. 
Then  James  launched  an  army  across  the  Border  into  Cumberland, 
but  the  whole  multitude  fled  in  a  panic  and  was  slain  or  captured  in 
Sol  way  ]\Ioss.  James's  health  broke  down  under  the  evil  tidings, 
and  in  a  few  days  he  died. 

Henry,  anxious  to  disarm  Scottish  hostility,  proposed  a  mar- 
riage between  his  son  Edward  and  the  young  queen.  The  proposal 
was  rejected,  and  an  alliance  formed  between  Scotland  and  h'rance. 
In  1544  Henry,  having  formed  an  alliance  with  Charles  V.,  who 
was  now  at  war  with  France,  invaded  France  and  took  Boulogne 
after  a  long  siege — thus -enlarging  tlie  English  possessions  in  the 


262  ENGLAND 

1544-1547 

neighborhood  of  Calais — while  Charles  concluded  a  peace  with 
Francis  at  Crepy  and  left  his  ally  in  the  lurch.  In  the  same  year 
Henry  sent  Lord  Hertford,  Jane  Seymour's  brother,  to  invade  Scot- 
land. Hertford  burned  every  house  and  cottage  between  Berwick 
and  Edinburgh,  took  Edinburgh  itself,  and  burned  the  town.  In 
1546  peace  was  made  between  England  and  France,  in  which  Scot- 
land was  included.  The  war  had  been  expensive,  and  in  1544 
Parliament  had  come  to  Henry's  help  by  enacting  that  he  need  not 
repay  a  loan  which  he  had  gathered ;  yet  even  then  Henry  had  had 
recourse  to  the  desperate  remedy  of  debasing  the  coinage. 

In  1544,  when  Henry  was  besieging  Boulogne,  Cranmer  or- 
dered prayers  to  be  offered  for  his  success.  In  the  true  spirit  of 
the  Renaissance  he  wished  these  prayers  to  be  intelligible,  and 
directed  that  they  should  be  in  English.  In  the  same  year  he  com- 
posed the  English  Litany,  intended  to  be  recited  by  priests  and 
people  going  in  procession.  This  Litany  was  the  foundation-stone 
of  the  future  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  It  was  issued  in  1544, 
together  with  a  Primer,  or  book  of  private  prayer,  also  in  English. 
In  the  public  services  the  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Ten 
Commandments  were  to  be  in  English,  the  remainder  being  left  in 
Latin,  as  before. 

When  once  inquiring  intelligence  is  let  loose  on  an  antiquated 
system,  it  is  hard  to  say  where  the  desire  of  making  alterations  will 
stop,  and  there  are  reasons  to  believe  that  Henry  was  contempla- 
ting further  changes.  There  were  two  parties  at  court,  the  one 
anxious  to  resist  further  change,  headed,  among  the  temporal  lords, 
by  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  and  his  son,  the  Earl  of  Surrey,  and  among 
the  bishops  by  Gardiner ;  the  other,  desiring  doctrinal  innovations, 
especially  if  money  was  to  be  got  by  them,  headed  by  the  Earl  of 
Hertford. 

In  the  end  of  1546  Henry  was  taken  ill,  and,  feeling  himself 
to  be  dying,  ordered  the  arrest  of  Norfolk  and  Surrey  on  charges 
of  treason.  It  is  probable  that  Henry  turned  against  Norfolk  and 
Surrey  because  he  thought  Hertford,  as  the  uncle  of  the  young 
Prince  of  Wales,  more  likely  to  be  faithful  to  the  future  king.  On 
January  27,  1547,  Surrey  was  executed.  His  father  was  to  have 
suffered  on  the  28th.  Before  he  reached  the  scaffold  Henry  died, 
and  he  was  conducted  back  to  prison.  Henry,  before  his  death,  had 
done  something  to  provide  against  the  danger  of  a  disputed  suc- 
cession.    An  Act  of  Parliament,  passed  in  1544;  had  given  back  to 


ROYAL    SUPREMACY  263 

1544-1547 

Mary  and  Elizabeth  the  places  in  the  line  of  inheritance  to  which 
they  would  have  been  entitled  if  no  doubt  had  ever  been  cast  on  the 
legitimacy  of  their  birth,  and  had  authorized  Henry  to  provide  by 
will  for  the  future  occupancy  of  the  throne  in  case  of  the  failure  of 
his  own  descendants.  In  accordance  with  this  Act  he  left  the  crown, 
in  case  of  such  failure,  to  the  descendants  of  his  younger  sister 
Mary,  leaving  out  those  of  his  elder  sister  Margaret,  with  whose 
son,  James  V.,  he  had  had  so  much  reason  to  be  displeased. 


Chapter    XXVII 

EDWARD    VI     AND    IVIARY 
EDWARD    VI.,    1547—1553.     MARY,    1553— 1558 

LEADING    DATES 

Somerset's  Protectorate,  A.D.  1547 — First  Prayer  Book  of  Edward 
VI.,  1549 — Fall  of  So.niErset,  1549 — Second  Prayer  Book  of  Edward 
VI.,  1552 — Death  of  Edwapxi  VI.  and  Accession  of  Mary,  1553 — 
Mary's  Marriage  with  Philip,  1554 — Submission  to  Rome  and  Re- 
enactment  of  the  Heresy  Laws,  1554 — Beginning  of  the  Persecu- 
tion, 1555 — War  with  France,  1557 — Loss  of  Calais  and  De.ath  of 
Mary,  1558 

THE  new  king,  Edward  VI.,  was  but  a  boy,  and  Henry  had 
directed  that  England  should  be  governed  during  his  son's 
minority  by  a  body  composed  of  the  executors  of  his  will 
and  other  councilors,  in  which  neither  the  partisans  of  change  nor 
the  partisans  of  the  existing  order  should  be  strong  enough  to  have 
their  own  way.  The  leading  innovators,  pretending  to  be  anxious 
to  carry  out  his  wishes,  asserted  that  he  had  been  heard  to  express 
a  desire  that  they  should  be  made  peers  or  advanced  in  the  peerage, 
and  should  receive  large  estates  out  of  the  abbey  lands.  After  gain- 
ing their  object,  they  set  aside  Henry's  real  plan  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  realm,  and  declared  Hertford  (who  now  became  Duke 
of  Somerset)  to  be  Protector. 

Somerset  was  as  greedy  of  Church  property  as  the  greediest, 
but  he  was  covetous  also  of  popularity,  and  had  none  of  that  mod- 
erating iniluence  v.'hich  Henry,  with  ail  b.is  faults,  possessed.  He 
had  always  too  many  irons  in  the  fire,  and  had  no  sense  of  the  line 
which  divides  the  possible  from  the  inip jssiljle.  His  first  thought 
was  to  intervene  in  Scotland.  For  si'me  time  j^ast  Protestant  mis- 
sionaries had  been  attempting  to  convert  the  Scottish  people,  but 
most  of  them  liad  Ijecn  caught  and  burned.  A  h'rench  tleet  came  to 
the  help  of  the  Catliolics,  and  Somcr^^er.  wlio  had  sent  no  help 
to  the  Protestants,  marched  into  Scotland  in  tb.e  hope  of  putting  an 
end  to  all  future  troubles  between  the  kingdiims  by  marrying  tlie 
yuung  Queen  of  Scots  to  Edward.     He  carried  with  him  a  body  of 

264 


IJiW    \K|i      \  I 
(  i'...iii      i5.!7.         Did      155.0 
Paiiilrd    h\'    Ciuiliiu    Slrrrus    ,ni  !    ■!.<i,-.!    Sr- 


:'-)■     1550 


EDWARD    VI— MARY  266 

1547 

foreign  mercenaries  armed  with  the  improved  weapons  of  conti- 
nental warfare,  and  with  their  help  he  defeated  and  slaughtered 
the  Scotch  army  at  Pinkie  Cleugh,  burned  Holyrood  and  Leith,  and 
carried  destruction  far  and  wide.  Such  rough  wooing  exasperated 
the  Scots,  and  in  1548  they  formed  a  close  alliance  with  Henry  II., 
who  had  succeeded  Francis  I.  as  king  of  France,  and  sent  their 
young  queen  across  the  sea,  where  she  was  married  to  Henry's 
eldest  son,  the  Dauphin  Francis.  Somerset  had  gained  nothing  by 
his  violence. 

Somerset's  ecclesiastical  reforms  were  as  rash  as  his  political  en- 
terprises. Cranmer  had  none  of  that  moral  strength  which  would 
have  made  some  men  spurn  an  alliance  with  the  unscrupulous  poli- 
ticians of  the  time.  He  was  a  learned  student,  and  through  long 
study  had  adopted  the  principle  that  where  Scripture  was  hard  to 
understand  it  was  to  be  interpreted  by  the  consent  of  the  writers 
of  the  first  ages  of  Christianity.  As  he  had  also  convinced  himself 
that  the  writers  of  the  first  six  centuries  had  known  nothing  of  the 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  he  was  now  prepared  to  reject  it — 
though  he  had  formerly  not  only  believed  it,  but  had  taken  part  in 
burning  men  who  denied  it.  It  is  cjuite  possible  that  if  Henry  had 
been  still  alive  Cranmer  would  have  been  too  much  overawed  to 
announce  that  he  had  changed  his  opinion.  His  exact  shade  of 
belief  at  this  time  is  of  less  importance  than  the  method  by  which 
he  reached  it.  In  accepting  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  exist- 
ing Church  till  they  were  tested  and  found  wanting  by  a  combina- 
tion of  human  reason  and  historical  study  of  the  Scri[)tures,  inter- 
preted in  doubtful  points  by  the  teaching  of  the  writers  of  the  early 
Church,  Cranmer  more  than  anyone  else  preserved  the  continuity 
of  the  Church  of  England,  and  laid  down  the  lines  on  which  it  was 
afterwards  to  develop  itself.  There  was,  therefore,  a  great  gulf 
between  Cranmer  and  tlie  advanced  Protestants,  who,  however 
much  they  might  differ  from  one  another,  agreed  in  drawing  in- 
ferences from  the  Scripture  itself,  without  troubling  themselves 
whether  these  differences  conformed  in  any  way  to  the  earlier  teach- 
ing. This  gulf  was  constantly  widening  as  time  went  on,  and 
eventually  split  English  Protestantism  into  fractions. 

In  1547  a  fresh  blow  was  struck  at  the  devotions  of  the  people. 
In  the  churches — by  the  order  of  the  government — there  was  much 
smashing  of  images  and  of  painted  glass  bright  with  the  figures  of 
saints  and  angels.     As  Parliaments  were  usually  packed  in  those 


266  ENGLAND 

1547-1549 

days  it  does  not  follow  that  the  nation  was  eager  for  changes  be- 
cause Parliament  ordered  them.  There  was  no  difficulty  in  filling 
the  benches  of  the  House  of  Commons  with  men  who  profited  by 
the  plunder  of  the  Church,  and  when  Parliament  met,  it  showed  it- 
self innovating  enough.  It  repealed  all  the  statutes  giving  special 
powers  to  Henry  VIII.  and  all  laws  against  heresy.  It  also  passed 
an  Act  vesting  in  the  reigning  king  the  whole  of  the  chantries  and 
other  like  foundations  which  Henry  had  been  permitted  to  take, 
but  which  he  had  left  untouched.  Cranmer.  indeed,  would  have 
been  glad  if  the  money  had  been  devoted  to  the  relief  of  the  poorer 
clergy,  but  the  grasping  spirit  of  the  laymen  was  too  strong  for  him. 
So  violent  was  the  race  for  wealth  that  the  Act  decreed  the  confisca- 
tion even  of  the  endowments  of  lay  corporations,  such  as  trading 
companies  and  guilds,  on  the  excuse  that  part  of  their  funds  was 
applied  to  religious  purposes.  It  was  soon,  however,  found  that  an 
attempt  to  enforce  this  part  of  the  Act  would  cause  resistance,  and 
it  was  therefore  abandoned.  In  1548  the  Government  issued  orders 
abolishing  a  great  variety  of  Church  practices,  and  in  consequence 
of  the  opposition  offered  by  the  clerg}-  to  these  sudden  measures 
ordered  that  no  sermon  should  be  preached  except  by  a  few  licensed 
preachers. 

In  1549  Parliament  authorized  the  issue  of  a  Prayer  Book  in 
English,  now  known  as  the  First  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI.  The 
same  Parliament  also  passed  an  Act  permitting  the  marriage  of  the 
clergy. 

Somerset's  own  brother.  Lord  Seymour  of  Sudley,  was  sent  to 
the  block  by  this  Parliament.  He  had  spoken  rashly  against  the  Pro- 
tector's government,  but  it  has  been  thought  by  some  that  his  main 
fault  was  his  strong  language  against  the  rapacity  with  which 
Church  property  was  being  (hvided  among  the  rich.  That  rapacity 
was  now  reaching  its  heiglit.  The  Protector  had  set  an  evil  ex- 
ample. The  Reformers  themselves,  men  of  the  study  as  most  of 
them  were,  had  gone  much  further  tlian  the  mass  of  the  people  were 
prepared  to  follow.  In  1549  an  insurrection  burst  out  in  Devon  and 
Cornwall  for  the  restoration  of  the  old  religion,  which  was  only  sup- 
pressed with  difficulty. 

Another  rising  took  place  in  Norfolk,  headed  by  Ket,  a  tanner. 
Ket's  rebellion  was  directed  not  so  much  against  ecclesiastical 
reforms  as  against  civil  oppression.  The  gentry,  who  had  been 
enriching  themselves  at  the  expense  of  tlie  clergy,  had  also  been 


EDWARD    VI    —MARY  267 

1549-1551 

enriching  themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  poor.  The  inclosures 
against  which  More  had  testified  were  muhiphed,  and  the  poor 
man's  claims  were  treated  with  contempt.  Both  here  and  in  the 
West  the  government  was  driven  to  use  the  bands  of  German  and 
Italian  mercenaries  which  Somerset  had  gathered  for  the  war  in 
Scotland.  It  was  the  first  time  since  the  days  of  John  that  foreign 
troops  had  been  used  to  crush  an  English  rising, 

Somerset  no  longer  pleased  any  single  party.  His  invasion 
of  Scotland  had  led  to  a  war  with  France,  and  to  carry  on  that  war 
he  had  found  it  necessary  to  debase  the  coinage  still  further  than  it 
had  been  debased  by  Henry  VIII.  All  the  disturbance  of  trade,  as 
well  as  the  disturbance  of  religion,  was  laid  to  his  door.  At  the 
same  time  he  was  too  soft-hearted  to  satisfy  his  colleagues  in  the 
Council,  and  had  shown  himself  favorable  to  the  outcry  against 
inclosures.  Accordingly,  before  the  end  of  1549  his  colleagues 
rose  against  him.  and  thrust  him  into  the  Tower.  The  Protector- 
ate was  abolished.  Henceforth  the  Council  was  to  govern,  but  the 
leading  man  in  the  Council  was  the  Earl  of  Warwick. 

Religion  was  a  matter  to  which  Warwick  was  supremely  in- 
different. It  was  an  open  question  when  he  rose  to  power  whether 
he  would  protect  the  men  of  the  old  religion  or  the  advanced  reform- 
ers. He  chose  to  protect  the  advanced  reformers.  Even  before 
Somerset's  fall  Cranmer  had  been  pushing  his  inquiries  still  fur- 
ther, and  was  trying  to  find  some  common  ground  with  Zwinglian 
and  other  reformers,  who  went  far  beyond  Luther.  Foreign 
preachers,  such  as  Bucer  and  Peter  Martyr,  were  introduced  to 
teach  religion  to  the  English,  as  foreign  soldiers  had  been  intro- 
duced to  teach  them  obedience.  Bishops  were  now  appointed  by 
the  king's  letters-patent,  without  any  form  of  election. 

Latimer  had  refused  to  return  to  tlie  bishopric  from  which  he 
had  been  thrust  by  Henry  VHI.  but  he  lashed  from  the  pulpit  the 
vices  of  the  age,  speaking  plainly  in  the  presence  of  the  court  of  its 
greed  and  oppression.  It  was  not  enough,  he  said,  for  sinners 
to  repent;  let  them  make  restitution  of  their  ill-gotten  gains.  In 
1550  the  courtiers  became  tired  of  his  reproofs,  and  he  was  no 
longer  allowed  to  preach  before  the  king. 

In  1550  Warwick  was  compelled  to  make  a  peace  with  France, 
and  gave  up  Boulogne  as  its  price.  In  1551  he  was  very  nearly 
drawn  into  war  with  the  Emperor  on  account  of  his  refusal  to  allow 
mass  to  be  celebrated  in  the  household  of  the  king's  sister,  Mary. 


268  ENGLAND 

1552-1553 

Finally,  however,  he  gave  way,  and  peace  was  maintained.  There 
was  a  fresh  issue  of  base  money,  and  a  sharp  rise  of  price  in  conse- 
quence. Now  that  there  were  no  monasteries  left  to  plunder,  bish- 
oprics were  stripped  of  their  revenues,  or  compelled  to  surrender 
their  lands.  So  unpopular  did  Warwick  become  that  Somerset 
began  to  talk  as  though  he  might  supplant  his  supplanter.  His 
rash  words  were  carried  to  the  young  king,  who  had  for  some  time 
shown  an  interest  in  public  affairs,  and  who  now  took  the  part  of 
Warwick,  whom  he  created  Duke  of  Northumberland,  against  his 
own  uncle.  Somerset  was  arrested,  and  in  1552  was  tried  and  be- 
headed. 

In  1552  Parliament  authorized  the  issue  of  a  revised  Prayer 
Book,  known  as  the  Second  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI.  The  first 
book  had  been  framed  by  the  modification  of  the  old  worship  un- 
der the  influence  of  Lutheranism.  The  second  book  was  composed 
under  the  influence  of  the  Swiss  Reformers.  There  were  some  who 
urged  that  the  Communion  should  no  longer  be  received  kneeling. 
It  was  significant  that  their  leaders  were  foreigners — John  Alasco, 
a  Pole,  and  John  Knox,  a  Scot,  who  was  hereafter  to  be  the  father 
of  a  Scottish  reform.ation  more  drastic  than  that  of  England.  Cran- 
mer  withstood  them  successfully.  The  dispute  marked  the  point 
beyond  which  the  spirit  of  the  Renaissance  refused  to  go.  In  the 
midst  of  his  innovation  Cranmer  preserved  not  only  a  reverent  spirit, 
but  an  admiration  for  the  devotional  style  of  the  prayers  of  the 
mediaeval  Church,  which  he  tlierefore  maintained  even  in  the 
midst  of  the  great  changes  made,  mainly  at  least  by  himself,  in  the 
Second  Prayer  Book.  Happily,  amid  these  disputations  there  was 
one  point  on  which  both  parties  could  combine — namely,  on  the 
encouragement  of  education.  The  reign  of  Edward  \T.  is  marked 
by  the  foundation  of  grammar-schools — -too  scantilv  carried  out, 
but  yet  in  such  a  measure  as  to  mark  the  tendencies  of  an  age  which 
was  beginning  to  replace  the  mainly  ecclesiastic  education  of  the 
monasteries  by  the  more  secular  education  of  modern  times. 

Edward  was  n(jw  a  precocious  youth,  taught  by  much  adula- 
tion to  l)e  confident  in  his  own  powers.  Pie  had  learned  to  regard 
all  defection  from  Protestant  orthodoxy  as  a  crime.  A  few  per- 
sons were  punislied  for  heresy,  but  only  for  opinions  of  an  abnormal 
character.  In  1553  forty-two  articles  of  faith,  afterwards,  in  the 
reign  of  Elizabetli.  converted  into  thirty-nine,  were  set  forth  as  a 
standard  of  tlie  Church's  belief  bv  the  authoritv  of  the  kins:. 


EDWARD    VI— MARY  269 

1552-1553 

A  religious  system  built  up  solely  on  the  will  of  the  king  was 
hardly  likely  to  survive  him.  By  this  time  it  was  known  that  Ed- 
ward was  smitten  with  consumption,  and  could  not  live.  Northum- 
berland knew  that  Mary  was,  by  Henry's  will  sanctioned  by  Act 
of  Parliament,  the  heiress  of  the  throne,  and  that  if  Mary  became 
queen  he  was  hardly  likely  to  escape  the  scaffold.  He  was  daring 
as  well  as  unscrupulous,  and  he  persuaded  Edward  to  leave  the 
crown  by  will  to  Lady  Jane  Grey,  the  granddaughter  of  Mary, 
Duchess  of  Suffolk,  the  younger  sister  of  Henry  VIII.  He  secured 
(as  he  hoped)  Lady  Jane's  devotion  by  marrying  her  to  his  own  son. 
Lord  Guilford  Dudley.  As  Lady  Jane  was  a  convinced  Protestant, 
Edward  at  once  consented.  He  had  been  taught  to  think  so  highly 
of  the  kingship  that  he  did  not  remember  that  his  father  had  been 
authorized  by  Act  of  Parliament  to  will  away  the  crown  in  the  case 
of  his  children's  death  without  heirs,  whereas  no  such  authority 
had  been  given  by  Parliament  to  himself.  He  forced — by  commands 
and  entreaties — the  councilors  and  judges  to  sign  the  will.  Cran- 
mer  was  the  last  to  sign,  and  was  only  moved  to  do  so  by  the  sad 
aspect  of  his  suffering  pupil.  Then  Edward  died,  assured  that  he 
had  provided  best  for  the  Church  and  nation. 

On  July  lo  Lady  Jane  Grey,  a  pure-minded  intelligent  girl  of 
sixteen,  was  proclaimed  queen  in  London.  She  was  a  fervent  Prot- 
estant, and  there  were  many  Protestants  in  London.  Yet,  so  hated 
was  Northumberland  that  even  Protestants  would  have  nothing 
to  say  to  one  who  had  been  advanced  by  him.  Lady  Jane  passed 
through  the  streets  amid  a  dead  silence.  All  England  thought 
as  London.  In  a  few  days  Mary  was  at  the  head  of  30,000  men. 
Northumberland  led  against  her  what  troops  he  could  gather,  but 
his  own  soldiers  threw  their  caps  in  the  air  and  shouted  for  Queen 
Mary.  On  the  19th  Mary  was  proclaimed  queen  in  London,  and 
the  unfortunate  Jane  passed  from  a  throne  to  a  prison. 

Mary,  strong  in  her  popularity,  was  inclined  to  be  merciful. 
Among  those  who  had  combined  against  her  only  Northumberland 
and  two  others  were  executed — the  miserable  Northumberland  de- 
claring that  he  died  in  the  old  faith.  Alary  made  Gardiner  her 
Chancellor.  Some  of  the  leading  Protestants  were  arrested,  and 
many  fled  to  the  Continent.  The  Bishops  who  had  been  deprived 
in  Edward's  reign  were  reinstated,  and  the  mass  was  everywhere 
restored.  The  queen  allowed  herself  to  be  called  Supreme  Head  of 
the  Church,  and  at  first  it  seemed  as  though  she  would  be  content  to 


270  ENGLAND 

1554 

restore  the  religious  system  of  the  last  year  of  Henry's  reign,  and 
to  maintain  the  ecclesiastical  independence  of  the  country. 

By  taking  this  course  ^lary  would  probably  have  contented 
the  great  majority  of  her  subjects,  who  were  tired  of  the  villainies 
which  had  been  cloaked  under  the  name  of  Protestantism,  and  who 
were  still  warmly  attached  to  the  religion  of  their  fathers.  She  was, 
however,  anxious  to  restore  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  and  also 
to  marry  Philip,  the  eldest  son  of  her  cousin,  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.  It  was  natural  that  it  should  be  so.  Her  mother's 
life  and  her  own  youth  had  been  made  wretched  by  those  who,  with- 
out being  Protestants,  had  wrought  the  separation  from  Rome  in 
the  days  of  Henry,  at  a  time  when  only  the  Pope's  adherents  had 
maintained  the  legitimacy  of  her  own  birth  and  of  her  mother's 
marriage.  In  subsequent  times  of  trouble  Charles  V.  had  sympa- 
thized with  her^  and  it  was  by  his  intervention  that  she  had  been 
allowed  to  continue  her  mass  in  her  brother's  reign.  Mary  also 
wished  to  restore  to  the  Church  its  lands.  On  the  other  hand, 
when  Parliament  met  it  appeared  that  her  subjects  wished  neither 
to  submit  to  Rome  nor  to  surrender  the  property  of  which  they  had 
deprived  the  Church,  though  they  were  delighted  to  restore  the 
worship  and  practices  which  had  prevailed  before  the  death  of 
Henry  VIII.  Parliament,  therefore,  authorized  the  re-establish- 
ment of  the  mass,  and  repealed  the  Act  allowing  the  clergy  to 
marry,  but  it  presented  a  petition  against  a  foreign  marriage.  Mary 
dissolved  Parliament  rather  than  take  its  advice. 

The  result  was  an  insurrection,  the  aim  of  which  was  to  place 
Mary's  half-sister.  Elizabeth,  on  the  throne.  Lady  Jane's  father, 
the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  was  to  raise  the  ^Midlands,  and  Sir  Thomas 
Wyatt  to  raise  Kent.  Suffolk  failed,  but  W'vatt,  with  a  large  fol- 
lowing, crossed  the  Thames  at  Kingston,  and  pushed  on  towards 
the  City,  only  to  be  captured  and  led  away  a  prisoner.  !Mary  was  no 
longer  merciful.  Xot  only  Suffolk  and  Wyatt.  but  the  innocent 
Lady  Jane  and  her  young  husband,  Guilford  Dudley,  were  sent  to 
the  block.  Elizabeth  herself  was  committed  to  the  Tower.  Being 
far  too  popular  to  be  safely  put  to  death  on  any  testimony  which 
was  not  convincing,  Elizabeth  was  before  long  removed  from  the 
Tower  and  placed  at  Woodstock,  under  the  charge  of  Sir  Henry 
Bedingfield,  but  was  after  a  few  months  allowed  to  retire  to  Hat- 
field. 

A  Parliament  which  met  in  April,   1554,  gave  its  consent  to 


EDWARD    VI    —MARY  271 

1554-1556 

Mary's  marriage,  but  it  would  not  pass  bills  to  restore  the  old  stat- 
utes for  the  persecution  of  heretics.  Though  it  was  now  settled  that 
the  queen  was  to  marry  Philip,  yet  never  was  a  wooer  so  laggard. 
For  some  weeks  he  would  not  even  write  to  his  betrothed.  The  fact 
was  that  she  was  twelve  years  older  than  himself,  and  was  neither 
healthy  nor  good-looking.  Philip,  however,  loved  the  English  crown 
better  than  he  loved  its  wearer,  and  in  July  he  crossed  the  sea  and 
was  married  at  Winchester  to  the  queen  of  England.  Philip  re- 
ceived the  title  of  king,  and  the  names  of  Philip  and  Mary  appeared 
together  in  all  official  documents  and  their  heads  on  the  coins. 

After  the  marriage  a  new  Parliament  was  called,  more  sub- 
servient than  the  last.  In  most  things  it  complied  with  Mary's 
wishes.  It  re-enacted  the  statutes  for  the. burning  of  heretics  and 
agreed  to  the  reconciliation  of  the  Church  of  England  to  the  see 
of  Rome,  but  it  would  not  surrender  the  abbey  lands.  Only  after 
their  possession  had  been  confirmed  was  Cardinal  Pole,  who  had 
been  sent  to  England  as  the  Pope's  legate,  allowed  to  receive  the 
submission  of  England.  To  INIary  the  moment  was  one  of  inex- 
pressible joy.  She  had  grieved  over  the  separation  from  Rome  as 
a  sin  burdening  her  own  conscience,  and  she  believed  with  all  her 
heart  that  the  one  path  to  happiness,  temporal  and  eternal,  for  her- 
self and  her  realm,  was  to  root  out  heresy,  in  the  only  way  in  which 
it  seemed  possible,  by  rooting  out  the  heretics. 

Bishop  Hooper  was  one  of  the  first  to  be  burned.  He  was  car- 
ried to  Gloucester,  that  he  might  die  at  the  one  of  his  two  sees  which 
he  had  stripped  of  its  property  to  enrich  the  Crown.  He  and  many 
another  died  bravely  for  their  faith,  as  More  and  Forest  had  died 
for  theirs.  Ridley  and  Latimer  were  burned  at  Oxford,  in  the  town 
ditch,  in  front  of  Balliol  College.  "  Be  of  good  comfort.  Master 
Ridley,  and  play  the  man,''  cried  Latimer,  when  the  fire  was  lighted 
at  his  feet.  "  We  shall  this  day  light  such  a  candle,  by  God's  grace, 
in  England,  as  I  trust  shall  never  be  put  out." 

Cranmer  would  have  accompanied  Ridley  and  Latimer  to  the 
stake,  but  as  he  alone  of  the  three  had  been  consecrated  a  bishop 
in  the  days  when  the  Pope's  authority  was  accepted  in  England, 
it  was  thought  right  to  await  the  Pope's  authority  for  the  execution 
of  his  sentence.  In  1556  that  authority  arrived.  Cranmer's  heart 
was  as  weak  as  his  head  was  strong,  and  he  six  times  recanted, 
hoping  to  save  his  life.  Mary  specially  detested  him,  as  having 
sat  in  judgment  on  her  mother  and  she  uas  resolved  that  he  should 


272  ENGLAND 

1555-1557 

die.  Finding  his  recantation  useless,  he  recovered  his  better  mind, 
and  renounced  his  recantation.  "  I  have  written."  he  said,  "  many 
things  untrue ;  and  forasmuch  as  my  hand  offended  in  writing  con- 
trary to  my  heart,  my  hand  therefore  shall  be  the  first  burned," 
and  when  the  flames  leaped  up  around  him  held  his  right  hand 
steadily  in  the  midst  of  them. 

Immediately  after  Cranmer's  death  Pole  became  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury.  The  persecution  lasted  for  two  years  more.  The 
number  of  those  who  suffered  has  been  reckoned  at  277.  Almost 
all  of  these  were  burned  in  the  eastern  and  southeastern  parts  of 
England.  It  was  there  that  the  Protestants  were  the  thickest.  Xew 
opinions  always  flourish  more  in  towns  than  in  the  country,  and  on 
this  side  of  England  were  those  trading  towns  from  which  commu- 
nication with  the  Protestants  of  the  Continent  was  most  easy. 
Sympathy  with  the  sufferers  made  these  parts  of  the  kingdom  more 
strongly  Protestant  than  they  had  been  before. 

Mary  was  a  sorrowful  woman.  Xot  only  did  Protestantism 
flourish  all  the  more  for  the  means  which  she  took  to  suppress  it, 
but  her  own  domestic  life  was  clouded.  She  had  longed  for  an  heir 
to  carry  on  the  work  which  she  believed  to  be  the  work  of  God,  and 
it  was  long  before  she  abandoned  hope,  and  she  then  learned  also 
that  her  husband — to  whom  she  was  passionately  attached — did  not 
love  her,  and  had  never  loved  anything  in  England  but  her  crown. 
In  1555  Philip  left  her.  He  liad  indeed  cause  to  go  abroad.  His 
father,  Charles  V.,  had  resolved  to  al)dicate,  and  he  left  his  v/estern 
possessions  to  his  son.  ]\Iary"s  husljand  then  became  Philip  II.  of 
Spain,  ruling  also  over  large  territories  in  Italy,  over  Franche 
Comte,  and  the  whole  of  the  Netherlands,  as  well  as  over  vast  tracts 
in  America,  rich  in  mines  of  silver  and  gold,  which  liad  been  appro- 
priated by  the  hardihood,  the  cruelty,  and  the  greed  of  Spanish  ad- 
venturers. No  prince  in  Europe  had  at  his  command  so  warlike 
an  army,  so  powerful  a  fleet,  and  such  an  abounding  revenue  as 
Philip  had  at  his  disposal.  Philii)"5  increase  of  power  produced  a 
strong  increase  of  the  anti-Spanish  feeling  in  England,  and  con- 
spiracies were  formed  against  Mary,  who  was  believed  to  be  ready 
to  welcome  a  Spanish  invading  army. 

In  1557  Pliilip  was  at  war  with  France,  and,  to  please  a  hus- 
band who  loved  her  not,  }dary  declared  war  against  Philip's  enemy. 
She  sent  an  luiglish  army  to  her  husband's  support,  but  though 
Philip  gained  a  crushing  victory  over  the  French  at  St.  Quentin, 


EDWARD    VI— MARY  273 

1557-1558 

the  English  troops  gained  no  credit,  as  they  did  not  arrive  in  time  to 
take  part  in  the  battle.  In  the  winter  the  French  threatened  Calais. 
Mary,  who,  after  wringing  a  forced  loan  from  her  subjects  in  the 
summer,  had  spent  it  all,  had  little  power  to  help  the  governor, 
Lord  Wentworth,  and  persuaded  herself  that  the  place  was  in  no 
danger.  The  French,  however,  laid  siege  to  the  town.  The  walls 
were  in  disrepair  and  the  garrison  too  small  for  defense.  On  Janu- 
ary 6,  1558,  Guise  stormed  Calais,  and  a  few  days  afterwards  the  last 
port  held  by  the  English  in  France  fell  back  into  the  hands  of  the 
French.  Calais  was  now  again  a  French  town,  after  having  been 
in  the  hands  of  strangers  for  2 1 1  years. 

The  loss  of  Calais  was  no  real  misfortune  to  England,  but  it 
was  felt  as  a  deep  mortification  both  by  the  queen  and  by  her  peo- 
ple. The  people  distrusted  Mary  too  much  to  support  her  in  the 
prosecution  of  the  war.  They  were  afraid  of  making  Philip  more 
powerful.  Mary,  hoping  that  Heaven  might  yet  be  gracious  to 
her,  pushed  on  the  persecution,  and  sent  Protestants  in  large  num- 
bers to  the  stake.  Philip  had  visited  her  the  year  before,  but  had 
once  more  deserted  her,  and  she  now  knew  that  she  was  suffering — 
without  hope — from  dropsy.  On  November  17  she  died,  sad  and 
lonely,  wondering  why  all  that  she  had  done,  as  she  believed  on 
God's  behalf,  had  been  followed  by  failure  on  every  side — by  the 
desertion  of  her  husband  and  the  hatred  of  her  subjects.  Happily 
for  himself,  Pole,  too,  died  two  days  afterwards. 


Chapter    XXVIII 

THE   ELIZABETHAN    SETTLEMENT   IN   CHURCH 
AND    STATE.     1558— 1570 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  Elizabeth,  A.D.  1558-1603 — Accession  of  Elizabeth, 
1558 — The  Acts  of  Supremacy  and  UxiFORMiri',  1559 — The  Treaty 
of  Edinburgh,  1560 — Mary  Stuart  Lands  in  Scotland,  1561 — End 
OF  THE  Council  of  Trent,  1563—  Marriage  of  Mary  and  Darnley, 
1565 — Murder  of  Darnley,  1567 — Escape  of  Mary  into  England, 
1568 — The  Rising  in  the  North,  1569 — Papal  Excommunication  of 
Elizabeth,  1570 

ELIZABETH,  when  she  received  the  news  of  her  sister's 
death,  was  sitting  under  an  oak  in  Hatfield  Park.  "  This," 
she  exclaimed.  "  is  the  Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  marvelous 
in  our  eyes."'  Her  life's  work  was  to  throw  down  all  that  iMary  had 
attempted  to  build  up.  and  to  build  up  all  that  Mary  had  thrown 
down.  It  was  no  easy  task  that  she  had  undertaken.  The  great  ma- 
jority of  her  subjects  would  have  been  well  pleased  with  a  return  to 
the  system  of  Henry  VIII. — that  is  to  say,  with  the  retention  of  the 
mass,  together  with  its  accompanying  system  of  doctrine,  under  the 
protection  of  the  royal  supremacy,  in  complete  disregard  of  the 
threats  or  warnings  of  the  Pope.  Elizabeth  was  shrewd  enough  to 
see  that  this  could  not  be.  On  the  one  hand,  the  Protestants,  fev/ 
as  they  were,  were  too  active  and  intelligent  to  be  suppressed,  and, 
if  Mary's  burnings  had  been  unavailing,  it  was  not  likely  that 
milder  measures  would  succeed.  On  the  other  hand,  the  experi- 
ence of  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  had  shown  that  immutability  in 
doctrine  and  practice  could  only  be  secured  by  dependence  upon  the 
immutable  Papacy,  and  Elizabeth  had  made  up  her  mind  that  she 
would  depend  on  no  one  but  herself.  She  would  no  more  place 
herself  under  the  Pope  than  she  would  place  herself  under  a  hus- 
band. She  cared  nothing  for  theology,  though  her  inclinations 
drew  her  to  a  more  elaborate  ritual  than  that  which  the  Protestants 
had  to  offer.  She  was,  however,  intensely  national,  and  was  re- 
solved to  govern  so  that  England  might  be  great  and  flourishing, 

274 


CHURCH     AND    STATE  ^75 

1558-1559 

especially  as  her  own  greatness  would  depend  upon  her  success. 
For  this  end  she  must  establish  national  unity  in  the  Church,  a  unity 
which,  as  she  was  well  aware,  could  only  be  attained  if  large  ad- 
vances were  made  in  the  direction  of  Protestantism.  There  must  be 
as  little  persecution  as  possible,  but  extreme  opinions  must  be 
silenced,  because  there  was  a  danger  lest  those  who  came  under  their 
influence  would  stir  up  civil  war  in  order  to  make  their  own  beliefs 
predominant.  The  first  object  of  Elizabeth's  government  was  in- 
ternal peace. 

Elizabeth  marked  her  intentions  by  choosing  for  her  secretary 
Sir  William  Cecil,  a  cautious  supporter  of  Protestantism,  the  best 
and  most  faithful  of  her  advisers.  A  commission  composed  of 
divines  of  Protestant  tendencies,  recommended  the  adoption,  with 
certain  alterations,  of  the  Second  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI. 
Elizabeth's  first  Parliament,  which  met  in  1559,  passed  an  Act  of 
Uniformity  forbidding  the  use  of  any  form  of  public  prayer  other 
than  that  of  the  new  Prayer  Book.  The  same  Parliament  also 
passed  a  new  Act  of  Supremacy,  in  which  the  title  of  Supreme  Head 
of  the  Church  was  abandoned,  but  all  the  ancient  jurisdiction  of 
the  Crown  over  ecclesiastical  persons  was  claimed.  This  Act  im- 
posed an  oath  in  which  the  queen  was  acknowledged  to  be  the 
Supreme  Governor  of  the  Realm  "  as  well  in  all  spiritual  or  ecclesi- 
astical things  as  temporal  "  ;  but  this  oath,  unlike  that  imposed  by 
Henry  VHL,  was  only  to  be  taken  by  persons  holding  office  or  tak- 
ing a  university  degree,  while  a  refusal  to  swear  was  only  followed 
by  loss  of  office  or  degree.  The  maintenance  of  the  authority  of 
any  foreign  prince  or  prelate  was  to  be  followed  by  penalties  in- 
creased upon  a  repetition  of  the  offense,  and  reaching  to  a  traitor's 
death  on  the  third  occasion. 

All  the  bishops  except  one  refusing  to  accept  the  new  order 
of  things,  new  ones  were  substituted  for  them.  Matthew  Parker, 
a  moderate  man  after  Elizabeth's  own  heart,  became  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury.  Very  few  of  the  old  clergy  who  had  said  mass  in 
Mary's  reign  refused  to  use  the  new  Prayer  Book  and  as  Elizabeth 
prudently  winked  at  cases  in  which  persons  of  importance  had  mass 
said  before  them  in  private,  she  was  aljle  to  hope  that,  by  leaving 
things  to  take  their  course,  a  new  generation  would  grow  up  which 
would  be  too  strong  for  the  lovers  of  the  old  ways.  The  main 
difficulty  of  the  bishops  was  with  the  Protestants.  ]\Iany  of  those 
who  had  been  in  exile  had  returned  with  a  strengthened  belief  that 


276  ENGLAND 

1558-1559 

it  was  absolutely  unchristian  to  adopt  any  vestments  or  other  cere- 
monies which  had  been  used  in  the  Papal  Church,  and  which  they, 
therefore,  contumeliously  described  as  rags  of  Antichrist.  A  large 
number  even  of  the  bishops  sympathized  privately  with  them,  but 
to  Elizabeth,  refusal  to  wear  the  surplice  was  an  act  of  insubordina- 
tion, and  likely  to  give  offense  to  lukewarm  supporters.  In  Parker 
she  found  a  tower  of  strength.  He  was  in  every  sense  the  successor 
of  Cranmer,  with  all  Cranmer's  strength  but  with  none  of  Cran- 
mer's  weakness.  He  fully  grasped  the  principle  that  the  Church 
of  England  was  to  test  its  doctrines  and  practices  by  those  of  the 
Church  of  the  first  six  hundred  years  of  Christianity,  and  he,  there- 
fore, claimed  for  it  catholicity,  which  he  denied  to  the  Church  of 
Rome;  while  he  had  all  Cranmer's  feeling  for  the  maintenance  of 
external  rites  which  did  not  directly  imply  the  existence  of  beliefs 
repudiated  by  the  Church  of  England. 

The  returning  exiles  had  brought  home  ideas  even  more  dis- 
tasteful to  Elizabeth  than  the  rejection  of  ceremonies.  The  weak 
point  of  the  Lutherans  in  Germany,  and  of  the  reformers  in  Eng- 
land, had  been  their  dependence  upon  the  State.  Even  Elizabeth 
thought  first  of  what  was  convenient  for  her  government,  and 
secondly,  if  she  thought  at  all,  of  the  quest  after  truth  and  purity. 
In  Geneva  the  exiles  had  found  a  system  in  full  working  order  which 
appeared  to  satisfy  the  cravings  of  their  minds.  It  had  been 
founded  by  a  Erenchman,  John  Calvin,  who  in  1536  had  published 
"  The  Institution  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  in  V\hich  he  treated  his 
subject  with  a  logical  coherence  which  impressed  itself  on  all  Protes- 
tants who  were  in  need  of  a  definite  creed.  He  had  soon  after- 
wards been  summoned  to  Geneva,  to  take  charge  of  the  congrega- 
tion there,  and  had  made  it,  what  was  extensively  believed  to  be.  a 
model  Church.  He  established  a  discipline  which  was  even  more 
efficacious  than  his  doctrine.  His  Church  proclaimed  itself  to  be 
independent  of  the  State.  Bishops  there  were  to  be  none,  and  the 
ministers  were  to  be  elected  by  the  congregation.  The  congrega- 
tion was  also  to  elect  lay-elders,  whose  duty  it  was  to  enforce 
morality  of  the  strictest  kind;  card-playing,  singing  profane  songs, 
and  following  after  amusements  on  the  Sunday — or  Sabbath,  as  it 
was  called  in  Geneva — being  visited  with  excommunication.  The 
magistrates  were  expected  to  infiict  temp(;ral  penalties  upon  the 
offender.  This  Presbyterian  system,  as  it  was  called,  spread  to 
other   countries,    especially    to    countries    like    France,    where    the 


CHURCH     AND    STATE  277 

1558-1559 

Protestant  congregations  were  persecuted  by  the  Government.  In 
France  a  final  step  was  taken  in  the  Presbyterian  organization.  The 
scattered  congregations  elected  representatives  to  meet  in  synods  or 
assemblies,  and  the  French  Government,  in  this  way,  found  itself 
confronted  by  an  ecclesiastical  representative  republic. 

It  was  this  Calvinistic  system  which  was  admired  by  many  of 
the  exiles  returning  to  England,  but  which  Elizabeth  detested  as 
challenging  her  own  authority.  Her  only  chance  of  resisting  with 
success  lay  in  her  power  of  appealing  to  the  national  instinct,  and  of 
drawing  men  to  think  more  of  unity  and  peace  at  home  than  of 
that  search  after  truth  which  inevitably  divides,  because  all  human 
conceptions  of  truth  are  necessarily  imperfect,  and  are  differently 
held  by  different  minds.  To  do  this  she  must  be  able  to  show  that 
she  could  maintain  her  independence  of  foreign  powers.  Though 
her  heart  was  set  on  the  recovery  of  Calais,  she  was  obliged  in  1559 
to  make  peace  with  France,  obtaining  only  a  vague  promise  that 
it  might  be  restored  at  a  future  time.  Shortly  afterwards  peace 
was  made  between  France  and  Spain  at  Gateau  Gambresis.  Eliza- 
beth was  aware  that,  though  neither  Philip  II.  of  Spain  nor  Henry 
II.  loved  her,  neither  of  them  would  allow  the  other  to  interfere 
to  her  detriment.  She  was  therefore  able  to  play  them  off  one 
against  the  other.  Her  diplomacy  was  the  diplomacy  of  her  time. 
Elizabeth,  like  her  contemporaries,  lied  whenever  it  suited  her  to 
lie,  and  made  promises  which  she  never  intended  to  perform.  In 
this  spirit  she  treated  the  subject  of  her  marriage.  She  at  once 
rejected  Philip,  v/ho,  though  he  was  her  brother-in-law,  proposed 
to  marry  her  immediately  after  her  accession,  but  when  he  sug- 
gested other  candidates  for  her  hand,  she  listened  without  giving 
a  decided  answer.  It  was  convenient  not  to  quarrel  v/ith  Philip, 
but  it  would  be  ruinous  to  accept  a  husband  at  his  choice. 

Philip  was  formidable  to  Elizabeth  because  he  might  place 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  English  Gatholics.  Henry  was  formid- 
able because  the  old  alliance  between  France  and  Scotland,  con- 
firmed by  the  recent  marriage  of  the  Daupliin  with  Mary  Stuart, 
made  it  easy  for  him  to  send  French  troops  by  way  of  Scotland 
into  England.  Early  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  however,  events  oc- 
curred in  Scotland  which  threatened  to  sever  the  links  Ijetween 
that  country  and  France.  In  1559  a  combination  among  a  large 
number  of  the  avaricious  nobles,  tempted  by  the  wealth  of  the 
Ghurch,    and    known    as    tlie    Lords    of    the    Congregation,    was 


278  ENGLAND 

1559-1560 

formed  to  assail  the  bishops.  John  Knox,  the  bravest  and  sternest 
of  Calvinists,  urged  them  on.  The  Regent,  Mary  of  Guise,  was 
powerless  before  them.  The  mass  was  suppressed,  images 
destroyed,  and  monasteries  pulled  down.  Before  long,  how- 
ever, the  flood  seemed  about  to  subside  as  rapidly  as  it  rose. 
The  forces  of  the  lords  consisted  of  untrained  peasants,  who  could 
not  keep  the  field  when  the  labors  of  agriculture  called  them 
home,  and  rapidly  melted  away.  Then  the  Lords  of  the  Congre- 
gation, fearing  disaster,  called  on  Elizabeth  for  help. 

Elizabeth  was  decided  enough  when  she  could  see  her  w'ay 
clearly.  When  she  did  not  she  was  timid  and  hesitating,  giving 
contradictory  orders  and  making  contradictory  promises.  She 
detested  Calvinism,  and  regarded  rebellion  as  of  evil  example.  She 
especially  abhored  Knox,  because  in  her  sister's  reign  he  had  writ- 
ten a  book  against  "  The  ^Monstrous  Regimen  of  Women,"  disbeliev- 
ing his  assertion  that  she  was  herself  an  exception  to  the  rule  that 
no  woman  was  fit  to  govern.  It  is  therefore  almost  certain  that 
she  would  have  done  nothing  for  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation 
if  France  had  done  nothing  for  the  Regent.  Henry  IL,  however, 
was  killed  by  an  accidental  lance-thrust  which  pierced  his  eye  in 
a  tournament,  and  on  the  accession  of  his  son  as  Francis  IL,  Mary 
Stuart,  now  queen  of  France,  assumed  the  arms  and  style  of  queen 
of  England.  The  lifelong  quarrel  between  Elizabeth  and  ^^^lary 
could  hardly  be  staved  off.  Xot  only  did  they  differ  in  religion, 
but  there  was  also  between  them  an  irreconcilable  political 
antagonism  closely  connected  with  their  difference  in  religion. 
If  the  Papal  authority  was  all  that  Aviary  believed  it  to  be,  Elizabeth 
was  a  bastard  and  a  usurper.  If  the  national  Church  of  England 
had  a  right  to  independent  existence,  and  the  national  Parliament 
of  England  to  independent  authority,  ]\Iary"s  challenge  of  Eliza- 
beth's title  was  an  unjustifiable  attack  on  a  sovereignty  acknowl- 
edged by  the  constitutional  authorities  of  the  English  nation. 

In  spite  of  Cecil's  urgency  Elizabeth  was  slow  to  assist  the 
Scottish  rebels.  In  January.  1560,  she  sent  her  fieet  with  troops  to 
the  help  of  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation.  In  June  the  Regent  died^ 
and  in  July  the  French  surrendered.  By  a  treaty  signed  at  Edin- 
burgh the  French  agreed  to  leave  Scotland,  and  to  acknowledge 
Elizabeth's  title  to  the  English  crown.  Shortly  after  this  Mary 
Stuart  was  left  a  widow,  and.  finding  no  longer  a  home  in  France, 
was  dri\'en  for  refuge  to  her  own  unruly  realm  of  Scotland. 


CHURCH     AND    STATE  279 

1560-1561 

The  Scots  had  not  failed  to  profit  by  the  cessation  of  authority 
following  on  the  death  of  Mary  of  Guise.  They  disclaimed  the 
authority  of  the  Pope  and  made  it  punishable  to  attend  mass,  the 
penalty  for  the  third  offense  being  death.  The  English  Reforma- 
tion had  been  the  work  of  the  king  and  of  the  clergy  of  the  Renais- 
sance and  had,  therefore,  been  carried  on  under  the  form  of  law. 
The  Scottish  Reformation  had  been  the  revolutionary  work  of  the 
nobility  and  of  the  Calvinistic  clergy.  In  England  the  power  of 
the  State  had  been  strengthened.  In  Scotland  it  was  weakened. 
Almost  from  the  beginning  the  nobles  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
revolution  showed  signs  of  disagreement.  A  few  of  them  were 
earnest  Protestants,  but  there  were  more  who  cared  only  for  politi- 
cal or  personal  ends.  Knox  organized  the  Church  on  a  democratic 
and  Presbyterian  basis  with  Church  courts  composed  of  the 
minister  and  lay  elders  in  every  parish,  with  representative  presby- 
teries in  every  group  of  parishes,  and  with  a  representative  General 
Assembly  for  all  Scotland.  Like  a  prophet  of  old,  Knox  bitterly 
denounced  those  who  laid  a  finger  on  the  Church's  discipline.  The 
nobles  let  him  do  as  he  would  as  far  as  religion  was  concerned,  but 
they  insisted  on  retaining  nominal  bishops,  not  to  rule  the  Church, 
but  to  hold  the  Church  lands  and  pass  the  rents  over  to  themselves. 

In  August,  1 56 1,  Mary  landed  in  Scotland,  having  come  by 
sea  because  Elizabeth  refused  to  allow  her  to  pass  through  Eng- 
land unless  she  would  renounce  her  claim  to  the  English  crown. 
Mary  would  perhaps  have  yielded  if  Elizabeth  would  have  named 
her  as  her  successor.  Elizabeth  would  do  nothing  of  the  kind.  She 
had  a  special  dislike  to  fixing  on  anyone  as  her  successor.  About 
this  time  she  threw  into  prison  Lady  Catherine  Grey  for  commit- 
ting the  offense  of  marrying  without  her  leave.  Lady  Catherine 
was  the  next  sister  of  Lady  Jane  Grey,  and  therefore  Elizabeth's 
heir  if  the  will  of  Henry  VIII.  in  favor  of  the  Suffolk  line  was  to  be 
held  binding,  Elizabeth  no  doubt  had  a  political  object  in  showing 
no  favor  to  either  of  her  expectant  heirs.  By  encouraging 
Catherine's  hopes  she  would  drive  her  Catholic  subjects  to  despera- 
tion. By  encouraging  Mary's  she  would  drive  her  Protestant  sub- 
jects to  desperation.  Yet  there  was  also  strong  personal  feeling 
to  account  for  her  conduct.  She  was  resolved  never  to  marry, 
however  much  her  resolution  might  cost  her.  Yet  she  too  was  a 
very  woman,  hungry  for  manly  companionship  and  care,  and, 
though  a  politician  to  the  core,  was  saddened  and  soured  by  the 


280  ENGLAND 

1562-1563 

suppression  of  her  womanly  nature.  To  give  herself  a  husband 
was  to  give  herself  a  master,  yet  she  dallied  with  the  offers  made 
to  her,  surely  not  from  political  craft  alone.  The  thought  of  mar- 
riage, abhorrent  to  her  brain,  was  pleasant  to  her  heart,  and  she 
could  not  lightly  speak  the  positive  word  of  rejection.  Even  now, 
in  the  vain  thought  that  she  might  rule  a  subject,  even  if  she 
became  his  wife,  she  was  toying  with  Lord  Robert  Dudley,  the 
handsome  and  worthless  son  of  the  base  Northumberland.  So  far 
did  she  carry  her  flirtations  that  tales  against  her  fair  fame  were 
spread  abroad,  but  marry  him  she  never  did.  Her  treatment  of 
the  Lady  Catherine  was  doubtless  caused  far  less  by  her  fear  of  the 
claims  of  the  Suffolk  line  than  by  her  reluctance  to  think  of  one 
so  near  to  her  as  a  happy  wife,  and  as  years  grew  upon  her  she 
bore  hardly  on  those  around  her  who  refused  to  live  in  that  state 
of  maidenhood  which  she  had  inflicted  on  herself. 

Elizabeth  and  ]\Iary  were  not  merely  personal  rivals.  The 
deadly  struggle  on  which  they  had  entered  was  a  European  one, 
and  the  success  or  failure  of  the  Catholic  or  the  Protestant  cause 
in  some  continental  country  might  determine  the  future  history  of 
Britain,  In  1562  a  civil  war  broke  out  betv/een  the  French  Protes- 
tants— or  Huguenots,  as  they  were  usually  called  in  France — and 
their  Catholic  fellow-subjects.  The  leaders  of  the  Huguenots  ob- 
tained Elizabeth's  aid  by  offering  her  Havre,  which  she  hoped  to 
exchange  for  Calais.  In  1563  peace  was  patched  up  for  a  time 
between  the  French  parties,  but  Elizabeth  refused  to  surrender 
Havre,  till  a  plague  broke  out  among  the  English  garrison,  and 
drove  the  scanty  remnants  of  it  back  to  England.  In  1564  Eliza- 
beth was  forced  to  make  peace  without  recovering  Calais.  The 
war  thus  ended  was  the  only  one  in  which  she  ever  took  part  ex- 
cept when  absolutely  no  alternative  was  left  to  her. 

If  Rome  was  to  be  victorious  she  must  use  other  than  carnal 
weapons.  The  main  cause  of  the  growth  of  Protestantism  had 
been  the  revolt  of  honest  minds  against  the  profligacy  of  the  Popes 
and  the  clergy.  The  Popes  were  now  as  austerely  moral  as  Calvin 
himself.  They  had  of  late  busied  themselves  with  bringing  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church  into  a  coherent  whole.  This  work  was  ac- 
complished by  an  ecclesiastical  council  sitting  at  Trent,  which 
completed  its  task  in  1563. 

The  mam  instruments  of  the  Popes  to  win  back  those  who 
had  broken  loose  from  their  authoritv  were  the  members  of  the 


CHURCH     AND   STATE  281 

1563*1566 

Society  of  Jesus,  usually  known  as  Jesuits.  The  society  was 
founded  in  1540  by  Ignatius  Loyola.  Each  Jesuit  was  to  give  him- 
self up  to  winning  souls  to  the  Church,  whether  from  heathenism 
or  from  heresy.  With  this  end,  the  old  soldier  who  established  the 
society  placed  it  under  more  than  military  discipline.  The  first 
virtue  of  the  Jesuit  was  obedience.  He  was  to  be  in  the  hands  of 
his  superior  as  a  stick  in  the  hands  of  a  man.  He  was  to  do  as  he 
was  bidden,  unless  he  was  convinced  that  he  was  bidden  to  commit 
sin.  Discipline  voluntarily  accepted  is  a  great  power  in  the  world, 
and  this  power  the  Jesuits  possessed. 

While  the  opposing  forces  of  Calvinism  and  the  reformed 
Papacy  were  laying  the  foundations  of  a  struggle  which  would 
split  western  Europe  in  twain,  Elizabeth  was  hampered  in  her 
efforts  to  avert  a  disruption  of  her  own  realm  by  the  necessity  of 
watching  the  proceedings  of  the  Queen  of  Scots.  If  in  Elizabeth 
the  politician  predominated  over  the  woman,  in  Mary  the  woman 
predominated  over  the  politician.  She  was  keen  of  sight,  strong  in 
feeling,  and  capable  of  forming  far-reaching  schemes,  till  the  gust 
of  passion  swept  over  her  and  ruined  her  plans  and  herself  together. 
After  her  arrival  in  Scotland  she  not  only  acknowledged  the  new 
Calvinistic  establishment,  but  put  down  with  a  strong  hand  the 
Earl  of  Huntly,  who  attempted  to  resist  it,  while  on  the  other  hand 
she  insisted,  in  defiance  of  Knox,  on  the  retention  of  the  mass  in 
her  own  chapel.  Knox  knew  well  that  Mary  would  in  the  end  be 
found  to  be  fighting  for  her  creed  and  her  party.  Her  dancing 
and  light  gayety  he  held  to  be  profane.  The  mass,  he  said,  was 
idolatry,  and  according  to  Scripture  the  idolater  must  die.  Mary, 
feeling  herself  insulted  both  as  a  queen  and  as  a  woman,  took  up 
Knox's  challenge  and  before  long,  with  her  winning  grace,  she 
had  the  greater  number  of  the  nobility  at  her  feet. 

The  sense  of  mental  superiority  could  not  satisfy  a  woman  such 
as  Mary.  Her  life  was  a  lonely  one,  and  it  was  soon  known  that 
she  was  on  the  look-out  for  a  husband.  The  choice  of  a  husband 
by  the  ruler  of  Scotland  could  not  be  indifferent  to  Elizabeth,  and 
in  1564  Elizabeth  offered  to  Mary  her  own  favorite  Dudley,  whom 
she  created  Earl  of  Leicester.  Mary  could  only  regard  the  proposal 
as  an  insult.  In  1565  she  married  her  second  cousin,  Henry  Stuart, 
Lord  Darnley.  Elizabeth  was  alarmed,  taking  the  marriage  as  a 
sign  that  Mary  intended  to  defy  her  in  everything,  and  urged  the 
Scottish    malcontents,    at    whose    head    was    Mary's    illegitimate 


282  ENGLAND 

1566-1567 

brother,  the  Earl  of  Murray,  to  rebel.  Mary  chased  them  into 
England,  where  Elizabeth  protested  loudly  and  falsely  that  she 
knew  nothing  of  their  conspiracy. 

Mary  had  taken  a  coarse-minded  fool  for  her  husband,  and  had 
to  suffer  from  him  all  the  tyranny  which  a  heartless  man  has 
in  his  power  to  inflict  on  a  woman.  Darnley  grew  jealous  of  her 
secretary,  Rizzio,  and  a  league  was  formed  against  him,  Rizzio 
was  murdered,  but  Mary  contrived  to  break  up  the  league  of  nobles. 

On  June  19,  1566,  Mary  gave  birth  to  a  son,  afterwards  James 
VI.  of  Scotland,  and  James  I.  of  England.  His  birth  gave  strength 
to  the  party  in  England  which  was  anxious  to  have  Mary  named 
heiress  of  the  crown.  Whatever  little  chance  there  was  of  Eliza- 
beth's consent  being  won  was  wrecked  through  a  catastrophe  in 
which  Mary  became  involved.  Mary  despised  her  miserable  hus- 
band as  thoroughly  as  he  deserved.  Her  passionate  heart  found  in 
the  Earl  of  Bothwell  one  who  seemed  likely  to  satisfy  her.  The 
evidence  on  Mary's  conduct  is  conflicting,  but  it  can  hardly  be 
doubted  that  she  at  least  willingly  closed  her  eyes  to  the  prepara- 
tions made  for  her  husband's  murder.  Darnley  was  blown  up  by 
gunpowder  and  slain  by  Bothwell,  or  by  Bothwell's  orders,  as  he 
was  attempting  to  escape.  Bothwell  then  obtained  a  divorce  from 
his  own  wife,  carried  Mary  off — not,  as  was  firmly  believed  at  the 
time,  against  her  will — and  married  her. 

Mary,  in  gaining  a  husband,  had  lost  Scotland.  Her  subjects 
rose  against  her  as  an  adulteress  and  a  murderess.  She  was  de- 
posed and  fled,  and  a  little  later,  reaching  Cumberland,  at  once 
appealed  to  Elizabeth,  asking  not  for  protection  only,  but  for  an 
English  army  to  replace  her  on  the  throne  of  Scotland.  Elizabeth 
could  hardly  replace  her  rival  in  power  and  was  still  less  inclined 
to  set  her  at  liberty,  lest  she  should  go  to  France,  and  bring  with 
her  to  Scotland  another  French  army.  After  innumerable  changes 
of  mind  Elizabeth  appointed  a  body  of  commissioners  to  consider 
the  case  against  Mary.  Before  them  ^Murray  produced  certain 
letters  contained  in  a  casket,  and  taken  after  Bothwell's  flight.  The 
casket  letters,  as  they  are  called,  were  alleged  to  be  in  Mary's  hand- 
writing, and,  if  genuine,  place  out  of  doubt  her  guilty  passion  for 
Bothwell  and  her  connivance  in  her  husband's  murder.  They  were 
acknowledged  by  the  commissioners  with  the  concurrence  of  certain 
English  lords  who  were  politically  partisans  of  Mary  to  be  in  her 
hand.     Mary — either,  as  her  adversaries  allege,  because  she  knew 


CHURCH     A  N  D    S  T  A  T  E  283 

1568-1570 

that  she  was  guilty,  or  as  her  supporters  allege,  because  she  was 
afraid  that  she  could  not  obtain  justice — withdrew  her  advocates, 
and  pleaded  with  Elizabeth  for  a  personal  interview.  This  Eliza- 
beth refused  to  grant,  but  on  the  other  hand  she  denied  the  right  of 
the  Scots  to  depose  their  queen.  Mary  remained  virtually  a 
prisoner  in  England.  She  was  an  interesting  prisoner,  and  in 
spite  of  all  her  faults  there  were  many  who  saw  in  her  claim  to  the 
English  crown  the  easiest  means  of  re-establishing  the  old  Church 
and  the  old  nobility. 

The  old  Church  and  the  old  nobility  were  strongest  in  the 
north,  where  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace  had  broken  out  in  1536. 
The  northern  lords,  the  Earls  of  Northumberland  and  West- 
morland, longed  to  free  Mary,  to  proclaim  her  queen  of  Eng- 
land, and  to  depose  Elizabeth.  They  were,  however,  pre- 
pared to  content  themselves  wnth  driving  Cecil  from  power,  with 
forcing  Elizabeth  to  acknowledge  Mary  as  her  heir,  and  to  with- 
draw her  support  from  Protestantism.  On  October  18  Elizabeth, 
suspecting  that  Norfolk  was  entangling  himself  with  the  Queen 
of  Scots,  sent  him  to  the  Tower.  Northumberland  and  Westmore- 
land hesitated  what  course  to  pursue,  but  a  message  from  the  queen 
requiring  their  presence  at  Court  decided  them,  and  they  rose  in 
insurrection.  Elizabeth  sent  an  army  against  the  earls.  Both  of 
them  were  timorous  and  unwarlike,  and  they  fled  to  Scotland  before 
the  year  was  ended,  leaving  their  followers  to  the  vengeance  of 
Elizabeth.  Little  mercy  was  shown  to  the  insurgents,  and  cruel 
executions  followed  this  unwise  attempt  to  check  the  progress  of 
the  Reformation. 

Elizabetli,  it  seemed  for  all  her  triumphs  over  the  earls,  had  a 
hard  struggle  still  before  her.  In  January,  1570,  the  regent  Murray 
was  assassinated  by  Hamilton  of  Bothwellhaugh,  and  Mary's 
friends  began  again  to  raise  their  heads  in  Scotland.  In  April  Pope 
Pius  V.  excommunicated  Elizabeth  and  absolved  lier  subjects  from 
their  allegiance.  In  May  a  fanatic  named  Felton  affixed  the  Pope's 
bull  of  excommunication  to  the  door  of  the  Bishop  of  London's 
house.  Felton  was  eventually  seized  and  executed,  but  Ins  deed 
was  a  challenge  which  Elizabeth  would  be  compelled  to  take  up. 
Hitherto  she  had  trusted  to  time  to  bring  her  subjects  into  one 
way  of  thinking,  knowing  that  the  younger  generation  was  likely 
to  be  on  her  side.  She  had  taken  care  to  deal  as  lightly  as  possible 
with   those   who    shrank    from    abandoning   the    religion    of   their 


284  ENGLAND 

1568-1570 

childhood,  and  she  had  recently  announced  that  they  were  free  to 
believe  what  they  would  if  only  they  would  accept  her  supremacy. 
The  Pope  had  now  made  it  clear  that  he  would  not  sanction  this 
compromise.  Englishmen  must  choose  between  him  and  their 
queen.  On  the  side  of  the  Pope  it  might  be  argued  with  truth  that 
with  Elizabeth  on  the  throne  it  would  be  impossible  to  maintain 
the  Roman  Catholic  faith  and  organization.  On  the  side  of  the 
queen  it  might  be  argued  that  if  the  Papal  claims  were  admitted 
it  would  be  impossible  to  maintain  the  authority  of  the  national 
government.  A  deadly  conflict  was  imminent,  in  which  the  liberty 
of  individuals  would  suffer  whichever  side  gained  the  upper  hand. 
Nations,  like  persons,  cannot  attend  to  more  than  one  important 
matter  at  a  time,  and  the  great  question  at  issue  in  Elizabeth's 
reign  was  whether  the  nation  was  to  be  independent  of  all  foreign 
powers  in  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  in  civil  affairs. 


Chapter   XXIX 

ELIZABETH   AND   THE    EUROPEAN   CONFLICT 

1570— 1587 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  Elizabeth,  A.D.  1558-1603 — The  Execution  of  the  Duke 
OF  Norfolk,  1572 — The  Foundation  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  1572 — 
The  Arrival  of  the  Jesuits,  1580 — The  Association,  1584 — 
Babington's  Plot,  1586 — Execution  of  Mary  Stuart,  1587 

IF  the  Catholic  powers  of  the  continent  had  been  able  to  assist 
the  English  Catholics  Elizabeth  would  hardly  have  suppressed 
the  rising  in  the  north.  It  happened,  however,  that  neither  in 
the  Spanish  Netherlands  nor  in  France  were  the  governments  in  a 
position  to  quarrel  with  her.  In  the  Netherlands  Philip  sent  the 
Duke  of  Alva,  a  relentless  soldier,  to  establish  the  absolute  authority 
of  the  king  and  the  absolute  authority  of  the  Papacy.  He  had 
therefore  no  men  to  spare  to  send  to  aid  the  English  Catholics. 
In  France  the  civil  war  had  broken  out  afresh  in  1568,  and  the 
king  and  his  mother  took  alarm  lest  the  Catholics  should  become 
too  powerful  for  the  royal  authority,  and  in  1570  a  peace  was 
signed  once  more,  the  French  king  refusing  to  be  the  instrument  of 
persecution  and  being  very  much  afraid  of  the  establishment  of  a 
Catholic  government  in  England  which  might  give  support  to  the 
Catholics  of  France.  Accordingly  in  1570,  France  would  not  in- 
terfere in  England,  if  she  could,  while  Spain  could  not  interfere  if 
she  would. 

For  all  that,  Elizabeth's  danger  was  great.  In  1570  she  had 
done  her  best  to  embroil  parties  in  Scotland  lest  they  should  join 
against  herself.  At  home  Elizabeth  expected  a  fresh  outbreak, 
and  could  not  be  certain  that  Alva  would  be  unable  to  support 
it  when  it  occurred.  Cecil  accordingly  pleaded  hard  with  her  to 
marry  the  frivolous  Duke  of  Anjou.  He  thought  that  unless  she 
married  and  had  children  her  subjects  would  turn  from  her  to 
Mary,  who,  having  already  a  son,  would  give  them  an  assured  suc- 
cession.    If  she  was  to.  marry,  an  alliance  with  the  tolerant  Govern- 

2S5 


286  ENGL  A  N  D 

1570-1571 

ment  of  France  was  better  than  any  other.  EHzabeth  indeed  con- 
sented to  open  negotiations  for  the  marriage,  though  it  was  most 
unhkely  that  she  would  ever  really  make  up  her  mind  to  it. 
The  English  Catholics  in  consequence  flung  themselves  into  the 
arms  of  the  King  of  Spain,  and  the  Ridolfi  plot  looked  to  the 
dethronement  of  Elizabeth  by  Spanish  troops,  and  the  marriage 
of  Norfolk  to  Mary,  the  latter  to  become  queen. 

Elizabeth's  temporizing  policy  had  naturally  strengthened  the 
Calvinism  of  the  Calvinistic  clergy.  In  every  generation  there 
are  some  who  ask  not  what  is  expedient  but  what  is  true,  and  the 
very  fact  that  they  aim  at  truth,  in  defiance  of  all  earthly  considera- 
tions, not  merely  assures  them  influence,  but  diffuses  around  them 
a  life  and  vigor  which  would  be  entirely  wanting  if  all  men  were 
content  to  support  that  which  is  politically  or  socially  convenient. 
Such  were  the  best  of  the  English  Puritans,  so  c^.lled  because, 
though  they  did  not  insist  upon  the  abolition  of  episcopacy  or  the 
establishment  of  the  Calvinistic  discipline,  they  contended  for  what 
they  called  purity  of  worship,  which  meant  the  rejection  of  such 
rites  and  vestments  as  reminded  them  of  what  they  termed  the 
idolatry  of  the  Roman  Church.  Elizabeth  and  Parker  had  from 
time  to  time  interfered,  and  some  of  the  Puritan  leaders  had  been 
deprived  of  their  benefices  for  refusing  to  wear  the  cap  and 
surplice. 

From  1566  to  1571  Elizabeth  abstained  from  summoning  a 
Parliament,  having  been  far  more  economical  than  any  one  of  the 
last  three  sovereigns.  Early  in  her  reign  she  had  restored  the 
currency,  and  after  the  session  of  1566  had  actually  returned  to 
her  subjects  a  subsidy  which  had  been  voted  to  her  and  which  had 
been  already  collected.  Her  reason  for  avoiding  Parliaments  was 
political.  Neither  of  the  Houses  was  likely  to  favor  her  ecclesi- 
astical policy.  The  House  of  Lords  wanted  her  to  go  backwards 
— to  declare  Mary  her  successor  and  to  restore  the  mass.  The 
House  of  Commons  wanted  her  to  go  forwards — to  marry,  and 
have  children  of  her  own.  and  to  alter  the  Prayer  Book  in  a  Puri- 
tan direction.  Those  who  admired  the  existing  Church  system 
were  but  few.  The  majority  of  the  nation,  even  if  those  who 
refused  to  accept  the  Royal  supremacy  were  left  out  of  account, 
was  undoubtedly  sutlkiently  attached  to  the  old  state  of  things  to 
be  favorable  at  least  to  Clary's  claim  to  be  acknowledged  as  heir  to 
the  throne.     To  Elizabeth  it  was  of  the  first  importance  that  the 


EUROPEAN    CONFLICT  287 

1571-1572 

influence  of  the  Crown  should  be  used  to  reduce  the  numbers  of 
such  men  in  the  House  of  Commons.  If,  however,  they  were  kept 
out,  there  was  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  favor  the  election  of 
Puritans,  or  at  least  of  those  who  had  a  leaning  towards 
Puritanism.  The  queen,  therefore,  having  to  make  her  choice 
between  those  who  objected  to  her  proceedings  as  too  Protestant 
and  those  who  objected  to  them  as  not  Protestant  enough,  not 
unnaturally  preferred  the  latter. 

In  1 57 1  Elizabeth  had  to  deal  with  a  Puritan  House  of  Com- 
mons. The  House  granted  supplies,  and  wanted  to  impose  new 
penalties  on  the  Roman  Catholics  and  to  suppress  ecclesiastical 
abuses.  She  had  her  way,  however,  and  the  Prayer  Book  remained 
untouched.  She  was  herself  a  better  representative  of  the  nation 
than  the  House  of  Commons,  but  as  yet  she  represented  it  only  as 
standing  between  two  hostile  parties ;  though  she  hoped  that  the 
time  would  come  when  she  would  have  a  strong  middle  party  of 
her  own. 

For  the  present  Elizabeth's  chief  enemies  were  the  conspirators 
who  were  aiming  at  placing  Mary  on  her  throne.  The  Ridolfi 
plot  proceeded  slowly.  Alva  was  cautious,  and  thought  the  at- 
tempt dangerous  unless  Elizabeth  had  first  been  killed  or  cap- 
tured. Philip  was  consulted,  gave  his  approval  to  the  murder, 
but  afterwards  drew  back,  though  he  ordered  xA.lva  to  proceed 
with  the  invasion.  In  the  meanwhile  Cecil,  who  had  just  been 
made  Lord  Burghley,  came  upon  traces  of  the  plot.  Norfolk  was 
arrested,  and  before  the  end  of  the  year  everything  was  known. 
Though  the  proposal  of  a  marriage  between  Elizabeth  and  the  Duke 
of  Anjou  had  lately  broken  down,  she  now,  in  her  anxiety  to  find 
support  in  France  against  Spain,  entered  into  a  negotiation  to 
marry  Anjou's  brother,  the  Duke  of  Alenqon,  a  vicious  lad  twenty- 
one  years  younger  than  herself.  Then  slie  was  free  to  act.  She 
drove  the  Spanish  ambassador  out  of  England  and  Norfolk  was 
tried  and  convicted  of  treason.  A  fresh  Parliament  meeting  in 
1572  urged  the  queen  to  consent  to  the  execution  of  Mary.  Eliza- 
beth refused,  but  she  sent  Norfolk  to  the  blcKk. 

The  rising  in  the  North  and  the  invitation  to  bring  a  Spanish 
armiy  into  England  could  not  but  fan  the  zeal  of  the  Puritans.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  reign  they  had  contented  themselves  with  call- 
ing for  the  abolition  of  certain  ceremonies.  A  more  decided  party 
now  added  a  demand  for  the  abolition  of  episcopacy  and  the  estab- 


288  ENGLAND 

1571-1572 

lishment  of  Presbyterianism  and  of  the  complete  Calvinistic  disci- 
pline. The  leader  of  this  party  was  Thomas  Cartwright,  a  theo- 
logical professor  at  Cambridge,  the  university  which  had  produced 
the  greater  number  of  the  reformers,  as  it  now  produced  the 
greater  number  of  Puritans.  In  1570  Cartwright  was  expelled 
from  his  Professorship.  Pie  sympathized  with  "  An  x\dmonition  to 
Parliament"  written  in  1572  by  two  of  his  disciples,  and  himself 
wrote  "  A  Second  Admonition  to  Parliament,"  to  second  their  views. 
Cartwright  did  not  claim  for  the  Puritans  toleration  but  supremacy. 
All  active  religious  feeling  being  enlisted  either  on  the  Papal  or 
the  Puritanical  side,  Elizabeth's  reformed  but  not  Puritan  Church 
seemed  likely  to  be  crushed  between  two  forces.  It  was  saved  by  the 
existence  of  a  large  body  of  men  who  cared  for  other  things  more 
than  for  religious  disputes,  and  who  were  ready  to  defend  the  queen 
as  ruler  of  the  nation  without  any  special  regard  for  the  ecclesi- 
astical system  which  she  maintained. 

Of  all  Elizabeth's  subjects  there  were  none  who  stood  their 
country  in  such  good  stead  in  the  impending  conflict  with  Spain 
and  the  Papacy  as  the  mariners.  Hardy  and  reckless,  they  cared 
little  for  theological  distinctions  or  for  forms  of  Church  govern- 
ment, their  first  instinct  being  to  fill  their  own  purses  either  by 
honest  trade  if  it  might  be,  or  by  piracy  if  that  seemed  likely  to  be 
more  profitable.  Even  before  Elizabeth's  accession  the  Channel 
and  the  seas  beyond  it  swarmed  with  English  pirates.  Though  the 
pirates  cared  nothing  for  the  nationality  of  the  vessels  which  they 
plundered,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  greatest  loss  should  fall  on 
Spain.  Spain  was  the  first  maritime  power  in  the  world,  and  her 
galleons  as  they  passed  up  to  Antwerp  to  exchange  the  silks  and 
spices  of  the  East  for  the  commodities  of  Europe  fell  an  easy  prey 
to  the  swift  and  well-armed  cruisers  which  put  out  from  English 
harbors.  The  Spaniards  retaliated  by  seizing  English  sailors 
wherever  they  could  lay  their  hands  upon  them,  sometimes  hang- 
ing them,  sometimes  destroying  them  with  starvation,  sometimes 
handing  them  over  to  the  Inquisition. 

Every  year  tlie  hatred  between  the  mariners  of  Spain  and 
England  grew  more  bitter,  and  it  was  not  long  before  English 
sailors  angered  the  king  of  Spain  by  crossing  the  Atlantic  to  trade 
or  plunder  in  tlie  West  Indies,  where  both  the  islands  and  the 
mainland  of  Mexico  and  South  America  were  full  of  Spanish 
settlements.     In   those    days    a    country   which    sent   out    colonies 


EUROPEAN    CONFLICT  289 

1572-1573 

claimed  the  sole  right  of  trading"  with  them  and  Spain  claimed  the 
American  half  of  the  world  from  the  gift  of  Pope  Alexander  VI. 
English  sailors  refusing  to  recognize  this  pretension  sailed  to  the 
Spanish  settlements  to  trade,  and  attacked  the  Spanish  officials  who 
tried  to  prevent  them.  Englishmen  kidnaped  negroes  in  Africa 
to  sell  them  in  the  West  Indies.  A  curious  combination  of  the 
love  of  gain  and  of  Protestantism  sprang  up  among  the  sailors, 
who  had  no  idea  that  to  sell  black  men  was  in  any  way  wrong. 
There  was  money  enough  to  be  got,  and  sometimes  there  would 
be  hard  fighting  and  the  gain  or  loss  of  all. 

The  noblest  of  these  mariners  was  Francis  Drake.  Sickened 
by  one  experience  of  the  slave  trade,  and  refusing  to  take  any 
further  part  in  it,  he  flew  at  the  wealth  of  the  Spanish  Government. 
In  1572  he  sailed  for  Nombre  de  Dios,  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama.  Thither  were  brought  once  a  year  gold  and 
silver  from  the  mines  of  Peru.  In  the  governor's  house  Drake 
found  a  pile  of  silver  bars.  "  I  have  now,''  he  said  to  his  men, 
"  brought  you  to  the  mouth  of  the  treasury  of  the  world."  It  was 
his  firm  conviction  that  he  was  serving  God  in  robbing  the  king  of 
Spain.  Before  he  returned  some  Indians  showed  him  from  a 
tree  on  the  isthmus  the  waters  of  the  Pacific,  which  no  civilized 
people  except  the  Spaniards  had  ever  navigated.  Drake  threw  him- 
self on  his  knees,  praying  to  God  to  give  him  life  and  to  allow  him 
to  sail  an  English  vessel  on  those  seas. 

Exiles  from  the  Netherlands  took  refuge  on  the  sea  from 
Alva's  tyranny,  and  plundered  Spanish  vessels  as  Englishmen  had 
done  before.  In  1572  a  party  of  these  seized  Brill  and  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  Dutch  Republic.  They  called  on  Charles  IX.  of 
France  to  help  them,  and  he  at  first  wished  to,  but  being  under  the 
influence  of  his  mother  was  frightened  into  the  fearful  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew.  By  this  time  the  provinces  of  Holland  and 
Zeeland  had  risen  against  Spain.  They  placed  at  their  head  the 
Prince  of  Orange  with  the  title  of  Stadtholder  or  Lieutenant  and 
began  their  long  war  against  Spain.  Alva,  despite  his  cruelty, 
failed  to  subdue  them,  and  Spain,  witli  all  the  wealth  of  the  Indies 
pouring  into  it,  was  impoverished  by  the  vaslness  of  the  work 
which  Philip  had  undertaken  in  trying  to  maintain  the  power  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  all  western  lun-ope.  The  expenses 
of  the  war  in  the  Netherlands  exhausted  his  treasury,  and  though 
Alexander,  Duke  of  Parma,  won  over  the  Catholic  provinces  of  the 


290  ENGLAND 

1573-1580 

southern  Netherlands  to  his  side,  by  the  Union  of  Utrecht  the 
Prince  of  Orange  formed  a  new  confederate  repubhc  of  the  seven 
northern  provinces. 

The  Spaniards  were  no  longer  able  to  interfere  in  England. 
Elizabeth  was  equally  safe  from  the  side  of  France.  In  1574 
Charles  IX.  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Elizabeth's  old  suitor  Anjou 
as  Henry  III.  There  were  fresh  civil  wars  which  gave  him  enough 
to  do  at  home.  In  1573  Elizabeth  sent  aid  to  the  party  of  the 
young  king  in  Scotland,  and  suppressed  the  last  remnants  of 
Mary's  party  there.  In  England  she  pursued  her  old  policy.  Men 
might  think  what  they  would  but  they  must  not  discuss  their 
opinions  openly.  There  must  be  as  little  preaching  as  possible, 
and  when  the  clergy  began  to  hold  meetings  called  prophesyings 
for  discussion  on  the  Scriptures,  she  ordered  Grindal,  who  had 
succeeded  Parker  as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  to  suppress  them, 
and  on  his  refusal  in  1577  suspended  him  from  his  office,  and 
put  down  the  prophesyings  herself. 

Elizabeth  had  no  sympathy  with  the  heroic  Netherlanders, 
who  fought  for  liberty  of  conscience,  but  she  had  sympathy  with 
the  mariners  who  by  fair  means  or  foul  brought  treasure  into  the 
realm.  In  1577  Drake  sailed  for  that  Pacific  which  he  had  long 
been  eager  to  enter.  Passing  through  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  he 
found  himself  alone  on  the  unknown  ocean  with  the  Pelican,  a 
little  ship  of  100  tons.  He  ranged  up  the  coast  of  South  America, 
seizing  treasure  where  he  landed,  but  never  doing  any  cruel  deed. 
With  his  treasure  he  sailed  home  by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  arriving  in  England  in  1580,  being  the  first  commander 
who  had  circumnavigated  the  globe.  The  king  of  Spain  was 
furious,  and  demanded  back  the  wealth  of  which  his  subjects  had 
been  robbed.  Elizabeth  gave  him  good  words,  but  not  a  penny  of 
money  or  money's  worth. 

Since  the  death  of  Henry  VIII.  the  management  of  Ireland 
had  been  increasingly  difficult.  The  Reformation  made  no  prog- 
ress there  and  strife  continued  between  Irish  and  English.  From 
the  time  of  the  settlement  of  King's  and  Queen's  counties  all 
chance  of  a  peaceable  arrangement  was  at  an  end.  It  was  Mary 
who  first  sent  English  colonists  to  occupy  the  lands  of  the  turbu- 
lent Irish  in  King's  County  and  Queen's  County — then  much 
smaller  than  at  present.  A  war  of  extermination  at  once  began. 
Massacre   was   met   by   massacre   and   rebellion   by  extermination. 


EUROPEAN    CONFLICT  291 

1580-1582 

Elizabeth's  servants  feared  the  coming  of  the  Spanish  through  Ire- 
land, while  the  English  Catholics,  and  especially  the  English  Catho- 
lic clergy  in  exile  on  the  Continent,  fancied,  wrongly,  that  the 
Irish  were  fighting  for  the  Papacy,  and  not  for  tribal  independence, 
or,  rather,  for  bare  life,  which  tribal  independence  alone  secured.  In 
1580  a  large  number  of  Spaniards  and  Italians  landed  at  Smerwick, 
but  was  overpowered  and  slaughtered  by  Lord  Grey,  the  Lord 
Deputy.  This  was  followed  by  an  unsuccessful  rising,  and  it  is 
said  that  in  1582  no  less  than  30,000  perished — mostly  of  starva- 
tion— in  a  single  year. 

In  England  the  landing  of  a  Papal  force  at  Smerwick  produced 
the  greater  alarm  because  Parma  had  been  gaining  ground  in  the 
Netherlands,  and  the  time  might  soon  come  when  a  Spanish  army 
would  be  available  for  the  invasion  of  England.  For  the  present 
what  the  Government  feared  was  any  interruption  to  the  process 
by  which  the  new  religion  was  replacing  the  old.  In  1571  there 
had  been  an  act  of  Parliament  in  answer  to  the  Papal  Bull  of 
Deposition,  declaring  all  who  brought  Bulls  into  the  country,  and 
all  who  were  themselves  reconciled  to  the  see  of  Rome,  or  who 
reconciled  others,  to  be  traitors,  but  for  a  long  time  no  use 
was  made  by  Elizabeth  of  these  powers.  The  Catholic  exiles,  how- 
ever, had  witnessed  with  sorrow  the  gradual  decay  of  their  religion 
in  England,  and  in  1568  William  Allen,  one  of  their  number,  had 
founded  a  college  at  Douai  (removed  in  1578  to  Rheims)  as  a 
seminary  for  missionaries  to  England.  It  was  not  long  before 
seminary  priests,  as  the  missionaries  were  called,  began  to  land 
in  England  to  revive  the  zeal  of  their  countrymen,  but  it  was  not 
till  1577  that  one  of  them,  Cuthbert  ALiyne,  was  executed,  tech- 
nically for  bringing  in  a  copy  of  a  Bull  of  a  trivial  character,  but 
really  for  maintaining  that  Catholics  would  be  justified  in  rising 
to  assist  a  foreign  force  sent  to  reduce  England  to  obedience  to 
the  Papacy.  There  were,  in  fact,  two  rival  powers  inconsistent 
with  one  another.  If  the  Papal  power  was  to  prevail,  the  queen's 
authority  must  be  got  rid  of.  If  the  queen's  power  was  to  prevail, 
the  Pope's  authority  must  be  got  rid  of.  In  1580  two  Jesuits, 
Campion  and  Parsons,  landed.  They  brought  with  them  an  ex- 
planation of  the  Bull  of  Deposition,  which  practically  meant  that 
no  one  need  act  on  it  till  it  was  convenient  to  do  so.  They  went 
about  making  converts  and  strengthening  the  lukewarm  in  the 
resolution  to   stand  by  their  faith. 


^92  ENGLAND 

1580-1584 

Elizabeth  in  her  dread  of  rehgious  strife  had  done  her  best  to 
silence  religious  discussion  and  even  religious  teaching.  Men  in 
an  age  of  religious  controversy  are  eager  to  believe  something. 
All  the  more  vigorous  of  the  Protestants  were  at  this  time  Puritans, 
and  now  the  more  vigorous  of  those  who  could  not  be  Puritans 
welcomed  the  Jesuits  with  joy.  In  1581  Parliament,  seeing  noth- 
ing in  what  had  happened  but  a  conspiracy  against  the  Crown, 
passed  the  first  of  the  acts  which  became  known  as  the  Recusancy 
laws.  In  addition  to  the  penalties  on  reconciliation  to  Rome  and 
the  introduction  of  Bulls,  fines  and  imprisonment  were  to  be  in- 
flicted for  hearing  or  saying  mass,  and  fines  upon  lay  recusants — 
that  is  to  say,  persons  who  refused  to  go  to  church.  Catholics  were 
from  this  time  frequently  subjected  to  torture  to  drive  them  to 
give  information  which  would  lead  to  the  apprehension  of  the 
priests.  Campion  was  arrested  and  executed  after  cruel  torture; 
Parsons  escaped.  If  the  Government  and  the  Parliament  did  not 
see  the  whole  of  the  causes  of  the  Jesuit  revival,  they  were  not 
wrong  in  seeing  that  there  was  political  danger.  Campion  was  an 
enthusiast.  Parsons  was  a  cool-headed  intriguer,  and  he  con- 
tinued from  the  continent  to  direct  the  threads  of  a  conspiracy 
which  aimed  at  Elizabeth's  life. 

Elizabeth  was  seldom  startled,  but  her  ministers  were  the 
more  frightened  because  the  power  of  Spain  was  growing.  In 
1580  Philip  took  possession  of  Portugal  and  the  Portuguese  colo- 
nies, while  in  the  Netherlands  Parma  was  steadily  gaining  ground. 
Elizabeth  had  long  been  nursing  the  idea  of  the  Alengon  marriage 
and  in  1581  it  seemed  as  if  she  was  in  earnest  about  it.  She  enter- 
tained the  Duke  at  Greenwich,  gave  him  a  kiss  and  a  ring,  then 
changing  her  mind  sent  him  off  to  the  Netlierlands,  where  he  hoped 
to  be  appointed  by  the  Dutch  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  independent 
states.  There  were  plots  against  William  of  Orange  and  Ehza- 
beth,  and  aid  was  expected  from  Scotland,  wliere  the  young  James 
had  become  the  tool  of  a  Catholic  intriguer.  Philip,  however,  was 
too  dilatory  to  succeed.  In  August  James  was  seized  by  some 
Protestant  Lords.  In  1583  there  was  a  renewal  of  the  danger. 
The  foolish  Alengon  made  some  false  moves  and  a  Spanish  invasion 
of  England  from  the  Netherlands  once  more  became  feasible.  In 
November,  1583,  a  certain  Francis  Tin-ogmorton,  liaving  been 
arrested  and  racked,  made  known  to  Elizal)eth  the  whole  story  of 
the  intended  invasion  of  the  army  of  Guise.      In  January,    1584, 


EUROPEAN     CONFLICT  293 

1584-1586 

she  sent  the  Spanish  ambassador,  Mendoza,  out  of  England.  On 
June  29  Balthazar  Gerard  assassinated  the  Prince  of  Orange, 

Those  who  had  planned  the  murder  of  the  Prince  of  Orange 
were  planning  the  murder  of  Elizabeth.  In  their  eyes  she  was  a 
usurper,  who  by  main  force  held  her  subjects  from  all  hope 
of  salvation  by  keeping  them  in  ignorance  of  the  teaching  of  the 
true  Church,  and  they  accordingly  drew  the  inference  that  it  was 
lawful  to  murder  her  and  to  place  Mary  on  her  throne.  They 
did  not  see  that  they  had  to  do  with  a  nation  and  not  with  a  queen 
alone,  and  that,  whether  the  nation  was  as  yet  Protestant  or  not, 
it  was  heart  and  soul  with  Elizabeth  against  assassins  and  in- 
vaders. In  November,  1584,  at  the  instigation  of  the  Council,  the 
mass  of  Englishmen — irrespective  of  creed — bound  themselves  in 
an  association  not  only  to  defend  the  queen,  but,  in  case  of  her 
murder,  to  put  to  death  the  person  for  whose  sake  the  crime  had 
been  committed — or,  in  other  words,  to  send  ]\Iary  to  the  grave 
instead  of  to  the  throne.  In  1585  this  association,  with  consider- 
able modifications,  was  confirmed  by  Parliament.  At  the  same 
time  an  act  was  passed  banishing  all  Jesuits  and  seminary  priests, 
and  directing  that  they  should  be  put  to  death  if  tliey  returned. 

In  the  meantime  PhiHp's  power  was  still  growing.  The 
wretched  Alengon  died  in  1584,  and  a  far  distant  cousin  of  the 
childless  Henry  III.,  Henry,  king-  of  Navarre,  wlio  was  a  Hugue- 
not, became  heir  to  the  French  throne.  As  Guise  had  now  enough 
to  do  at  home,  Philip  took  the  invasion  of  England  into  his  own 
hands.  He  had  first  to  extend  his  power  in  the  Netherlands.  In 
August  the  great  port  of  Antwerp  surrendered  to  Parma.  The 
Dutch  had  offered  to  make  Elizabeth  their  scjvereign,  and,  though 
she  had  prudently  refused,  she  sent  an  army  to  their  aid,  which 
accomplished  nothing.  What  Elizabeth  did  not  do  was  done  by 
a  crowd  of  young  Englishmen  who  pressed  over  to  the 
Netherlands  to  fight  as  volunteers  for  Dutch  freedom.  The  best 
known  of  these  was  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  whose  head  and  heart  alike 
seemed  to  qualify  him  for  a  foremost  place  among  the  new 
generation  of  Englishmen.  Parma  took  Zutphen.  and  the  territory 
of  the  Dutch  Republic — the  bulwark  of  England — was  the  smaller 
by  its  loss.  By  sea  England  more  than  held  her  own,  and  in  1586 
Drake  returned  from  a  voyage  to  the  West  Indies  laden  with  spoils. 

The  Spanish  invasion  being  still  delayed,  a  new  plot  for 
murdering  Elizabeth  was  formed.     A  number  of  young  Catholics 


294  ENGLAND 

1586 

(of  whom  Anthony  Babing-ton  was  the  most  prominent)  had  been 
allowed  to  remain  at  Court  by  Elizabeth,  who  was  perfectly  fear- 
less. Acting  under  the  instructions  of  a  priest  named  Ballard,  they 
now  sought  basely  to  take  advantage  of  their  easy  access  to  her 
person  to  assassinate  her.  They  were  detected  and  executed,  and 
Walsingham,  the  Secretary  of  State  who  conducted  the  detective 
department  of  the  government,  discovered,  or  said  that  he  had 
discovered,  evidence  of  Alary  Stuart's  approving  knowledge  of  the 
conspiracy.  Elizabeth's  servants  felt  that  there  was  but  one  way 
of  saving  the  life  of  the  queen,  and  that  was  by  taking  the  life  of 
her  whose  existence  made  it  worth  while  to  assassinate  Elizabeth. 
Mary  was  brought  to  trial  and  condemned  to  death  on  a  charge  of 
complicity  in  Babington's  plot.  When  Parliament  met  it  petitioned 
Elizabeth  to  execute  the  sentence.  Elizabeth  could  not  make  up 
her  mind.  She  knew  that  Alary's  execution  would  save  herself 
and  the  country  from  enormous  danger,  but  she  shrank  from  order- 
ing the  deed  to  be  done.  She  signed  the  warrant  for  Alary's 
death,  and  then  asked  Alary's  jailer  Paulet  to  save  her  from  re- 
sponsibility by  murdering  his  prisoner.  On  Paulet's  refusal  she 
continued  her  vacillations,  till  the  Council  authorized  Davison, 
Walsingham's  colleague  in  the  Secretaryship,  to  send  off  the  war- 
rant without  further  orders. 

On  February  8,  1587,  Mary  Stuart  was  beheaded  at  Fothering- 
hay.  Elizabeth  carried  out  to  the  last  the  part  which  she  had 
assumed,  threw  the  blame  on  Davison,  dismissed  him  from  her 
service,  and  fined  him  heavily.  After  Mary's  death  the  attack  on 
England  would  have  to  be  conducted  in  open  day.  It  would  be 
no  advantage  to  Philip  and  the  Pope  that  Elizabeth  should  be 
murdered  if  her  place  was  to  be  taken,  not  by  Mary,  but  by  Mary's 
Protestant  son,  James  of  Scotland. 


Chapter  XXX 

ELIZABETH'S   YEARS    OF   TRIUMPH.     1587— 1603 

LEADING  DATES 

Reign  of  Elizabeth,  A.D.  1558-1603 — Drake  Singes  the  King  of 
Spain's  Beard,  1587 — The  Defeat  of  the  Armada,  1588 — The  Rising 
OF  O'Neill,  1594 — The  Taking  of  Cadiz,  1596 — Essex  Arrives  in  Ire- 
land, 1599 — Mountjoy  Arrives  in  Ireland,  1600 — The  Monopolies 
Withdrawn,  1601 — Conquest  of  Ireland,  and  Death  of  Elizabeth, 
1603 

14FTER  Mary's  execution  Philip  claimed  the  crown  of  Eng- 
L^L  land  for  himself  or  his  daughter,  the  Infanta  Isabella, 
JL  Jl  on  the  plea  that  he  was  descended  from  a  daughter  of 
John  of  Gaunt,  and  prepared  a  great  fleet  in  the  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese harbors  for  the  invasion  of  England.  In  attempting  to  over- 
throw Elizabeth  he  was  eager  not  merely  to  suppress  English  Prot- 
estantism, but  to  put  an  end  to  English  smuggling  and  piracy  in 
Spanish  America,  and  to  stop  the  assistance  given  by  Englishmen 
to  the  Netherlanders  who  had  rebelled  against  him.  Before  his 
fleet  was  ready  to  sail  Drake  appeared  off  his  coast,  running  into 
his  ports,  burning  his  store-ships,  and  thus  making  an  invasion  im- 
possible for  that  year  (1587).  Drake,  as  he  said  on  his  return, 
had  singed  the  king  of  Spain's  beard. 

The  Invincible  Armada,^  as  some  foolish  Spaniards  called 
Philip's  great  fleet,  set  out  at  last  in  1588.  It  was  to  sail  up  the 
Channel  to  Flanders,  and  to  transport  Parma  and  his  army  to 
England.  Parma's  soldiers  were  the  best  disciplined  veterans  in 
Europe,  while  Elizabeth's  were  raw  militia,  who  had  never  seen  a 
shot  fired  in  actual  war.  If,  therefore,  Parma  succeeded  in  land- 
ing, it  would  probably  go  hard  with  England.  It  was,  therefore, 
in  England's  interest  to  fight  the  Armada  at  sea  rather  than  on 
land. 

Even  at  sea  the  odds  were  in  appearance  against  the  English. 
The  Spanish  ships  were  not  indeed  so  much  larger  than  the  largest 

1  "  Armada  "  was  the  Spanish  name  for  any  armed  fleet. 
£95 


296  ENGLAND 

1588 

English  vessels  as  has  often  been  said,  but  they  were  somewhat 
larger,  and  they  were  built  so  as  to  rise  much  higher  out  of  the 
water,  and  to  carry  a  greater  number  of  men.  In  fact,  the  su- 
periority was  all  on  the  English  side. 

The  Spanish  ships  were  prepared  for  a  mode  of  warfare 
which  had  hitherto  been  customary.  In  such  ships  the  soldiers 
were  more  numerous  than  the  sailors,  and  the  decks  were  raised 
high  above  the  water,  in  order  that  the  soldiers  might  command 
with  their  muskets  the  decks  of  smaller  vessels  at  close  quarters. 
The  Spaniards,  trusting  to  this  method  of  fighting,  had  not  troubled 
themselves  to  improve  their  marine  artillery.  The  cannon  of  their 
largest  ships  were  few,  and  the  shot  which  they  were  capable  of 
firing  was  light.  Philip's  system  of  requiring  absolute  submission 
in  Church  and  State  had  resulted  in  an  uninventive  frame  of  mind 
in  those  who  carried  out  his  orders.  He  had  himself  shown  how 
little  he  cared  for  ability  in  his  selection  of  an  admiral  for  his  fleet. 
That  post  having  become  vacant  by  the  death  of  the  best  seaman 
in  Spain,  Philip  ordered  the  Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia  to  take  his 
place.  The  Duke  answered — with  perfect  truth — that  he  knew, 
nothing  about  the  sea  and  nothing  about  war;  but  Philip,  in  spite 
of  his  candor,  bade  him  go,  and  go  he  did. 

Very  different  was  the  equipment  of  the  English  fleet.  Com- 
posed partly  of  the  queen's  ships,  but  mainly  of  volunteers  from 
every  port,  it  was  commanded  by  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham,  a 
Catholic  by  conviction.  The  very  presence  of  such  a  man  was  a 
token  of  a  patriotic  fervor  of  which  Philip  and  the  Jesuits  had  taken 
no  account,  but  which  made  the  great  majority  of  Catholics  draw 
their  swords  for  their  queen  and  country.  With  him  were  old 
sailors  like  Frobisher,  who  had  made  his  way  through  the  ice  of 
Arctic  seas,  or  like  Drake,  who  had  beaten  Spaniards  till  they  knew 
their  own  superiority.  That  superiority  was  based  not  merely  on 
greater  skill  as  sailors,  but  on  the  possession  of  better  ships.  Eng- 
lish shipbuilders  had  adopted  an  improved  style  of  naval  archi- 
tecture, having  constructed  vessels  which  v;ould  sail  faster  and  be 
more  easily  handled  than  those  of  the  older  fashion,  and — what  was 
of  still  greater  importance — had  built  them  so  as  to  carry  more 
and  heavier  cannon.  Hence,  the  English  fleet,  on  board  of  which 
the  number  of  sailors  exceeded  that  of  the  soldiers,  was  in  reality 
— if  only  it  could  avoid  fighting  at  close  quarters — far  superior  to 
that  of  the  enemy. 


ELIZABETH'S     TRIUMPH  ^97 

1588 

When  the  Armada  was  sighted  at  the  mouth  of  the  Channel, 
the  Enghsh  commander  was  playing  bowls  with  his  captains  on 
Plymouth  Hoe.  Drake  refused  to  break  off  his  amusement,  say- 
ing that  there  was  time  to  finish  the  game  and  to  beat  the  Spaniards 
too.  The  wind  was  blowing  strongly  from  the  southwest,  and  ha 
recommended  Lord  Howard  to  let  the  Spaniards  pass,  that  the 
English  fleet  might  follow  them  up  with  the  wind  behind  it.  When 
once  they  had  gone  by  they  were  at  the  mercy  of  their  English 
pursuers,  who  kept  out  of  their  way  whenever  the  Spaniards  turned 
in  pursuit.  The  superiority  of  the  English  gunnery  soon  told, 
and,  after  losing  ships  in  the  voyage  up  the  Channel,  the  Armada 
put  into  Calais.  The  English  captains  sent  in  fire-ships  and  drove 
the  Spaniards  out.  Then  came  a  fight  off  Gravelines — if  fight  it 
could  be  called — in  which  the  helpless  mass  of  the  Armada  was  rid- 
dled with  English  shot.  The  wind  rose  into  a  storm,  and  pursuers 
and  pursued  were  driven  on  past  the  coast  of  Flanders,  where 
Parma's  soldiers  were  blockaded  by  a  Dutch  fleet.  Parma  had 
hoped  that  the  Armada  when  it  came  would  set  him  free,  and 
convoy  him  across  to  England.  As  he  saw  the  tall  ships  of  Spain 
hurrying  past  before  the  enemy  and  the  storm,  he  learned  that  the 
enterprise  on  which  he  had  set  his  heart  could  never  be  carried  out. 

The  Spanish  fleet  was  driven  northwards  without  hope  of  re- 
turn, and  narrowly  escaped  wreck  on  the  flats  of  Holland.  "  There 
was  never  anything  pleased  me  better,"  wrote  Drake,  as  he  fol- 
lowed hard,  "  than  seeing  the  enemy  flying  with  a  southerly  wind 
to  the  northwards."  Before  long  even  Drake  had  had  enough. 
Elizabeth,  having  with  her  usual  economy  kept  the  ships  short 
of  powder,  they  were  forced  to  come  back.  Tlie  Spaniards  had 
been  too  roughly  handled  to  return  home  by  the  way  they  came. 
Round  the  north  of  Scotland  and  the  west  of  Ireland  they  went, 
strewing  the  coast  with  wrecks.  About  120  of  their  ships  had 
entered  the  Channel,  but  only  54  returned.  "  I  sent  you."  said 
Philip  to  his  admiral,  "  to  fight  against  men,  and  not  with  the 
winds."  Elizabeth,  too,  credited  the  storms  with  her  success. 
She  struck  a  medal  with  the  inscription,  "  God  blew  with  his  Vv^ind 
and  they  were  scattered."  The  winds  had  done  their  part,  but  the 
victory  was  mainly  due  to  the  seamansliip  of  English  mariners 
and  the  skill  of  English  shipwrights. 

Philip's  hopes  of  controlling  France  were  before  long  baffled 
as  completely  as  his  hopes  of  controllitig  England.     The  war  waged 


298  ENGLAND 

1589-1596 

by  the  Catholic  League  and  Spain  against  Henry  IV.  ended  when 
the  latter  declared  himself  a  Catholic.  Elizabeth  saw  in  Henry  IV. 
a  king  whose  position  as  a  national  sovereign  resisting  Spanish  in- 
terference much  resembled  her  own,  and  in  1589  and  again  in  1591 
she  sent  him  men  and  money.  A  close  alliance  against  Spain 
sprang  up  between  France  and  England. 

It  was  chiefly  at  sea,  however,  that  Englishmen  revenged 
themselves  for  the  attack  of  the  x^rmada.  In  1592  Drake  and 
Sir  John  Norris  sacked  Corunna,  but  failed  to  take  Lisbon.  Other 
less  notable  sailors  plundered  and  destroyed  in  the  West  Indies. 
In  1595  Drake  died  at  sea.  In  the  same  year  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
who  was  alike  distinguished  as  a  courtier,  a  soldier,  and  a  sailor, 
sailed  up  the  Orinoco  in  search  of  wealth.  In  1596  Raleigh,  to- 
gether with  Lord  Howard  of  Efflngham  and  the  young  Earl  of 
Essex,  who  was  in  high  favor  with  the  queen,  took  and  sacked 
Cadiz,  Essex  v/as  generous  and  impetuous,  but  intensely  vain, 
and  the  victory  was  followed  by  a  squabble  between  the  com- 
manders as  to  their  respective  merits. 

It  was  not  so  much  the  victories  as  the  energy  which  made 
the  victories  possible  that  diffused  wealth  and  prosperity  over 
England.  Trade  grew  together  with  piracy  and  war.  ]\Ianufac- 
tures  increased,  and  the  manufacturers  growing  in  numbers  needed 
to  be  fed.  Landed  proprietors,  in  consequence,  found  it  profitable 
to  grow  corn  instead  of  turning  their  arable  lands  into  pasture, 
as  they  had  done  at  the  beginning  of  the  century.  The  complaints 
about  inclosures  died  away.  The  results  of  wealth  appeared  in 
the  show  and  splendor  of  the  court,  where  men  decked  themselves 
in  gorgeous  attire,  but  still  more  in  the  gradual  rise  of  the  general 
standard  of  comfort. 

Even  in  ]\Iary's  days  the  good  food  of  Englishmen  had  been 
the  wonder  of  foreigners.  "  These  English,''  said  a  Spaniard, 
"  have  their  houses  of  sticks  and  dirt,  but  they  fare  commonly  as 
well  as  the  king."  In  Elizabeth's  time  the  houses  were  improved. 
Many  windows,  which  had,  except  in  the  houses  of  the  great,  been 
guarded  with  horn  or  lattice,  were  now  glazed,  and  even  in  the 
mansions  of  the  nobility  large  windows  stood  in  striking  contrast 
with  the  narrow  openings  of  the  buildings  of  the  ^Middle  Ages. 
Glass  was  welcome,  because  men  no  longer  lived  in  fortified  castles, 
where,  for  the  sake  of  defense,  the  openings  were  narrow  and  in- 
frequent.     ElizaJjetlian    manor-houses,    as    they    are    now    termed, 


>1K     WAl.l'I'.U    KAl.KK.I!      \\|i     HIS     b<;N 
Puiiitlii,^    !'V    r.    /iirrl. .■>-.' 


ELIZABETH'S     TRIUMPH  299 

1558-1603 

sometimes  built  in  the  shape  of  the  letter  E,  in  honor,  as  is  some- 
times supposed,  of  the  queen's  name,  rose  all  over  the  country  to 
take  the  place  of  the  old  castles.  They  had  chimneys  to  carry  off 
the  smoke,  which,  in  former  days,  had,  in  all  but  the  largest  houses, 
been  allowed  to  escape  though  a  hole  in  the  roof. 

The  furniture  within  the  houses  underwent  a  change  as  great 
as  the  houses  themselves.  When  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne 
people  of  the  middle  class  were  content  to  lie  on  a  straw  pallet,  with 
a  log  of  wood,  or  at  the  best  a  bag  of  chaff,  under  their  heads. 
It  was  a  common  saying  that  pillows  were  fit  only  for  sick  women. 
Before  many  years  had  passed  comfortable  bedding  had  been  in- 
troduced. Pewter  platters  and  tin  spoons  replaced  wooden  ones. 
Along  with  these  improvements  was  noticed  a  universal  chase  after 
wealth,  and  farmers  complained  that  landlords  not  only  exacted 
higher  rents,  but  themselves  engaged  in  the  sale  of  the  produce  of 
their  lands. 

This  increase  of  general  prosperity  could  not  but  strengthen 
the  House  of  Commons.  It  was  mainly  composed  of  country  gen- 
tlemen, and  it  had  been  the  policy  of  the  Tudors  to  rely  upon  that 
class  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  old  nobility.  Many  of  the  country 
gentlemen  were  employed  as  justices  of  the  peace,  and  Elizabeth 
had  gladly  increased  their  powers.  When,  therefore,  they  came 
to  fulfill  their  duties  as  memliers  of  Parliament,  they  were  not  mere 
talkers  unacquainted  Vv'ith  business,  but  practical  men,  who  had 
been  used  to  deal  with  their  own  local  affairs  before  being  called 
on  to  discuss  the  affairs  of  the  country.  Various  causes  made  their 
opinions  more  important  as  the  reign  went  on.  In  the  first  place, 
the  national  uprising  against  Spain  drew  with  it  a  rapid  increase 
of  Protestantism  in  the  younger  generation,  and,  lor  this  reason, 
the  Plouse  of  Commons,  which  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  rep- 
resented only  a  Protestant  minority  in  the  nation  itself,  at  the  end 
of  the  reign  represented  a  Protestant  majority,  and  gained  strength 
in  consequence.  In  the  second  place,  Puritanism  tended  to  develop 
independence  of  character,  while  the  qnccn  was  not  only  unable  to 
overawe  the  Puritan  members  of  the  House,  but,  unlike  her  father, 
had  no  means  of  keeping  the  more  worldly-minded  in  submission 
by  the  distribution  of  abbey  lands. 

The  Jesuit  attack  in  1580  and  1581  strengthened  the  queen's 
resolution  to  put  an  end  to  the  divisions  which  weakened  the  Eng- 
lish Church,  as  she  was  still  afraid  lest  Puritanism,  if  unchecked, 


300  ENGLAND 

1583-1588 

might  give  offense  to  her  more  moderately-minded  subjects  and 
drive  them  into  the  arms  of  the  Papacy.  In  1583,  on  Grindal's 
death,  she  appointed  to  the  Archbishopric  of  Canterbury  Whitgift, 
who  had  taken  a  leading  part  in  opposing  Cartwright.  Whitgift 
held  that  as  questions  about  vestments  and  ceremonies  were  unim- 
portant, the  queen's  pleasure  in  such  matters  ought  to  be  the  rule 
of  the  Church.  He  was,  however,  a  strict  disciplinarian,  and  he 
was  as  anxious  as  the  queen  to  force  into  conformity  those  clergy 
who  broke  the  unity  of  the  Church  for  the  sake  of  what  he  regarded 
as  mere  crotchets  of  their  own,  especially  as  some  of  them  were 
violent  assailants  of  the  established  order.  In  virtue  of  a  clause 
in  the  Act  of  Supremacy  the  queen  erected  a  Court  of  High  Com- 
mission. Though  many  laymen  were  members  of  the  new  court, 
they  seldom  attended  its  sittings,  and  it  was  therefore  practically 
managed  by  bishops  and  ecclesiastical  lawyers.  Its  business  was 
to  enforce  conformity  on  the  clergy,  and  under  Whitgift  it  acted 
most  energetically,  driving  from  their  livings  and  committing  to 
prison  clergymen  who  refused  to  conform. 

The  severity  of  the  High  Commission  roused  some  of  the 
Puritan  clergy  to  attempt — in  private  meetings — to  bring  into  ex- 
istence something  of  the  system  of  Presbyterianism,  but  the  at- 
tempt was  soon  abandoned.  Few  among  the  Protestant  laity 
had  any  liking  for  Presbyterianism,  which  they  regarded  as  oppres- 
sive and  intolerant,  and  it  had  no  deep  roots  even  among  the 
Puritan  clergy.  If  many  members  of  the  House  of  Commons 
were  attracted  to  Puritanism,  as  opposed  to  Presbyterianism,  it 
was  partly  because  at  the  time  of  a  national  struggle  against  Rome 
they  preferred  those  among  the  clergy  whose  views  were  most 
antagonistic  to  those  of  Rome;  but  still  more  because  they  admired 
the  Puritans  as  defenders  of  morality.  Not  only  were  the  Church 
courts  oppressive  and  meddlesome,  but  plain  men  were  disgusted 
at  a  system  in  which  ignorant  and  lazy  ministers  who  conformed 
to  the  Prayer  Book  were  left  untouched,  while  able  and  energetic 
preachers  who  refused  to  adopt  its  ceremonies  were  silenced. 

The  desire  for  a  higher  standard  of  morality,  which  made  so 
many  support  the  Puritan  demand  for  a  further  reformation  of  the 
Church,  drove  others  to  denounce  the  Church  as  apostate.  Robert 
Browne,  a  clergyman,  was  the  first  to  declare  in  favor  of  a  system 
which  was  neither  episcopal  nor  presbyterian.  lie  held  it  to  be 
the  duty  of  all   true   Christians  to  separate  themselves   from   the 


ELIZABETH'S     TRIUMPH  301 

1588-1593 

Church,  and  to  form  congregations  apart,  to  which  only  those 
whose  reHgion  and  moraHty  were  beyond  question  should  be  ad- 
mitted. These  Separatists,  as  they  called  themselves,  were  known 
as  Brownists  in  common  speech.  Unfortunately  their  zeal  made 
them  uncharitably  contemptuous  of  those  who  were  less  zealous 
than  themselves,  and  it  was  from  among  them  that  there  came 
forth — beginning  in  1588 — a  series  of  virulent  and  libelous  attacks 
on  the  bishops,  known  as  the  Marprelate  Tracts,  printed  anony- 
mously at  a  secret  press.  Browne  and  his  followers  advocated  com- 
plete religious  liberty — denying  the  right  of  the  state  to  interfere 
with  the  conscience.  The  doctrine  was  too  advanced  for  general 
acceptance,  and  the  violence  of  the  Marprelate  Tracts  gave  of- 
fense even  to  the  Puritans.  Englishmen  might  differ  as  to  what 
sort  of  Church  the  national  church  should  be,  but  almost  all  were 
as  yet  agreed  that  there  ought  to  be  one  national  church  and  not 
a  number  of  disconnected  sects.  In  1593  an  act  of  Parliament 
was  passed  imposing  punishment  on  those  who  attended  conven- 
ticles or  private  religious  assemblies,  and  in  the  course  of  the  year 
three  of  the  leading  Separatists — Barrow,  Greenwood,  and  Penry — 
were  hanged,  on  charges  of  sedition. 

The  Church  of  England  would  certainly  not  have  sustained 
itself  against  the  Puritans  unless  it  had  found  a  champion  of  a 
higher  order  than  Whitgift.  Whitgift  maintained  its  organiza- 
tion, but  he  did  no  more.  Cranmer,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Reformation,  had  declared  the  Bible  as  interpreted  by  the  writers 
of  the  first  six  centuries  to  be  the  test  of  doctrine,  but  this  assertion 
had  been  met  during  the  greater  part  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  on  the 
one  hand  by  the  Catholics,  who  asserted  that  the  Church  of  the 
first  six  centuries  differed  much  from  the  Church  of  England  of 
their  day,  and  on  the  other  hand  by  the  Puritans,  who  asserted 
that  the  testimony  of  the  first  six  centuries  was  irrelevant,  and  that 
the  Bible  alone  was  to  be  consulted.  Whitgift  had  called  both 
parties  to  obedience,  on  the  ground  that  they  ought  to  submit  to 
the  queen  in  indift'erent  matters.  Hooker  in  the  opening  of  his 
"  Ecclesiastical  Polity"  called  the  Puritans  to  peace.  His  teaching 
was  distinguislied  by  the  importance  which  he  assigned  to  "  law,"  as 
against  the  blind  acceptance  of  Papal  decisions  on  the  one  side  and 
against  the  Puritan  reverence  for  the  letter  of  the  Scriptures  on  the 
other.  The  Puritans  were  wrong,  as  he  taught,  not  because  they 
obeyed  the  queen,  but  because  they  did  not  recognize  that  God 


302  ENGLAND 

1588-1603 

revealed  Himself  in  the  natural  laws  of  the  world  as  well  as  in  the 
letter  of  Scripture,  "  Of  law,"  he  wrote,  "  there  can  be  no  less 
acknowledged  than  that  her  seat  is  the  bosom  of  God,  her  voice 
the  harmony  of  the  world :  all  things  in  heaven  and  earth  do  her 
homage — the  very  least  as  feeling  her  care,  and  the  greatest  as  not 
exempted  from  her  power."  It  w^as  therefore  unnecessary,  accord- 
ing to  Hooker's  teaching,  to  defend  certain  usages  on  the  ground 
of  their  sanction  by  tradition  or  by  Papal  authority,  as  it  was  un- 
reasonable to  attack  them  on  the  ground  that  they  were  not  men- 
tioned in  Scripture.  It  was  sufficient  that  they  were  fitting  ex- 
pressions of  the  feelings  of  reverence  which  had  been  implanted 
by  God  in  human  nature  itself. 

With  the  stately  periods  of  Hooker  English  prose  entered  on 
a  new  stage.  For  the  first  time  it  sought  to  charm  and  to  invig- 
orate, as  well  as  to  inform  the  world.  In  Spenser  and  Shakespeare 
are  to  be  discerned  the  same  influences  as  those  which  made 
Hooker  great.  They,  too,  are  filled  with  reverence  for  the  reign 
of  law.  Spenser,  in  his  "  Faerie  Queen,"  set  forth  the  greatness  of 
man  in  following  the  laws  which  rule  the  moral  world — the  laws 
of  purity  and  temperance  and  justice ;  while  Shakespeare,  in  the 
plays  which  he  now  began  to  pour  forth,  taught  them  to  recognize 
the  penalties  which  follow  hard  on  him  who  disregards  not  only 
the  moral  but  also  the  physical  laws  of  the  world  in  which  he 
lives,  and  to  appraise  the  worth  of  man  by  what  he  is  and  not  by 
the  dogmas  which  he  accepts.  That  nothing  might  be  wanting  to 
point  out  the  ways  in  which  future  generations  were  to  walk,  young 
Francis  Bacon  began  to  dream  of  a  larger  science  than  had  hitherto 
been  possible — a  science  based  on  a  reverent  inquiry  into  the  laws 
of  nature. 

Bacon  cared  for  many  matters,  and  one  of  his  earliest  recom- 
mendations to  Elizabeth  had  been  to  make  a  distinction  between 
the  Catholics  who  would  take  an  oath  to  defend  her  against  all 
enemies  and  those  who  would  not.  The  patriotism  with  which 
many  Catholics  had  taken  her  side  when  the  Armada  appeared 
ouglit  to  have  procured  the  acceptance  of  tliis  proposal.  It  is  sel- 
dom, however,  that  either  men  or  nations  change  their  ways  till 
long  after  tlie  time  when  they  ought  to  change  them.  Spain  and 
the  Pope  still  threatened,  and  all  Catliolics  were  still  treated  as 
allies  of  Spain  and  tlie  Pope,  and  the  laws  against  them  were  made 
even  more  se\'ere  during  the  remainder  of  the  reign. 


WILLI  \  M      sn  AKI>rK  \Ki; 
(i:..rn      i5(.,.        Dira      KuM 
PdUUnii:     iitlrihul,;!     /,-     A',     lUirh.n^,-.     .ni.!     ku 
■■   tV)<;;i,/<-,,-    I'orlr.nt."     Xati.niul    j  ■.'!■•  r.:  i:     C.il.'r 


*, 

^ 


ELIZABETH'S     TRIUMPH  303 

1583-1603 

The  dread  of  a  renewal  of  a  Spanish  invasion  was  productive 
of  even  greater  mischief  in  Ireland  than  in  England.  In  1594  a 
rising  in  Ulster  was  headed  by  Hugh  O'Neill,  known  in  England 
as  the  Earl  of  Tyrone.  O'Neill  again  applied  to  the  king  of  Spain 
for  help;  but  Spain  failed.  In  1598  O'Neill  utterly  defeated  an 
English  army  on  the  Blackwater.  All  Celtic  Ireland  rose  in  his 
support,  and  in  1599  Elizabeth  sent  her  favorite,  Essex,  to  conquer 
Ireland  in  good  earnest,  lest  it  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
king  of  Spain.  Essex,  through  mismanagement,  failed  entirely, 
and  after  a  great  part  of  his  army  had  melted  away  he  came  back 
to  England  without  leave.  On  his  arrival,  knowing  Elizabeth's 
fondness  for  him,  he  hoped  to  surprise  her  into  forgiveness  of  his 
disobedience,  and  rushed  into  Elizabeth's  presence  in  his  muddy  and 
travel-stained  clothes. 

The  queen,  who  was  not  accustomed  to  allow  even  her  favor- 
ites to  run  away  from  their  posts  without  permission,  ordered  him 
into  confinement.  In  1600,  indeed,  she  restored  him  to  liberty,  but 
forbade  him  to  come  to  court.  Essex  could  not  brook  the  disgrace, 
especially  as  the  queen  made  him  suffer  in  his  pocket  for  his  mis- 
conduct. As  she  had  little  money  to  give  away,  Elizabeth  was  in 
the  habit  of  rewarding  her  courtiers  by  grants  of  monopoly — that 
is  to  say,  of  the  sole  right  of  selling  certain  articles,  thus  enabling 
them  to  make  a  profit  by  asking  a  higher  price  than  they  could  have 
got  if  they  had  been  subjected  to  competition.  To  Essex  she  had 
given  a  monopoly  of  sweet  wines  for  a  term  of  years,  and  riow  that 
the  term  was  at  an  end  she  refused  to  renew  the  grant.  Early  in 
1601  Essex — professing  not  to  want  to  injure  the  queen,  but  merely 
to  force  her  to  change  her  ministers — rode  at  the  head  of  a  few 
followers  into  the  city,  calling  on  tlie  citizens  to  rise  in  his  favor. 
He  was  promptly  arrested,  and  in  the  course  of  the  inciuiries  made 
into  his  conduct  it  was  discovered  that  when  he  was  in  Ireland  he 
had  entered  into  treasonable  negotiations  with  James  VI.  At  his 
trial.  Bacon,  who  had  been  most  kindly  treated  by  Essex,  shocked 
at  the  disclosure  of  these  traitorous  proceedings,  turned  against 
him,  and,  as  a  lawyer,  argued  strongly  that  he  had  been  guilty. 
The  Earl  was  convicted  and  executed. 

In  1600,  after  Essex  had  deserted  Ireland,  Lord  ^^lountjoy 
was  sent  to  take  his  place.  He  completed  the  conquest  systemati- 
cally, building  forts  and  devastating  the  country.  A  Spanish  force 
was  completely  defeated  in   1601.     At  last,  in   1603.  O'Xeill  sub- 


304  ENGLAND 

1601-1603 

mitted.  Ireland  had  been  conquered  by  England  as  it  had  never 
been  conquered  before. 

The  conquest  of  Ireland  was  expensive  and  in  1601  Elizabeth 
summoned  Parliament  to  ask  for  supplies.  The  House  of  Com- 
mons voted  the  money  cheerfully,  but  raised  an  outcry  against  the 
monopolies.  Elizabeth  knew  w^hen  to  give  way,  and  she  announced 
her  intention  of  canceling  all  monopolies  which  could  be  shown  to 
be  burdensome. 

These  were  the  last  words  spoken  by  Elizabeth  to  her  people. 
She  had  many  faults,  but  she  cared  for  England,  and,  more  than 
anyone  else,  she  had  made  England  united  and  prosperous.  She 
had  found  it  distracted,  but  by  her  moderation  she  had  staved  off 
civil  war,  till  the  country  had  rallied  round  the  throne.  No  doubt 
those  who  worked  most  hard  towards  this  great  end  were  men  like 
Burghley  and  Walsingham  in  the  state,  and  men  like  Drake  and 
Raleigh  at  sea ;  but  it  was  Elizabeth  who,  being  what  she  was,  had 
given  to  each  his  opportunity.  If  either  Edward  VI.  or  Mary 
had  been  in  her  place,  such  men  would  have  found  no  sphere  in 
which  their  work  could  have  been  done,  and,  instead  of  telling  of 
"the  spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth,"'  the  historian  would  have 
had  to  narrate  the  progress  of  civil  strife  and  of  the  mutual  con- 
flict of  ever-narrowing  creeds.  The  last  days  of  the  great  queen 
were  gloomy,  as  far  as  she  was  personally  concerned.  Burghley, 
the  wisest  of  her  ministers,  died  in  1598.  In  his  last  days  he  had 
urged  the  queen  to  bring  to  an  end  the  war  with  Spain,  which  no 
longer  served  any  useful  purpose ;  and  when  Essex  pleaded  for  its 
continuance,  the  aged  statesman  opened  the  Bible  at  the  text, 
"  Bloody  and  deceitful  men  shall  not  live  out  half  their  days."  In 
1603  Elizabeth  herself  died  at  the  age  of  sixty-nine.  According  to 
law  the  heir  to  the  crown  was  William  Seymour,  who  inherited  the 
claims  of  the  Suffolk  line.  There  were,  however,  doubts  about  his 
legitimacy.  Elizabeth  had  always  refused  to  allow  her  heir  to 
be  designated;  but  as  death  approached  slic  indicated  her  preference 
for  James,  as  having  claim  to  the  inheritance  by  descent  from  her 
own  eldest  aunt.  Margaret.  "My  seat,"  she  said,  "hath  been 
the  seat  of  kings,  and  I  will  have  no  rascal  to  succeed  me."  "  And 
who,''  she  added,  "  should  that  be  but  our  cousin  of  Scotland?'' 


PART  VI 

THE  PURITAN  REVOLUTION) 
1603—1660 


Chapter  XXXI 

JAMES    I.     1603— 1625 

LEADING    DATES 

Accession  of  James  I.,  A.D.  1603 — The  Hampton  Court  Conference, 
1604 — Gunpowder  Plot,  1605 — Foundation  of  Virginia,  1607 — The 
Great  Contract,  1610 — Beginning  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
1618 — Foundation  of  New  England,  1620 — Condemnation  of  the 
Monopolies  and  Fall  of  Bacon,  1621 — Prince  Charles's  Visit  to 
Madrid,  1623 — Breach  with  Spain,  1624 — Death  of  James  I.,  1625 

AT  the  end  of  Elizabeth's  reign  there  had  been  much  talk 
/-\  of  various  claimants  to  the  throne,  but  when  she  died  no 
-A-  JL-  one  thought  seriously  of  anyone  but  James.  The  new 
king  at  once  put  an  end  to  the  war  with  Spain,  though  no  actual 
treaty  of  peace  was  signed  till  1604.  James  gave  his  confidence  to 
Sir  Robert  Cecil,  Lord  Burghley's  second  son,  whom  he  continued 
in  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State,  which  had  been  conferred  on 
him  by  Elizabeth.  The  leader  of  the  war  party  was  Raleigh,  who 
was  first  dismissed  from  his  office  and  afterwards  accused  of 
treason,  on  the  charge  of  having  invited  the  Spaniards  to  invade 
England.  It  is  most  unlikely  that  the  charge  was  true,  but  as 
Raleigh  was  angry  at  his  dismissal,  he  may  have  spoken  rashly. 
Ele  was  condemned  to  death,  but  James  commuted  the  sentence  to 
imprisonment. 

The  most  important  question  which  James  had  to  decide  on 
his  accession  was  that  of  religious  toleration.  Many  of  the  Puritan 
clergy  signed  a  petition  to  him  known  as  the  IMillenary  Petition, 
because  it  was  intended  to  be  signed  by  a  thousand  ministers. 
A  conference  was  held  on  January  14,  1604.  in  the  king's  presence 
at  Hampton  Court,  in  which  some  of  the  bishops  took  part,  as 
well  as  a  deputation  of  Puritan  ministers  who  were  permitted  to 
argue  in  favor  of  the  demands  put  forward  in  the  petition.  The 
Puritan  clergy  had  by  this  time  abandoned  Cartwright's  Presby- 
terian ideas  and  merely  asked  that  those  who  thought  it  wrong  to 
wear  surplices  and  to  use  certain  other  ceremonies  might  be  excused 

307 


308  ENGLAND 

1604-1605 

from  doing  so,  without  breaking  away  from  the  national  church. 
James  listened  quietly  to  them,  till  one  of  them  used  the  word 
presbytery.  He  at  once  flew  into  a  passion.  "  A  Scottish  pres- 
bytery," he  said,  "  agreeth  as  well  with  a  monarchy  as  God  with 
the  devil.  Then  Jack  and  Tom  and  Will  and  Dick  shall  meet,  and 
at  their  pleasure  censure  me  and  my  council.  .  .  .  Until  you 
find  that  I  grow  lazy — let  that  alone."  James  ordered  them  to 
conform  or  to  leave  the  ministry.  He  adopted  the  motto,  "  No 
bishop,  no  king!"  Like  Elizabeth,  he  used  the  bishops  to  keep 
the  clergy  from  gaining  power  independent  of  the  crown.  The 
bishops  were  delighted,  and  one  of  them  said  that  "  his  majesty 
spoke  by  the  inspiration  of  God." 

In  1604  Parliament  met.  The  members  of  the  House  of 
Commons  had  no  more  wish  than  James  to  overthrow  the  bishops, 
but  they  thought  that  able  and  pious  ministers  should  be  allowed 
to  preach  even  if  they  would  not  wear  surplices,  and  they  were  dis- 
satisfied with  the  king's  decision  at  Hampton  Court.  On  the  other 
hand,  James  was  anxious  to  obtain  their  consent  to  a  union  with 
Scotland,  which  the  Commons  disliked,  partly  because  the  king  had 
brought  many  Scotchmen  with  him,  and  had  supplied  them  with 
English  lands  and  money.  Financial  difficulties  also  arose,  and  the 
session  ended  in  a  quarrel  between  the  king  and  the  House  of 
Commons.  Before  the  year  was  over  he  had  deprived  of  their 
livings  many  of  the  clergy  who  refused  to  conform. 

Not  only  the  Puritans,  but  the  Catholics  as  well,  had  appealed 
to  James  for  toleration.  In  the  first  year  of  his  reign  he  remitted 
the  recusancy  fines.  As  might  be  expected,  the  number  of 
recusants  increased,  probably  because  many  who  had  attended 
church  to  avoid  paying  fines  stayed  awav  as  soon  as  the  fines 
ceased  to  be  required.  James  took  alarm,  and  in  February, 
1604,  banished  the  priests  from  London.  On  this,  a  Catholic  named 
Robert  Catesby  proposed  to  a  few  of  his  friends  a  plot  to  blow  up 
king,  Lords  and  Commons  with  gunpowder  at  the  opening  of  Par- 
liament. The  king  had  two  sons,  Henry  and  Charles,  and  a  little 
daughter,  Elizabeth.  Catesby,  expecting  that  the  two  princes 
would  be  destroyed  with  their  father,  intended  to  make  Elizabeth 
queen,  and  to  take  care  that  she  vvas  brought  up  as  a  Roman  Cath- 
olic. Guy  Fawkes,  a  cool  soldier,  was  sent  for  from  Flanders  to 
manage  the  scheme.  The  plotters  took  a  house  next  to  the  House 
of  Lords,  and  beran  to  die:  throuerh  the  wall  to  enable  them  to 


J  A  M  E  S     I  309 

1605-1610 

carry  the  powder  into  the  basement.  The  wall,  however,  was  nine 
feet  thick,  and  they,  being  little  used  to  mason's  work,  made  but 
little  way.  In  the  spring  of  1605  James  increased  the  exasperation 
of  the  plotters  by  reimposing  the  recusancy  fines  on  the  Catholic 
laity.  Soon  afterwards  their  task  was  made  more  easy  by  the  dis- 
covery that  a  coal-cellar  reaching  under  the  floor  of  the  House  of 
Lords  was  to  be  let.  One  of  their  number  hired  the  cellar,  and 
introduced  into  it  barrels  of  powder,  covering  them  with  coals  and 
billets  of  wood.  Parliament  was  to  be  opened  for  its  second 
session  on  November  5,  and  in  the  preceding  evening  Fawkes 
went  to  the  cellar  with  a  lantern,  ready  to  fire  the  train  in  the 
morning. 

One  of  the  plotters,  however,  had  betrayed  the  secret.  Fawkes 
was  seized,  and  his  companions  were  pursued.  All  the  conspirators 
who  were  taken  alive  were  executed,  and  the  persecution  of  the 
Catholics  grew  hotter  than  before. 

When  another  session  opened  in  1606  James  repeated  his 
efforts  to  induce  the  Commons  to  do  something  for  tlie  union  with 
Scotland.  He  wanted  them  to  establish  free  trade  between  the 
countries,  and  to  naturalize  his  Scottish  subjects  in  England.  Find- 
ing that  he  could  obtain  neither  of  his  wishes  from  Parliament, 
he  obtained  from  the  judges  a  decision  that  all  his  Scottish  subjects 
born  after  his  accession  in  England — the  Post-nati,  as  they  were 
called — -were  legally  naturalized,  and  were  thus  capable  of 
holding  land  in  England.  He  had  to  give  up  all  hope  of  obtaining 
freedom  of  trade. 

The  state  of  James's  finances  was  almost  hopeless.  He  had 
given  away  lands  and  money  to  his  Scottish  favorites.  There 
was,  therefore,  a  large  deficit,  and  James  wanted  all  the  money  he 
could  get.  In  1606  a  merchant  named  Rate  challenged  his  right 
to  levy  an  imposition  on  currants,  which  had  already  been  levied  by 
Elizabeth.  The  Court  of  Exchequer,  however,  decided  that  the 
king  had  the  right  of  levying  impositions — that  is  to  say,  duties 
raised  by  the  sole  authority  of  the  king — without  a  grant  from  Par- 
liament— holding  that  the  Conforumtio  Cartanim  to  which  Bate's 
counsel  appealed,  only  restricted  that  riglu  in  a  very  few  cases. 
Whether  the  argument  of  the  judges  was  right  or  wrong,  they  were 
the  constitutional  exponents  of  the  law,  and  when  Cecil  (created 
Earl  of  Salisbury  in  1605)  was  made  Lord  Treasurer  as  well  as 
Secretary  in  1608,  he  at  once  levied  new  impositions  to  the  amount 


310  ENGLAND 

1610-1613 

of  70,000/.  a  year,  on  the  plea  that  more  money  was  needed  in  con- 
sequence of  the  troubles  in  Ireland. 

Even  the  new  impositions  did  not  fill  up  the  deficit,  and  Parlia- 
ment was  summoned  in  16 10  to  meet  the  difficulty.  It  entered  into 
a  bargain — the  Great  Contract,  as  it  was  called — by  which,  on  re- 
ceiving 200,000/,  a  year,  James  was  to  abandon  certain  antiquated 
feudal  dues,  such  as  those  of  wardship  and  marriage.  An  agree- 
ment was  also  come  to  on  the  impositions.  James  voluntarily 
remitted  the  most  burdensome  to  the  amount  of  20,000/.  a  year, 
and  the  House  of  Commons  agreed  to  grant  him  the  remainder 
on  his  passing  an  act  declaring  illegal  all  further  levy  of  imposi- 
tions without  a  Parliamentary  grant.  Unfortunately,  before  the 
details  of  the  Great  Contract  were  finally  settled,  fresh  disputes 
arose,  and  early  in  161 1  James  dissolved  his  first  Parliament  in 
anger  without  settling  anything  either  about  the  feudal  dues  or 
about  the  impositions. 

In  161 2  Salisbury  died,  and  Bacon,  always  ready  with  good 
advice,  recommended  James  to  abandon  Salisbury's  policy  of  bar- 
gaining with  the  Commons.  Bacon  was  a  warm  supporter  of 
monarchy,  because  he  was  anxious  for  reforms,  and  he  believed 
that  reforms  were  more  likely  to  come  from  the  king  and  his  coun- 
cil than  from  a  House  of  Commons — which  was  mainly  composed 
of  country  gentlemen,  with  little  knowledge  of  affairs  of  state. 
Bacon,  however,  knew  what  were  the  conditions  under  which  alone 
a  monarchial  system  could  be  maintained,  and  reminded  James  that 
king  and  Parliament  were  members  of  one  body,  with  common  in- 
terests and  that  he  could  only  expect  the  Commons  to  grant  sup- 
plies if  he  stepped  forward  as  their  leader  by  setting  forth  a  policy 
which  would  commend  itself  to  them.  James  had  no  idea  of  lead- 
ing, and,  instead  of  taking  Bacon's  advice,  resolved  to  do  as  long 
as  he  could  without  a  Parliament.  A  few  years  before  he  had 
taken  a  fancy  to  a  handsome  young  Scot  named  Robert  Carr, 
thinking  that  Carr  would  be  not  only  a  boon  companion,  but  also 
an  instrument  to  carry  out  his  orders,  and  relieve  him  from  the 
trouble  of  dispensing  patronage.  He  enriched  Carr  in  various 
ways,  and  in  161 3  he  married  Carr  to  Ladv  Essex,  who  had  been 
divorced  from  her  husband  under  very  clisgraceful  circumstances, 
and  created  him  Earl  of  Somerset,  thus  bringing  him  into  connec- 
tion with  tlie  family  of  the  Howards — his  wife's  father,  the  Earl 
of  Suffolk,  being  a  Howard.     As  the  Howards  were  for  the  most 


J  A  M  E  S     I  311 

1614-1617 

part  Roman  Catholics  at  heart,  if  not  openly,  Somerset's  influence 
was  henceforth  used  in  opposition  to  the  Protestant  aims  which  had 
found  favor  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

In  spite  of  Somerset  and  the  Howards,  James's  want  of  money 
drove  him,  in  1614,  to  call  another  Parliament.  Instead  of  fol- 
lowing Bacon's  advice  that  he  should  win  popularity  by  useful  legis- 
lative projects,  he  tried  first  to  secure  its  submission  by  encouraging 
persons  who  were  known  as  the  Undertakers  because  they  under- 
took that  candidates  who  supported  the  king's  interests  should  be 
returned.  When  this  failed,  he  again  tried,  as  he  had  tried  under 
Salisbury's  influence  in  16 10,  to  enter  into  a  bargain  with  the  Com- 
mons. The  Commons,  however,  replied  by  asking  him  to  abandon 
the  impositions  and  to  restore  the  nonconforming  clergy  ejected  in 
1604.  On  this  James  dissolved  Parliament.  As  it  granted  no 
supplies,  and  passed  no  act,  it  became  known  as  the  Addled  Parlia- 
ment. 

James  was  always  anxious  to  be  the  peacemaker  of  Europe, 
being  wise  enough  to  see  that  the  religious  wars  which  had  long 
been  devastating  the  continent  might  be  brought  to  an  end  if  only 
the  contending  parties  would  be  more  tolerant.  It  was  partly  in 
the  hope  of  gaining  influence  to  enable  him  to  carry  out  his  paciflca- 
tory  policy  that  he  aimed,  early  in  his  reign,  at  marrying  his  chil- 
dren into  influential  families  on  the  continent.  In  1613  he  gave 
his  daughter  Elizabeth  to  Frederick  V.,  Elector  Palatine,  who  was 
the  leader  of  the  German  Calvinists,  and  he  had  long  before  pro- 
jected a  marriage  between  his  eldest  son,  Prince  Henry,  and  a 
Spanish  Infanta.  Prince  Henry,  hcnvever,  died  in  lOrj,  and, 
though  James's  only  surviving  son,  Charles,  was  still  young,  there 
had  been  talk  of  marrying  him  to  a  French  princess.  The  break- 
ing up  of  the  Parliament  of  1614  left  James  in  great  want  of 
money;  and,  as  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  Spain  would  give  a 
much  larger  portion  than  would  be  given  with  a  French  princess, 
he  became  keenly  eager  to  marry  his  son  to  the  Inlanla  }klaria,  the 
daughter  of  Philip  III.  of  Spain.  Negotiations  with  this  object 
were  not  formally  opened  till  1617,  and  in  161 8  James  learned  that 
the  marriage  could  not  take  place  unless  he  engaged  to  give  re- 
ligious liberty  to  the  English  Roman  Catholics.  He  then  offered 
to  write  a  letter  to  the  king  of  Spain,  promising  to  relieve  the 
Roman  Catholics  as  long  as  they  gave  no  oft'ense,  but  Philip  in- 
sisted  on   a   more   binding   and    permanent   engagement   and,    on 


312  ENGLAND 

1615-1618 

James's  refusal  to  do  more  than  he  had  offered  to  do,  Gondomar, 
the  very  able  Spanish  ambassador  who  had  hitherto  kept  James  in 
good  humor,  was  withdrawn  from  England,  and  the  negotiation 
was,  for  the  time,  allowed  to  drop. 

In  1615  Somerset  and  his  wife  were  accused  of  poisoning 
Sir  Thomas  Overbury.  In  161 6  they  were  both  found  guilty, 
and,  though  James  spared  their  lives,  he  never  saw  either  of  them 
again.  He  had  already  found  a  new  favorite  in  George  Villiers, 
a  handsome  youth  who  could  dance  and  ride  gracefully,  and  could 
entertain  the  king  with  lively  conversation.  The  opponents  of  the 
Spanish  alliance  had  supported  Villiers  against  Somerset,  but  they 
soon  found  that  Villiers  was  ready  to  throw  himself  on  the  side  of 
Spain  as  soon  as  he  found  that  it  would  please  the  king.  James 
gave  him  large  estates,  and  rapidly  advanced  him  in  the  peerage, 
till,  in  161 8,  he  created  him  Marquis  of  Buckingham.  He  also 
made  him  Lord  Admiral  in  the  hope  that  he  would  improve  the 
navy,  and  allowed  all  the  patronage  of  England  to  pass  through 
his  hands.  Statesmen  and  lawyers  had  to  bow  down  to  Buck- 
ingham if  they  wished  to  rise.  No  wonder  the  young  man  felt 
as  if  the  nation  was  at  his  feet,  and  gave  himself  airs  which  dis- 
gusted all  who  wished  to  preserve  independence  of  character. 

In  1 61 7  Raleigh,  having  been  liberated  through  Buckingham's 
influence,  sailed  for  the  Orinoco  in  search  of  a  gold  mine,  of  which 
he  had  heard  in  an  earlier  voyage  in  Elizabeth's  reign.  He 
engaged,  before  he  sailed,  not  to  touch  the  land  of  the  king  of 
Spain,  and  James  let  him  know  that  if  he  broke  his  promise 
he  would  lose  his  head.  Raleigh,  imagining  that  if  only  he  could 
find  gold  he  would  not  be  held  to  his  promise,  sent  his  men  up  the 
river,  without  distinct  orders  to  avoid  fighting.  They  attacked  and 
burned  a  Spanish  village,  but  never  reached  the  mine,  and  he  re- 
turned to  England  with  nothing  in  his  hands.  James  sent  him  to 
the  scaffold  for  a  fault  which  he  should  never  liave  been  given  the 
chance  of  committing.  Raleigh  was  the  last  of  the  Elizabethan 
heroes — a  many-sided  man :  soldier,  sailor,  statesman,  historian, 
and  poet.  He  was  firmly  convinced  that  to  rob  and  plunder  Span- 
iards in  time  of  i)eace  was  in  itself  a  virtue.  James's  unwise  at- 
tempt to  form  a  close  alliance  with  Spain  made  Raleigh  a  popular 
hero. 

Gradually  Englishmen  learned  to  prefer  peaceable  commerce 
and   colonization    to  piratical   enterprises.      In    1585    Raleigh    had 


J  A  M  E  S     I  313 

1607-1621 

sent  out  an  unsuccessful  colony.  In  1607  a  fresh  attempt  was  made, 
and  after  passing  through  terrible  hardships  the  Colony  of  Virginia 
grew  into  a  tobacco-planting,  well-to-do  community.  In  1608  a 
congregation  of  Separatists  emigrated  from  England  to  Holland, 
and,  after  a  while,  settled  at  Leyden,  where,  anxious  to  escape  from 
the  temptations  of  the  world,  many  of  them  resolved  to  emigrate 
to  America,  where  they  might  lead  an  ideally  religious  life.  In 
1620  the  emigrants,  a  hundred  in  all,  "  lifting  their  eyes  to  heaven, 
their  dearest  country,"  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  the  Mayflower,  and 
found  a  new  home  which  they  named  Plymouth.  As  yet,  how- 
ever, these  small  beginnings  of  colonial  empire  attracted  little  atten- 
tion in  England.  Men's  thoughts  ran  far  more  on  a  great  war — 
the  Thirty  Years'  War — which,  in  1618,  began  to  desolate  Ger- 
many. The  Protestant  nobility  in  Bohemia  rose  against  their  king 
and  after  his  death  in  16 19  they  deposed  his  successor,  Ferdinand, 
and  chose  Frederick,  the  Elector  Palatine,  James's  Calvinist  son- 
in-law,  as  king  in  his  place.  James  was  urged  to  interfere  on  be- 
half of  Frederick,  but  he  could  not  make  up  his  mind  that  the 
cause  of  his  son-in-law  was  righteous,  and  he  therefore  left  him 
to  his  fate.  Frederick's  cause  was,  however,  popular  in  Eng- 
land, and  James — drawing  a  distinction  between  helping  his 
son-in-law  to  keep  his  own  and  supporting  him  in  taking  the  land 
of  another — went  so  far  as  to  allow  English  volunteers,  under 
Sir  Horace  Vere,  to  garrison  the  fortress  of  the  Palatinate.  In 
the  summer  of  1620  a  Spanish  army  under  Spinola  occupied  the 
Western  Palatinate,  and  James,  angry  at  the  news,  summoned 
Parliament  in  order  to  obtain  a  vote  of  supplies  for  war.  Before 
Parh"ament  could  meet,  Frederick  had  been  crushingly  defeated  on 
the  White  Hill,  near  Prague,  and  driven  out  of  Bohemia. 

Parliament,  when  it  met  in  1621,  was  the  more  distrustful  of 
James,  as  Gondomar  had  returned  to  England  in  1620  and  had  re- 
vived the  Spanish  marriage  treaty.  When  the  Houses  met,  tliey 
were  disappointed  to  find  that  James  did  not  i)ropose  to  go  to  war 
at  once.  James  fancied  that,  because  he  himself  wished  to  act 
justly  and  fairly,  every  one  of  tlie  other  princes  would  be  regardless 
of  his  own  interests,  and,  although  he  had  already  sent  several 
ambassadors  to  settle  matters  without  producing  any  results,  he 
now  proposed  to  send  more  ambassadors,  and  only  to  fight  if  ne- 
gf^tiation  failed.  On  learning  this,  the  lh)use  of  ComniDus  only 
voted  him  a  small  supply,   not  being  willing  to   grant   war-taxes 


314  ENGLAND 

1611-1621 

unless  it  was  sure  that  there  was  to  be  a  war.  Probably  James  was 
right  in  not  engaging  England  in  hostilities,  as  ambition  had  as 
much  to  do  with  Frederick's  proceedings  as  religion,  and  as,  if 
James  had  helped  his  German  allies,  he  could  have  exercised  no 
control  over  them ;  but  he  had  too  little  decision  or  real  knowledge 
of  the  situation  to  inspire  confidence  either  at  home  or  abroad ;  and 
the  Commons,  as  soon  as  they  had  granted  a  supply,  began  to  criti- 
cise his  government  in  domestic  matters. 

Elizabeth  had  been  high-handed  enough,  but  she  had  talked 
little  of  the  rights  which  she  claimed,  and  had  set  herself  to  gain 
the  affection  of  her  subjects.  James,  on  the  other  hand,  liked  to 
talk  of  his  rights,  while  he  took  no  trouble  to  make  himself  popu- 
lar. It  was  his  business,  he  held,  to  see  that  the  judges  did  not 
break  the  law  under  pretense  of  administering  it.  "  This,"  he  said 
in  1616,  "  is  a  thing  regal  and  proper  to  a  king,  to  keep  every  court 
within  its  true  bounds."  More  startling  was  the  language  which 
followed.  "As  for  the  absolute  prerogative  of  the  Crown,"  he  de- 
clared, "  that  is  no  subject  for  the  tongue  of  a  lawyer,  nor  is  it 
lawful  to  be  disputed.  It  is  atheism  and  blasphemy  to  dispute  what 
God  can  do :  good  Christians  content  themselves  with  His  will 
revealed  in  His  word ;  so  it  is  presumption  and  high  contempt  in  a 
subject  to  dispute  what  a  king  can  do,  or  say  that  a  king  cannot  do 
this  or  that ;  but  rest  in  that  which  is  the  king's  will  revealed  in  his 
law."  What  James  meant  was  that  there  must  be  in  every  state 
a  power  above  the  law  to  provide  for  emergencies  as  they  arise, 
and  to  keep  the  authorities — judicial  and  administrative — from 
jostling  with  one  another.  What  James  did  not  understand  was 
that,  in  the  long  run,  no  one — either  king  or  Parliament — will  be 
allowed  to  exercise  powers  which  are  unwisely  used.  Such  an  idea 
])robably  never  entered  into  James's  mind,  because  he  was  convinced 
tliat  he  was  himself  not  only  the  best  but  the  wisest  of  men,  whereas 
he  was  in  reality — as  Henry  IV.  of  France  had  said  of  him — "  the 
wisest  fool  in  Christendom.'' 

James  not  only  thought  too  liighly  of  his  own  powers  of  gov- 
ernment, Ijut  was  also  too  careless  to  check  the  misdeeds  of  his  fav- 
orites. I'^jr  some  time  his  want  of  money  led  him  to  have  recourse 
to  strange  ex])cdicnts.  In  161 1  he  founded  the  order  of  baronets, 
making  each  of  those  created  pay  him  1,080/.  a  year  for  three 
years  to  enable  him  to  support  soldiers  for  the  defense  of  Ulster. 
.Vfter  the  iirst   lew  years,  liowever,  the  money,  though   regularly 


J  A  M  E  S     I.  315 

1618-1621 

required  of  new  baronets,  was  invariably  repaid  to  them.  More 
disgraceful  was  the  sale  of  peerages,  of  which  there  were  examples 
in  1618.  In  1619,  however,  through  the  exertions  of  Lionel  Cran- 
field,  a  city  merchant  recommended  to  James  by  Buckingham, 
financial  order  was  comparatively  restored,  and  in  quiet  times  the 
expenditure  no  longer  much  exceeded  the  revenue. 

Though  James  did  not  obtain  much  money  in  irregular  ways, 
he  did  not  keep  a  watchful  eye  on  his  favorites  and  ministers.  The 
salaries  of  ministers  were  low,  and  were  in  part  themselves  made 
up  by  the  presents  of  suitors.  Candidates  for  office,  who  looked 
forward  to  being  enriched  by  the  gifts  of  others,  knew  that  they 
must  pay  dearly  for  the  goodwill  of  the  favorites  through  whom 
they  gained  promotion.  Others,  who  were  bachelors  or  widowers, 
received  promotion  on  condition  of  marrying  one  of  the  many  penni- 
less young  ladies  of  Buckingham's  kindred. 

The  Commons,  therefore,  in  looking  for  abuses,  had  no  lack 
of  subjects  on  which  to  complain.  They  lighted  u])on  monopolies. 
James,  soon  after  his  accession,  had  abolished  most  of  those  left 
by  Elizabeth,  but  the  number  had  been  increased  partly  througli  a 
wish  to  encourage  home  manufactures,  and  partly  from  a  desire 
to  regulate  commerce.  One  set  of  persons,  for  exam])le.  had  the 
sole  right  of  making  glass,  because  they  bound  themselves  to  heat 
their  furnaces  with  coal  instead  of  wood,  and  thus  spared  the  trees 
needed  for  shipbuilding.  Payments  were  exacted  from  persons 
interested  in  these  grants,  but  the  amount  of  such  payments  was 
grossly  exaggerated,  and  the  Commons  imagined  that  these  and 
similar  grievances  owed  their  existence  merely  to  the  desire  to  fill  the 
pockets  of  Buckingham  and  his  favorites.  There  was,  therefore, 
a  loud  outcry  in  Parliament.  One  of  the  main  promoters  of  these 
schemes.  Sir  Giles  Alompesson,  fled  the  kingdom.  Others  were 
punished,  and  the  monopolies  recalled  by  the  king,  though  as  yet 
no  act  was  passed  declaring  them  to  be  illegal. 

After  this  the  Commons  turned  upon  Bacon.  He  was  now 
Lord  Chancellor,  and  had  lived  to  find  that  his  good  advice  was 
never  followed.  He  had,  nevertheless,  been  an  active  and  upright 
judge.  The  Commons,  however,  distrusted  him  as  hriving  sup- 
ported grants  of  monopolies,  and,  wlien  charges  of  bribery  were 
brought  against  him,  sent  them  up  to  the  Lords  for  inquiry.  At  first 
Bacon  thought  a  political  trick  was  being  played  against  him.  He 
soon  discovered  that  he  had  thouglitlessly  taken  gifts  even  before 


316  ENGLAND 

1621-1622 

judgment  had  been  given,  though  if  they  had  been  taken  after  judg- 
ment, he  would — according  to  the  custom  of  the  time — have  been 
considered  innocent.  His  own  opinion  of  the  case  was  probably  the 
true  one.  His  sentence,  he  said,  was  "  just,  and  for  reformation's 
sake  fit."  Yet  he  was  "  the  justest  Chancellor  "  that  had  been  since 
his  father's  time,  his  father.  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  having  creditably 
occupied  under  Elizabeth  the  post  which  he  himself  filled  under 
James.  He  was  stripped  of  office,  fined,  and  imprisoned.  His  im- 
prisonment, however,  was  extremely  brief,  and  his  fine  was  ulti- 
mately remitted.  Though  his  trial  was  not  exactly  like  that  of  the 
old  impeachments,  it  was  practically  the  revival  of  the  system  of 
impeachments  which  had  been  disused  since  the  days  of  Henry  VI. 
It  was  a  sign  that  the  power  of  Parliament  was  increasing  and  that 
of  the  king  growing  less. 

The  king  announced  to  Parliament  that  he  was  about  to  send 
an  ambassador  to  Vienna  to  induce  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  to  be 
content  with  the  re-conquest  of  Bohemia,  and  to  leave  Frederick 
undisturbed  in  the  Palatinate.  Parliament  was  therefore  ad- 
journed, in  order  to  give  time  for  the  result  of  this  embassy  to  be 
known ;  and  the  Commons,  at  their  last  sitting,  declared — with  wild 
enthusiasm — that,  if  the  embassy  failed,  they  would  support  Fred- 
erick with  their  lives  and  fortunes.  When  Lord  Digby.  who  was 
the  chosen  ambassador,  returned,  he  had  done  no  good.  The  Im- 
perialists invaded  the  Palatinate,  and  in  the  winter  James  called 
on  the  reassembled  Parliament  for  money  sufficient  to  defend  the 
Palatinate  till  he  had  made  one  more  diplomatic  effort.  The  Com- 
mons, believing  that  the  king's  alliance  with  Spain  was  the  root  of 
all  evil,  petitioned  him  to  marrv  his  son  to  a  Protestant  lady,  and 
plainly  showed  their  wish  to  see  him  at  war  with  Spain.  James  re- 
plied that  the  Commons  had  no  right  to  discuss  matters  on  which  he 
had  not  consulted  them.  They  drew  up  a  protestation  asserting  their 
right  to  discuss  all  matters  of  public  concernment.  James  tore  it 
out  of  their  journal-book,  and  dissolved  Parliament,  though  it 
had  not  granted  him  a  penny. 

In  1 614  James,  being  in  want  of  monev,  had  had  recourse  to 
a  benevolence — the  lawyers  having  advised  him  that,  though  the 
Act  of  Richard  HI.  made  it  illegal  for  him  to  compel  its  pay- 
ment, there  was  no  law  against  his  asking  his  subjects  to  pay  it 
voluntarily.  He  took  the  same  course  in  1622,  and  got  enough  to 
support  the  garrisons  in  the  Palatinate  for  a  few  months,  as  many 


J  A  M  E  S     I  317 

1623 

who  did  not  like  to  give  the  money  feared  to  provoke  the  king's  dis- 
pleasure by  a  refusal.  Before  the  end  of  the  year,  however,  the 
whole  Palatinate,  with  the  exception  of  one  fortress,  had  been  lost. 

It  was  now  time  to  try  if  the  Spanish  alliance  was  worth  any- 
thing. Early  in  1623,  Prince  Charles,  accompanied  by  Bucking- 
ham, started  for  Madrid  to  woo  the  Infanta  in  person.  The  young 
men  imagined  that  the  king  of  Spain  would  be  so  pleased  with  this 
unusual  compliment,  that  he  would  use  his  influence — and,  if  nec- 
essary, his  troops — to  obtain  the  restitution  of  the  Palatinate  to 
Charles's  brother-in-law,  the  Elector  Frederick.  The  Infanta's 
brother,  Philip  IV.,  was  now  king  of  Spain,  and  he  had  lately  been 
informed  by  his  sister  that  she  was  resolved  not  to  marry  a  heretic. 
Philip  and  his  prime  minister  Olivares  feared  lest,  if  they  an- 
nounced this  refusal,  it  would  lead  to  a  war  with  England.  They 
first  tried  to  convert  the  prince  to  their  rehgion,  and  when  that 
failed,  secretly  invited  the  Pope  to  refuse  to  grant  a  dispensation 
for  the  marriage.  The  Pope  did  not  do  this  outright  for  fear  of 
renewed  persecution  of  Catholics  in  England,  and  informed  Philip 
that  he  should  have  the  dispensation  for  his  sister,  on  condition  not 
only  that  James  and  Charles  should  swear  to  grant  religious  lib- 
erty to  the  Catholics  of  England,  but  that  he  should  himself  swear 
that  James  and  Charles  would  keep  their  word. 

Philip  referred  the  point  whether  he  could  conscientiously 
take  the  oath  to  a  committee  of  theologians.  In  the  meantime, 
Charles  attempted  to  pay  court  to  the  Infanta.  Spanish  eti(]uctte 
was,  however,  strict,  and  he  was  not  allowed  to  speak  to  her,  ex- 
cept in  public  and  on  rare  occasions.  At  last  Charles  was  infcjnned 
that  the  theologians  had  come  to  a  decision.  He  might  marry  if 
he  pleased,  but  the  moment  that  the  ceremony  was  over  he  was 
to  leave  for  England.  If  at  the  end  of  six  months  he  had  nt)t  only 
promised  religious  liberty  to  the  Catholics,  but  had  actually  put 
them  in  the  enjoyment  of  it,  then,  and  only  then,  his  wife  should  be 
sent  after  him.  Charles  was  indignant — the  more  so  because  he 
learned  that  there  was  little  chance  that  the  king  of  Spain  woukl  in- 
terfere to  restore  the  Protestant  Frederick  by  force — and  returned  to 
England  eager  for  war  with  Spain.  Never  before  or  after  was  he 
so  popular  as  when  he  landed  at  Portsmouth — ncjt  so  much  because 
he  had  come  back,  as  because  he  had  not  brought  the  Infanta  with 
him. 

James's  foreign  policy  had  now  hopelessly  broken  down,      lie 


318  ENGLAND 

1624 

had  expected  that  simply  because  it  seemed  to  him  to  be  just, 
Philip  would  quarrel  with  the  Emperor  for  the  sake  of  restoring 
the  Palatinate  to  a  Protestant.  When  he  found  that  this  could 
not  be,  he  had  nothing  more  to  propose.  His  son  and  his  favorite, 
who  had  been  created  Duke  of  Buckingham  while  he  was  in  Spain, 
urged  him  to  go  to  war,  and  early  in  1624  James  summoned  a 
new  Parliament,  which  was  entirely  out  of  his  control.  For  the 
time  Buckingham,  who  urged  on  the  war,  was  the  most  popular 
man  in  England.  A  large  grant  of  supply  was  given,  but  the 
Commons  distrusting  James,  ordered  the  money  to  be  paid  to 
treasurers  appointed  by  themselves,  and  to  be  spent  only  upon  four 
objects — the  repairing  of  forts  in  England,  the  increase  of  the  army 
in  Ireland,  the  fitting  out  of  a  fleet,  and  the  support  of  the  Dutch 
Republic,  which  was  still  at  war  with  Spain,  and  of  other  allies 
of  the  king.  The  king,  on  his  part,  engaged  to  invite  friendly 
states  to  join  him  in  v.ar  for  the  recovery  of  the  Palatinate,  and  to 
summon  Parliament  in  the  autumn  to  announce  the  result.  The 
Commons  were  the  less  anxious  to  trust  James  with  money  as  they 
were  in  favor  of  a  maritime  war  against  Spain,  while  they  believed 
him  to  be  in  favor  of  a  military  war  in  Germany.  They  had 
reason  to  think  that  Cranfield,  who  was  now  Earl  of  Middlesex 
and  Lord  Treasurer,  had  used  his  influence  with  the  king  to  keep 
him  from  a  breach  with  Spain;  and,  with  Charles  and  Buckingham 
hounding  them  on,  they  now  impeached  Middlesex  on  charges  of 
malversation,  and  drove  him  from  office.  It  was  generally  believed 
that  the  Lord  Treasurer  owed  his  fall  to  his  dislike  of  a  war  which 
would  be  ruinous  to  the  finances  which  it  was  his  business  to  guard. 
The  old  king  could  not  resist,  but  he  told  his  son  that,  in  support- 
ing an  impeachment,  he  was  preparing  a  rod  for  himself.  Before 
the  end  of  the  session  the  king  agreed  to  an  act  abolishing  monop- 
olies, except  in  the  case  of  new  inventions. 

Even  before  Parliament  was  prorogued,  a  ^negotiation  was 
opened  for  a  marriage  between  Charles  and  Henrietta  Maria,  the 
sister  of  Lf)uis  XIII. ,  king  of  France.  Both  James  and  Charles 
had  promised  Parliament  that,  if  the  future  queen  were  a  Roman 
Catliolic,  no  religious  liberty  should  be  granted  to  the  English 
Catholics  by  the  marriage  treaty.  Both  James  and  Charles  gave 
way  when  ihey  found  that  Louis  insisted  on  this  concession,  and 
])romise(l  rehgious  liberty  to  the  Catholics.  Consequently,  they 
did  not  venture  to  summon  Parliament  till  the  marriage  was  over 


JAMES     I  319 

1624 

and  it  was  too  late  to  complain.  Yet  Buckingham,  who  was  more 
firmly  rooted  in  Charles's  favor  than  he  had  ever  been  in  that  of 
his  father,  had  promised  money  in  all  directions.  Before  the  end 
of  the  year  he  had  engaged  to  find  large  sums  for  the  Dutch  Re- 
public to  fight  Spain,  30,000/.  a  month  for  Christian  IV.,  king  of 
Denmark,  to  make  war  in  Germany  against  the  Emperor,  20.000/. 
a  month  for  Count  Mansfield,  a  German  adventurer,  to  advance  to 
the  Palatinate,  and  anything  that  might  be  needed  for  a  fleet  to 
attack  the  Spanish  ports.  James,  in  short,  was  for  a  war  by  land, 
the  Commons  for  a  war  by  sea,  and  Buckingham  for  both. 

Before  the  end  of  1624  twelve  thousand  Englishmen  were 
gathered  at  Dover  to  go  with  Mansfield  to  the  Palatinate.  The 
king  of  France,  who  had  promised  to  help  them,  refused  to  allow 
them  to  land  in  his  dominions.  It  was  accordingly  resolved  that 
they  should  pass  through  Holland,  but  without  money  and  witliout 
provisions.  In  a  few  weeks  three-fourths  of  the  men  were  dead 
or  dying.  It  was  Buckingham's  first  experience  of  making  war 
without  money  and  without  Parliamentary  support.  Before  any- 
thing further  could  be  done,  James  was  attacked  by  a  fever,  and, 
on  March  2.y,  1625,  he  died.  Though  his  reign  did  not  witness 
a  revolution,  it  witnessed  that  loosening  of  the  bonds  of  sympathy 
between  the  ruler  and  the  ruled  which  is  often  the  precursor  of 
revolution. 


Chapter    XXXII 

THE    GROWTH    OF    THE    PERSONAL    GOVERN- 
MENT   OF    CHARLES    L     1625— 1634 

LEADING    DATES 

The  Reign  of  Charles  I.,  A.D.  1625-1649 — Charles's  First  Parlia- 
ment AND  THE  Expedition  to  Cadiz,  1625 — Charles's  Second  Parlia- 
ment AND  the  Impeachment  of  Buckingham,  1626 — The  Expedition 
to  Re,  1627 — Charles's  Third  Parliament  and  the  Petition  of 
Right,  1628 — Dissolution  of  Charles's  Third  Parliament,  1629 — 
Laud,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  1633 — Prynne's  Sentence  Exe- 
cuted, 1634 

THE  new  king,  Charles  I.,  was  more  dignified  than  his 
father,  and  was  conscientiously  desirous  of  governing 
well.  He  was,  unfortunately,  extremely  unwise,  being 
both  obstinate  in  persisting  in  any  line  of  conduct  which  he  had 
himself  chosen,  and  ready  to  give  way  to  the  advice  of  others  in 
matters  of  detail.  Buckingham,  who  sympathized  with  him  in  his 
plans,  and  who  was  never  at  a  loss  when  called  on  to  express  an 
opinion  on  any  subject  whatever,  had  now  made  himself  com- 
pletely master  of  the  young  king,  and  was,  in  reality,  the  governor 
of  England  far  more  than  Charles  himself.  On  May  i  Charles 
was  married  l)y  proxy  to  Henrietta  Maria,  and  Buckingham 
fetched  liome  the  bride. 

Charles  was  eager  to  meet  his  first  Parliament,  because  he 
tliought  that  it  would  grant  him  enormous  sums  of  money  to  carry 
on  the  war  witli  Spain,  on  which  he  had  set  his  heart.  lie  forgot 
that  its  mem])ers  would  l)e  disgusted  at  the  mismanagement  of 
Mansfield's  expedition,  and  at  tlie  favor  shown  by  himself  to  the 
Catholics  in  consequence  of  his  marriage.  When  Parliament  met 
on  June  18,  the  House  of  Commons  voted  a  small  sum  of  140,000/., 
and  asked  him  to  put  in  execution  the  recusancy  laws.  Charles 
adjourned  Parliament  to  Oxford,  as  the  plague  was  raging  in 
London,  in  order  that  he  might  urge  it  to  vote  him  a  larger  sum. 
It  met  at  Oxf(jrd  on  August  i,  but  tlie  Commons  refused  to  vote 
more   money,   unless   counselors    in  whom  they   could   confide — in 

320 


CHARLES     I  321 

1625-1626 

Other  words,  counselors  other  than  Buckingham — had  the  spend- 
ing of  it.  Charles  seeing  that,  if  the  Commons  could  force  him 
to  accept  ministers  against  his  wish,  they  would  soon  control  him- 
self, dissolved  the  Parliament.  On  everything  else  he  was  ready 
to  give  way — making  no  objection  to  the  renewal  of  the  ])ersecu- 
tion  of  the  Catholics,  whom  a  few  months  ago  he  had  solemnly 
promised  in  his  marriage  treaty  to  protect.  Though  the  question 
now  raised  was  whether  England  was  to  be  ruled  bv  tlie  king  or 
by  the  House  of  Commons,  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  think  that  the 
Commons  were  consciously  aiming  at  sovereignty.  They  saw  that 
there  was  mismanagement,  and  all  that  they  wanted  was  to  stop  it. 

Charles  thought  that,  if  he  could  gain  a  great  victory,  there 
would  be  no  further  talk  about  mismanagement.  Scraping  to- 
gether what  money  he  could,  he  sent  a  great  fleet  and  army,  under 
the  command  of  Sir  Edward  Cecil,  to  take  Cadiz,  tlie  harbor  of 
which  was  the  port  at  which  tlie  Spanish  treasure  sliips  arrived 
from  America  once  a  year,  laden  with  silver  and  gold  from  the 
mines  of  America.  The  great  expedition  sent  by  Buckingliam  to 
Cadiz  was  as  complete  a  failure  as  tliat  which  he  had  sent  out  the 
year  before  under  ^Mansfield.  While  Cecil  was  employed  in  S])ain 
Buckingham  himself  went  to  the  Hague  to  form  a  continental 
alliance  for  the  recovery  of  the  Palatinate,  hoping  especially  to 
secure  the  services  of  Christian  TV.,  king  of  Denmark.  Finding 
Christian  quite  ready  to  fight,  Buckingham  tried  to  pawn  the  king's 
jewels  at  Amsterdam  in  order  to  sup]:)ly  him  with  T,n,ono!.  ;i  month, 
which  he  had  promised  to  him.  No  one  would  lend  mr^ncy  on 
the  jewels,  and  Buckingham  came  back,  hoping  that  a  second 
Parliament  would  be  more  compliant  than  the  first. 

The  new  Parliament  met  on  February  6,  i^)-'^.  Cliarles.  in 
order  to  secure  himself  against  what  he  believed  1o  be  the  attacks 
of  interested  and  ambitious  men,  had  hit  on  the  clc\cr  expedient  of 
making  sheriffs  of  the  leaders  of  the  Opposition,  so  as  to  secure 
their  detention  in  their  own  counties.  The  Opi)o-;ition.  however, 
found  a  leader  in  Sir  John  Eliot,  formerly  a  friend  of  lUiekin-hani. 
but  now  shocked  at  the  misconduct  of  the  favorite,  l^liot  was  not 
only  a  natural  orator,  but  one  of  the  n^vst  pure-n.iinded  ni  jiatriots. 
though  the  vehemence  of  his  tempcranien.t  often  cnrried  Iinii  to 
impute  more  evil  to  men  of  wlKvni  he  ilionght  1)a<ily  than  they  were 
really  guilty  of.  At  present,  he  w;i:s  roused  to  indignativm  again.-.t 
Buckingham,  not  only  on  account  of  the  recent  failures,  but  Ijc- 


322  ENGLAND 

1626-1627 

cause,  in  the  preceding  summer,  he  had  lent  some  EngHsh  ships  to 
the  French,  who  wanted  to  use  them  for  suppressing  the  Huguenots 
of  Rochelle,  then  in  rebelHon  against  their  king,  Louis  XIIL  Be- 
fore long  the  Commons,  under  Eliot's  guidance,  impeached  Buck- 
ingham of  all  kinds  of  crime,  making  against  him  charges  of  some 
of  which  he  was  quite  innocent,  while  others  were  much  exagger- 
ated. The  fact  that  the  only  way  to  get  rid  of  an  unpopular 
minister  was  to  accuse  him  of  crime,  made  those  who  would  other- 
wise have  been  content  with  his  dismissal  ready  to  believe  in  his 
guilt.  Charles's  vexation  was  great  and  rather  than  abandon  his 
minister,  he  dissolved  Parliament,  before  it  had  voted  him  a 
sixpence. 

If  the  war  was  to  go  on,  money  must  in  some  way  or  other 
be  had.  Charles  asked  his  subjects  to  bestow  on  him  a  free  gift 
for  the  purpose.  Scarcely  anyone  gave  him  anything.  Then 
came  news  that  the  king  of  Denmark,  to  whom  the  promised 
30,000/.  a  month  had  not  been  paid,  had  been  signally  defeated, 
so  that  the  recovery  of  the  Palatinate  was  further  off  than  ever. 
Some  clever  persons  suggested  to  Charles  that,  though  the  Statute 
of  Benevolences  prohibited  him  from  making  his  subjects  give  him 
money,  no  law  forbade  him  to  make  them  lend.  He  at  once  gave 
orders  for  the  collection  of  a  forced  loan.  Before  this  was  gath- 
ered in,  troubles  arose  with  France.  Louis  XHL  was  preparing 
to  besiege  Rochelle,  and  Charles  believed  himself  to  be  in  honor 
bound  to  defend  it  because  Louis  had  at  one  time  promised  him 
that  he  would  admit  his  Huguenot  subjects  to  terms.  Besides,  he 
had  offended  Louis  by  sending  out  of  the  country  the  queen's 
French  attendants,  thinking,  probably  with  truth,  that  they  encour- 
aged her  to  resent  his  breach  of  promise  about  the  English 
Catholics. 

In  1627  war  broke  out  between  France  and  England.  Pay- 
ment of  the  forced  loan  was  urged  in  order  to  supply  the  means. 
Chief  Justice  Crewe,  refusing  to  acknowledge  its  legality,  was  dis- 
missed. Poor  men  were  forced  to  serve  as  soldiers;  rich  men  were 
sent  to  prison.  By  such  means  a  considerable  sum  was  got  to- 
gether. A  small  force  was  sent  to  help  the  king  of  Denmark,  and 
a  fleet  of  a  hundred  sail,  carrying  soldiers  on  board,  was  sent  to 
relieve  Rochelle,  under  the  command  of  Buckingham  himself.  On 
July  12  Buckingham  landed  on  the  Isle  of  Re,  and  had  almost 
starved  that  port  into  surrender,  when  a  relieving  force  of  French 


CHARLES     I 

1627-1628 

boats  dashed  through.  Buckingham  called  for  reinforcements  from 
England.  Charles  did  what  he  could,  but  Englishmen  would  lend 
no  money  to  succor  the  hated  Buckingham ;  and,  before  reinforce- 
ments could  arrive,  a  French  army  landed  on  the  Isle  of  Re,  and 
drove  Buckingham  back  to  his  ships.  Out  of  6,800  soldiers,  less 
than  3,000 — worn  by  hunger  and  sickness — returned  to  England. 

Buckingham  was  more  unpopular  than  ever.  "  Since  Eng- 
land was  England,"  we  find  in  a  letter  of  the  time,  "  it  received  not 
so  dishonorable  a  blow."  Attention  was,  however,  chiefly  turned 
to  domestic  grievances.  Soldiers  had  been  billeted  on  household- 
ers without  their  consent,  and  martial  law  had  been  exercised  over 
civilians  as  well  as  soldiers.  Moreover,  the  forced  loan  had  been 
exacted,  and  some  of  those  who  refused  to  pay  had  been  imprisoned 
by  the  mere  order  of  the  king  and  the  Privy  Council.  Against  this 
last  injury,  five  knights,  who  had  been  imprisoned,  appealed  to  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench,  A  writ  of  habeas  corpus  was  issued — 
that  is  to  say,  an  order  was  given  to  the  jailer  to  produce  the 
prisoners  before  the  Court,  together  with  a  return  showing  the 
cause  of  committal.  All  that  the  jailer  could  show  was  tiiat  the 
prisoners  had  been  committed  by  order  of  the  king,  signified  by  the 
Privy  Council.  The  lawyers  employed  by  the  five  knights  argued 
that  every  prisoner  had  a  right  to  be  tried  or  liberated  on  bail ;  that, 
unless  cause  was  shown — that  is  to  say,  unless  a  charge  was  brought 
against  him — there  was  nothing  on  which  he  could  be  tried;  and 
that,  therefore,  these  prisoners  ought  to  be  bailed.  The  lawyers 
for  the  Crown  argued  that  when  the  safety  of  the  state  was  con- 
cerned, the  king  had  always  been  allowed  to  imprison  without 
showing  cause,  and  that  his  discretion  must  be  trusted  not  to  im- 
prison anyone  excepting  in  cases  of  necessity.  The  judges  did  not 
decide  this  point,  but  sent  the  five  knights  back  to  prison.  In  a 
few  days  all  the  prisoners  were  set  free,  and  Charles  summoned 
a  third  Parliament,  hoping  that  it  would  vote  money  for  a  fresh 
expedition  to  relieve  Rochelle, 

Charles's  third  Parliament  met  on  March  17,  1628.  The 
leadership  was  at  once  taken  by  Sir  Thomas  Went  worth,  who,  as 
well  as  Eliot,  had  been  imprisoned  for  refusing  to  pay  tlie  loan. 
Though  the  two  men  now  worked  together,  they  were,  in  most 
points,  opposed  to  one  another.  Eliot  had  been  a  warm  advocate 
of  the  war  with  Spain,  till  he  found  it  useless  to  carry  on  the  war 
under  Buckingham's  guidance.     Wentworth  disliked  all  wars,  and 


324  ENGLAND 

1628 

especially  a  war  with  Spain.  Eliot  believed  in  the  wisdom  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  thought  that,  if  the  king  always  took  its 
advice,  he  was  sure  to  be  in  the  right.  Wentworth  thought  that  the 
House  of  Commons  often  blundered,  and  that  the  king  was  more 
likely  to  be  in  the  right  if  he  took  advice  from  wise  counselors. 
Wentworth  believed  that  in  this  case  Charles  had  listened  to  foolish 
counsel,  and  threw  himself  ardently  into  the  struggle  in  which  the 
House  of  Commons  was  trying  to  stop  Buckingham  in  his  rash 
course.  From  time  to  time  \Ventworth  contrived  to  show  that  he 
was  no  enemy  of  the  king,  or  of  a  strong  government  such  as  that 
which  had  existed  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  He  saw  clearly  that 
the  late  aggressions  on  the  liberty  of  the  subject  weakened,  instead 
of  strengthening,  the  Crown ;  and  he  now  proposed  a  bill  which 
should  declare  them  illegal  in  the  future.  Charles  refused  to  ac- 
cept the  bill,  and  Wentworth,  unwilling  to  take  a  prominent  part 
in  a  struggle  with  the  king  himself,  retired  into  the  background 
for  the  remainder  of  the  session. 

Instead  of  Wentworth's  bill,  Eliot  and  the  lawyers — Coke  and 
Selden  being  prominent  among  them — brought  forward  a  Peti- 
tion of  Right,  not  merely  providing  for  the  future,  but  also  de- 
claring that  right  had  actually  been  violated  in  the  past.  Charles 
was  willing  to  promise  e\"ervthing  else  asked  of  him,  but  he  resisted 
the  attempt  to  force  him  to  promise  never  to  imprison  without 
shfjwing  cause,  and  thus  to  strip  himself  of  the  power  of  punishing 
offenses  directed  against  the  safety  of  the  state.  The  Commons, 
wlio  held  that  he  had  directed  his  powers  against  men  who  were 
patriots,  proved  inexorable.  Charles  needed  money  for  the  relief 
of  Rochelle.  He  tried  liard  to  get  over  the  difficulty  by  an  evasive 
answer,  but  at  last,  <;n  June  7,  he  gave  way,  and  the  Petition  of 
Right  became  tlie  law  (.1  the  land.  After  that,  so  far  as  the  law 
went,  tliere  was  to  be  no  mijre  martial  law  or  enforced  billeting, 
no  f(jrced  loans  or  taxes  imp^jsed  without  a  Parliamentary  grant, 
or  imprisonment  witliuut  cau>c  sliown. 

Before  tlie  cikI  >ji  tlie  session  a  fresh  question  was  raised.  For 
many  reigns  I'arliament  had  \'oted  to  each  king  f(jr  life,  at  tlie 
Ijeginning  (.)i  his  i-eign,  certain  cust(jms  duties  known  as  Tonnage 
and  Poundage.  In  addition  to  these  Janies  had  added  the  imposi- 
tions witliuut  a  Parliamentarv  grant.  In  t!ie  first  Parliament  of 
Charles,  th.e  Comrji'-ns,  proijabiv  wisliing  to  settle  the  (iue:^tion 
of  impijsilio'.is  l^eiTrc  |ierir;ap.ently  granting  Tonnage  and  Pound- 


CHARLES     I  325 

1628 

age,  had  passed  a  bill  granting  the  latter  for  a  single  year;  but 
that  Parliament  had  been  dissolved  before  the  bill  had  passed 
the  Lords.  The  second  Parliament  was  dissolved  before  the 
Commons  had  even  discussed  the  subject,  and  the  third  Par- 
liament now  sitting  had  found  no  time  to  attend  to  it  till  after  the 
Petition  of  Right  had  been  granted.  Now  that  the  session  was 
drawing  to  a  close  the  Commons  again  proposed  to  grant  Tonnage 
and  Poundage  for  a  year  only.  Charles,  who  had  l^een  levying 
the  duties  ever  since  his  accession,  refused  to  accept  a  grant  on 
these  terms,  and  the  Commons  then  asserted  that  the  clause  of  the 
Petition  of  Right  forbidding  him  to  levy  taxes  without  a  vote  of 
Parliament  made  his  raising  of  Tonnage  and  Poundage  illegal.  It 
was  a  nice  legal  point  whether  customs  were  properly  called  taxes, 
and  Charles  answered  that  he  did  not  think  that  in  demanding  the 
petition  they  had  meant  to  ask  him  to  yield  his  right  to  Tonnage 
and  Poundage,  and  that  he  was  sure  he  had  not  meant  to  do  so. 
The  Commons  then  attacked  Buckingham,  and  on  June  26  Charles 
prorogued  Parliament. 

Li  return  for  the  Petition  of  Right  Charles  liad  received  a 
grant  of  money  large  enough  to  enable  him  to  send  out  his  llect. 
In  August  Buckingham  went  to  Portsmouth  to  take  the  command. 
He  was  followed  by  John  P'elton,  an  officer  to  whom  he  had  ret  used 
employment,  and  who  had  not  been  paid  for  his  former  services. 
Language  used  by  the  House  of  Commons  in  their  recent  ;ttlack 
on  Buckingham  persuaded  Felton  that  he  would  render  scr\icc  to 
God  and  man  by  slaying  the  enemy  of  botli.  On  August  _\^  lie 
stabbed  the  Duke  as  he  came  out  from  1)reakf,'ist,  crying.  "  (  kuI  lia\e 
mercy  on  thy  soul!"  Buckingham  fell  (k\atl  on  ihc  >\v'\.  'I'lic 
fleet  went  out  under  the  command  of  the  Karl  of  Limlscy  to  relieve 
Rochelle,  but  it  failed  utterly.  Rochelle  surrcn(kM-c(l  to  the  king 
of  France,  and  Charles  was  left  to  bear  the  weight  of  the  unpoi)ti- 
larity  of  his  late  favorite. 

Charles  was  anxious  to  come  to  terms  with  liis  l\arliamcnt 
on  the  cjuestion  of  Tonnage  and  I'oundago.  and  wtuild  prol)aJ)Iy 
have  consented  to  accept  the  compromise  jiroimsed  in  i()[o. 
Neither  party,  indeed,  could  afford  to  surrender  con.ipletely  to  tjic 
other.  The  customs  duties  Avere  already  more  tlian  a  tliir^l  ^^i  the 
revenue,  and  if  Charles  could  levy  \\\\:\t  he  ]ileascd  lie  might  so 
increase  his  income  as.  to  have  no  frrtlier  need  of  parliaments; 
wliereas,   if  the  Commons  refused  tn  make  the  grant,    the    king 


326  ENGLAND 

1625-1628 

would  soon  be  in  a  state  of  bankruptcy.  The  financial  question, 
in  short,  involved  the  further  question  whether  Charles  or  the  Par- 
liament was  to  have  the  sovereignty.  Dangerous  as  it  would  be 
for  both  parties  to  enter  upon  a  quarrel  which  led  up  to  such  issues, 
it  was  the  more  difficult  to  avoid  it  because  the  king  and  the  Com- 
mons were  already  at  variance  on  another  subject  of  preeminent 
importance. 

That  subject  was  the  subject  of  religion.  The  country  gen- 
tlemen, who  almost  entirely  filled  the  benches  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  were  not  Puritan  in  the  sense  in  which  Cartwright  had 
been  Puritan  in  Elizabeth's  reign.  They  did  not  wish  to  abolish 
episcopacy  or  the  Prayer  Book ;  but  tney  were  strongly  Protestant, 
and  their  Protestantism  had  been  strengthened  by  a  sense  of  danger 
from  the  engagements  in  favor  of  the  English  Catholics  into  which 
James  and  Charles  had  entered,  and  by  recent  Catholic  victories  on 
the  continent.  It  was  probably  in  consequence  of  these  events 
that  there  was  in  England  a  revival  of  that  attachment  to  Calvin- 
istic  doctrines  which  had  accompanied  the  Elizabethan  struggle 
against  Spain  and  the  Pope. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  small  but  growing  number  among  the 
clergy  were  breaking  away  from  the  dogmas  of  Calvanism,  and 
especially  from  its  stern  doctrine  on  the  subject  of  predestination. 
The  House  of  Commons  claimed  to  represent  the  nation,  and  it 
upheld  the  unity  of  the  national  belief  as  strongly  as  it  had  been 
upheld  by  Henry  VKI.  In  1626  the  House  impeached  Richard 
Montague,  who  had  challenged  the  received  Calvinist  opinions  on 
the  ground  that  they  were  not  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  of 
England.  Montague  and  those  who  agreed  with  him  warmly 
supported  the  royal  power.  Another  clergyman,  Roger  Manwar- 
ing,  preached  sermons  in  which  Parliaments  were  treated  with 
contempt,  and  the  Commons  retaliated  by  impeaching  the  preacher. 
Charles,  instead  of  contenting  himself  with  this,  made  Montague 
Bishop  of  Chichester  and  gave  Manwaring  a  good  living. 

With  the  intention  of  smoothing  matters  down,  Charles  issued 
a  declaration  prefixed  to  the  Articles,  which  would,  as  he  hoped, 
make  for  peace.  Xo  one  was  in  futm-e  to  speak  in  public  on  the 
controverted  points.  Charles  probably  believed  himself  to  be 
acting  fairly,  wliile,  in  reality,  his  crunpromise  was  most  unfair. 
The  Calvinists,  who  believed  their  views  about  predestination  to  be 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  souls  uf  Christians,  were  hardly 


CHARLESI  827 

1628-1629 

treated  by  the  order  to  hold  their  tongues  on  the  subject.  Their 
opponents  did  not  care  about  the  doctrine  at  all,  and  would  be  only 
too  glad  if  nothing  more  was  heard  of  it.  Charles,  however,  was 
but  following  in  Elizabeth's  steps  in  imposing  silence  and  calling 
it  peace.  But  the  times  were  different.  There  was  no  longer  a 
Catholic  claimant  of  the  throne  or  a  foreign  enemy  at  the  gates 
to  cause  moderate  men  to  support  the  government,  even  in  its 
errors. 

The  Houses  met  for  a  second  session  on  January  20,  1629, 
The  Commons  attacked  the  clergy  on  a  side  on  which  they  were 
especially  vulnerable.  Some  of  those  who  had  challenged  the 
Calvinistic  doctrines  had  revived  certain  ceremonial  forms  which 
had  generally  fallen  into  disuse,  such  as  singing  parts  of  the  service 
and  permanently  fixing  the  communion  table  at  the  east  end  of  the 
chancel.  The  Commons  were  indignant  at  what  they  styled 
Popish  practices,  and  summoned  the  offenders  before  them.  Then 
they  turned  to  Tonnage  and  Poundage.  Eliot,  instead  of  con- 
fronting the  difficulty  directly,  attempted  to  make  it  a  question  of 
privilege.  The  goods  of  a  member  of  the  House,  named  Rolle, 
had  been  seized  for  non-payment  of  Tonnage  and  Poundage,  and 
Eliot  wished  to  summon  the  custom  house  officers  to  the  bar,  n<it 
for  seizing  the  goods  of  an  Englishman,  but  for  a  breach  of  privi- 
lege in  seizing  the  goods  of  a  member  of  Parliament.  Pym,  who 
occupied  a  prominent  position  among  the  popular  party,  urged 
the  Plouse  to  take  broader  ground:  "  The  liberties  of  this  House," 
he  said,  "  are  inferior  to  the  liberties  of  this  kingdom."  Eliot  car- 
ried the  House  with  him,  but  Charles  supported  his  officers,  and 
refused  to  allow  them  to  appear  at  the  bar  of  the  House.  Once 
more  the  question  of  sovereignty  was  raised.  The  House  was 
adjourned  by  the  king's  order  in  the  hope  that  a  compromise  might 
be  discovered. 

No  compromise  could  be  found,  and  on  March  2  a  fresh  order 
for  adjournment  was  given.  \Micn  iMnch.  the  Speaker,  rose  to 
anncnmce  it,  two  strong  young  members.  Holies  and  \'alentinc, 
pushiCd  liim  back  into  his  chair  while  I'.liot  read  tliree  resohitions 
to  the  effect  that  whoever  brought  in  innovations  in  religion,  or 
introduced  opinions  differing  from  those  of  the  true  antl  oriluxlox 
church;  whoever  advised  the  levy  of  Tonnage  and  Poundage  with- 
t)nt  a  grant  by  Parliament ;  and  whoever  voluntarily  ])ai(l  those 
duties,  was  an  enemy  to  the  kingdom  and  a  betrayer  of  its  h.berties. 


328  ENGLAND 

1629-1630 

A  wild  tumult  arose.  A  rush  was  made  to  free  the  Speaker,  and 
another  rush  to  hold  him  down.  One  member,  at  least,  laid  his 
hand  on  his  sword.  The  doors  were  locked,  and,  amid  the 
hubbub.  Holies  repeated  the  resolutions,  which  were  accepted  with 
shouts  of  "  Aye,  aye !  "  Then  the  doors  were  opened,  and  the  mem- 
bers poured  out.  The  king  at  once  dissolved  Parliament,  and  for 
eleven  years  no  Parliament  met  again  in  England. 

The  constitutional  system  of  the  Tudor  monarchy  had  prac- 
tically broken  down.  The  nation  had,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
entered  upon  a  struggle  for  national  independence.  Henry  VHI. 
and  Elizabeth  had  headed  it  in  that  struggle,  and  the  House  of 
Commons  had  but  represented  the  nation  in  accepting  Henry  VHI. 
and  Elizabeth  as  supreme  rulers.  The  House  of  Commons  now 
refused  to  admit  that  Charles  was  its  supreme  ruler,  because  he 
could  neither  head  the  nation  nor  understand  either  its  wants  or 
its  true  needs.  Yet  the  House  had  not  as  yet  shown  its  capacity 
for  taking  his  place.  It  had  criticised  his  methods  of  government 
effectively,  but  had  displayed  its  own  intolerance  and  disregard  for 
individual  liberty.  Yet,  till  it  could  learn  to  respect  individual  lib- 
erty, it  would  not  be  likely  to  gain  the  sovereignty  at  which  it 
aimed.  A  king  becomes  powerful  w'hen  men  want  a  strong  gov- 
ernment to  put  down  enemies  abroad  or  petty  tyrants  at  home.  A 
Parliament  becomes  powerful  when  men  want  to  discuss  political 
questions,  and  political  discussion  cannot  thrive  when  voices  dis- 
agreeable to  the  majority  are  silenced.  The  House  of  Commons 
had  th(jught  more  of  opposing  the  king  than  of  laying  a  wide  basis 
for  its  own  power,  and  now  it  was,  for  a  time  at  least,  silenced. 

Cliarles  was  now  to  show  whether  he  could  do  better  than  the 
Commons.  He  had  gained  (jne  great  convert  soon  after  the  end 
of  the  hrst  session  of  tlie  last  Parhament.  Wentworth,  satisfied, 
it  is  to  be  supposed,  with  the  i'etition  of  Right,  and  dissatisfied  with 
tlie  claim  to  sovereignly  put  forward  by  the  Commons,  came  over 
U)  his  side  and  was  made  first  a  baron  and  then  a  viscount,  after 
which  l)eforc  the  end  of  1628  he  was  made  President  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  tlic  X'ortli.  Wentworlh  was  no  Puritan,  and  the  claim 
of  the  ConmKjns,  in  the  second  session,  to  meddle  with  religion 
no  d(jubl  slrengthcned  him  in  his  conviction  that  he  had  chosen 
the  right  side.  Before  the  end  of  1629  he  became  a  Privy 
Councilor.  Peace  was  made  willi  i'"rance  in  1629,  and  with  Spain 
in    1630.     To  bring  the  finances  into  order,  the  king  insisted  on 


CHARLESI  329 

1630-1633 

collecting  the  customs  without  a  Parliamentary  grant,  and 
Chambers,  a  merchant  who  refused  to  pay,  was  summoned  before 
the  Council,  and  then  fined  2,000/.  and  imprisoned  for  saying  that 
merchants  were  more  wrung  in  England  than  they  were  in  Turkey. 
The  leading  members  who  had  been  concerned  in  the  disturbance 
at  the  last  meeting  of  Parliament  were  imprisoned,  and  three  of 
them,  Eliot,  Holies,  and  Valentine,  were  charged  before  the  King's 
Bench  with  riot  and  sedition.  They  declined  to  plead,  on  the 
ground  that  the  judges  had  no  jurisdiction  over  things  done  in 
Parliament.  The  judges  held  that  riot  and  sedition  must  be  pun- 
ished somewhere,  and  that  as  Parliament  was  not  always  sitting 
it  must  be  punished  by  themselves.  As  the  accused  still  refused 
to  plead  they  were  fined  and  imprisoned.  Eliot  died  of  consump- 
tion in  the  Tower  in  1632.  He  was  the  martyr,  not  of  individual 
liberty,  but  of  Parliamentary  supremacy.  Charles  hated  him  be- 
cause he  regarded  him  as  the  factious  accuser  of  Buckingham. 

The  first  years  of  unparliamentary  government  were,  on  the 
whole,  years  of  peace  and  quiet.  The  Star  Chamber,  which  under 
Henry  VH.  had  put  down  the  old  nobility,  was  now  ready  to 
put  down  the  opponents  of  the  king.  Its  numbers  had  grown  with 
its  work,  and  all  of  the  Privy  Councilors  were  now  members  of  it, 
the  only  other  members  being  two  judges.  It  was  therefore  a  mere 
instrument  in  the  king's  hands.  The  bulk  of  Englishmen  were  not 
touched  by  these  sentences,  and  there  was  more  indignation  when, 
in  order  to  pay  off  debts  contracted  in  time  of  war,  Charles  ordered 
the  enforcement  of  fines  upon  all  men  holding  by  military  tenure 
lands  worth  40/.  a  year  who  had  neglected  to  be  knighted.  The 
Court  of  Exchequer  held  that  the  fines  were  legal ;  but  the  whole 
system  of  military  tenure  was  obsolete,  and  those  who  suifered 
regarded  themselves  as  wronged  through  a  mere  technicality. 

For  all  matters  relating  to  the  Church  Charles's  principal 
adviser  was  William  Laud,  now  Bishop  of  London.  As  far  as 
doctrine  was  concerned  Laud  carried  on  tlie  teaching  of  Cranmer 
and  Hooker.  He  held  that  the  basis  of  belief  was  the  I'.ible.  but 
that  the  Bible  was  to  be  interpreted  by  the  tradition  of  the  early 
Church,  and  tliat  all  doubtful  points  were  to  be  su])jected,  not  to 
heated  arguments  in  the  pulpits,  but  to  S()l)cr  discussion  Ijy  learned 
men.  Plis  mind,  in  short,  like  those  of  the  earlier  English  reform- 
ers, combined  the  Protestant  reliance  on  tlie  Scriptures  w  itli  rever- 
ence for  ancient  tradition' and  with  the  critical  spirit  of  the  Renais- 


330  ENGLAND 

1629-1634 

sance.  Laud's  difficulty  lay,  as  theirs  had  lain,  in  the  impossibility 
of  gaining  over  any  large  number  of  his  fellow-countrymen.  Litel- 
ligent  criticism  and  intelligent  study  were  only  for  the  few.  Laud, 
as  he  himself  plainly  declared,  was  in  danger  of  being  crushed 
between  the  upper  and  lower  mill-stones  of  Puritanism  and  the 
Papacy. 

In  all  this  there  was  nothing  peculiar  to  Laud.  What  was 
peculiar  to  him  was  his  perception  that  intellectual  religion  could  not 
maintain  itself  by  intellect  alone.  Hooker's  appeals  to  Church  his- 
tory and  to  the  supremacy  of  reason  had  rolled  over  the  heads  of 
men  who  knew  nothing  about  Church  history,  and  who  did  not 
reason.  Laud  fell  back  upon  the  influence  of  ceremonial.  He,  like 
Eliot  and  the  Parliamentarians,  was  convinced  that  there  could  be 
but  one  Church  in  the  nation.  As  they  sought  to  retain  their  hold 
on  it  by  the  enforcement  of  uniformity  of  doctrine,  Laud  sought  to 
retain  his  hold  on  it  by  enforcing  uniformity  of  worship.  To  do 
this  he  attempted  to  pui  in  force  the  existing  law  of  the  Church  as 
opposed  to  the  existing  practice.  What  he  urged  men  to  do  he 
believed  to  be  wholly  right.  He  himself  clung  with  all  his  heart 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  episcopacy,  of  the  efficacy  of 
the  Sacraments,  and  to  the  sobering  intiuence  of  appointed  prayers 
and  appointed  ceremonies.  What  he  lacked  was  broad  human  sym- 
pathy and  respect  for  tlie  endeavor  of  each  earnest  man  to  gruw 
towards  perfection  in  the  way  which  seemed  to  him  to  be  best, 
^len  were  to  obey  for  their  own  good,  and  to  hold  their  tongues. 
The  king  v.-as  the  supreme  governur.  and  with  his  authority,  as 
exercised  in  the  Courts  of  Star  Chamber  and  High  Commission, 
Laud  hoped  to  rescue  England  from  Pope  and  Puritan. 

In  1633  Laud  became  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  He  at  once 
made  his  hand  felt  in  every  directi'-n.  By  his  advice,  in  conse- 
quence of  an  attempt  of  the  judges  to  put  an  end  to  Sunday  amuse- 
ments. CliUries  rei)ublis}"!ed  tiie  "  Declarati'.in  of  Sp'orts"'  wliich  had 
been  issued  by  his  father,  authorizing  sucii  amusements  under  cer- 
tain restrictions.  \\'here,  however.  Jame-  liad  cuntented  himself 
with  gi\'ing  orders,  Charles  insisted  on  havi:ig  tlie  Declaration  read 
in  c!nn-c:i  by  :•.;;  the  clergy,  and  r-Ai-cd  t::c  rc-i-tance  of  thuse  who 
regarded  Sunday  amusements  as  a  breach  oi  the  Sabbath.  Laud  \vas 
also  anxi'ius  t^  see  tlic  Communiun  table  standing  evervwliere  at  the 
east  eu'l  of  the  churcli.  Xo  draiut  his  anx'iety  came  i!]  part  from  his 
re\crence  of  the  hdy  sacrament  fur  which  it  was  set  apart,  but  it 


C  H  A  R  L  E  S     I  331 

1633-1634 

also  arose  from  his  dislike  to  the  base  purposes  for  which  it  was 
afterwards  made  to  serve. 

Among  the  most  virulent  opponents  of  Land  was  \\'illiam 
Prynne,  a  lawyer  whose  extensive  study  of  theology  had  not  tended 
to  smooth  away  the  asperities  of  his  temper.  He  was,  moreover, 
a  voluminous  writer,  and  had  written  books  against  drinking  healths 
and  against  the  wearing  of  long  hair  by  men,  in  which  these  follies 
had  been  treated  as  equally  blameworthy  with  the  grossest  sins. 
Struck  by  the  immorality  of  the  existing  drama,  he  attacked  it  in  a 
heavy  work  called  "  Histriomastix,  or  The  Scourge  of  Stage 
Players,"  in  which  he  held  the  frequenting  of  theaters  to  be  the 
cause  of  every  crime  under  the  sun.  He  pointed  out  that  all  the 
Roman  emperors  who  had  patronized  the  drama  had  come  to  a 
bad  end,  and  this  was  held  by  the  courtiers  to  be  a  reflection  on 
Charles,  wdio  patronized  the  drama.  He  inserted  in  the  index  a 
vile  charge  against  all  actresses,  and  this  was  held  to  l)e  an  insult 
to  the  queen,  who  was  at  the  time  taking  part  in  the  rehearsal  (^f  a 
theatrical  representation.  Accordingly  in  1633  Prynne  was  sen- 
tenced by  the  Star  Chamber  to  lose  his  ears  in  the  pillory,  to  a  heavy 
fine,  and  to  imprisonment  during  the  king's  pleasure.  In  1634  the 
sentence  was  carried  out.  Prynne's  case,  liowever,  awakened  no 
general  sympathy,  and  the  king  does  not  appear  to  have  as  yet  be- 
come widely  unpopular.  The  young  lawyers  came  to  W'hitelu'ill  to 
give  a  masque  or  dramatic  representation  in  presence  of  the  king 
and  queen,  in  order  to  show  their  detestation  of  Prynne's  conduct, 
while  John  Milton,  the  strictest  and  most  i)ure-min(le(l  of  poets, 
wrote  a  masque,  "  Comus,"  to  show  how  little  synipalliy  he  had 
with  Prynne's  sweeping  denunciations.  Yet,  though  Milton  op- 
posed Prynne's  exaggeration,  his  own  poetry  was  a  protest  against 
Laud's  attempt  to  reach  the  mind  througli  the  senses.  Milton  held 
to  the  higher  part  of  the  Puritan  teaching,  that  the  soul  is  to  leatl 
the  body,  and  not  the  body  the  soul. 


Chapter  XXXIII 

THE   OVERTHROW    OF   THE    PERSONAL    GOVERN- 
MENT   OF    CHARLES    L     1634— 1641 

LEADING    DATES 

The  Reign  of  Charles  I.,  A.D.  1625-1649 — The  Metropolitical 
Visitation,  1634 — First  Ship-money  Writ  {to  the  port-towns) ,  1634 — 
Second  Ship-money  Writ  {to  all  the  counties),  1635 — Prynne,  Burton, 

AND  BaSTVVICK  in  THE  PiLLORY,  1637 — RiOT  IN  EDINBURGH,  1637 — SCOT- 
TISH National  Covenant,  1638 — Judgment  in  Hampden's  Case,  1637- 
1638 — First  Bishops'  War,  1639 — Short  Parliament,  1640 — Second 
Bishops'  War,  1640 — Meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament,  1640 — 
Execution  of  Strafford,  and  Constitutional  Reforms,  1641 

THE  antagonism  which  Laud  had  begun  to  rouse  in  the 
first  months  of  his  archbishopric  became  far  more  widely 
spread  in  the  three  years  beginning  in  1634  and  ending 
in  1637.  in  consequence  of  a  ^Metropolitical  Visitation — that  is  to  say, 
a  visitation  which  he  conducted  by  the  Metropolitan  or  Archbishop 
— either  in  person  or  by  deputy — to  inquire  into  the  condition  of 
the  clergy  and  churclies  of  the  Province  of  Canterbury:  a  similar 
visitation  being  held  in  the  Province  of  York  by  the  authority  of 
the  i\rchl)ishop  of  York.  Every  clergvman  who  refused  to  con- 
form to  the  Prayer  P)Ook,  who  resisted  the  removal  of  the  Com- 
munion table  to  the  cast  end  of  the  chancel,  or  who  objected  to  bow 
when  the  sacred  name  of  Jesus  was  pronounced,  was  called  in  ques- 
tion, and  if  obstinate,  was  brrjught  before  the  High  Commission 
and  suspended  from  the  exercise  of  his  functions  or  deprived  of  his 
living.  Laud  wanted  to  reach  unitv  throuefh  uniformitv,  and  made 
the  canons  of  iho.  Church  his  standard  of  uniformity.  Even  mod- 
erate men  suspected  that  he  sought  to  subject  England  again  to  the 
Pope.  The  queen,  too,  entertained  a  Pa]ial  agent  at  her  Court, 
and  a  few  successful  conversions  at  one  time  frightened  the  coun- 
try into  a  belief  tliat  a  plot  existed  to  overthrow  Protestantism. 
Some  of  Laud's  clerical  su])p(jrters  favored  this  idea,  by  talking 
about  such  tojjics  as  altars  and  the  invocation  of  the  saints,  which 
had  hitherto  been  held  to  have  no  place  in  Protestant  teaching. 

33^2 


C  11  A  R  L  E  S     I  333 

1635-1637 

The  result  was  that  moderate  Protestants  now  joined  the  Puritans 
in  opposing  Laud. 

Laud  had  Httle  hope  of  being  able  to  abate  the  storm.  One  of 
his  best  qualities  was  that  he  was  no  respecter  of  persons,  and  he 
had  roused  animosities  in  the  upper  classes  by  punishing  gentlemen 
guilty  of  immorality  or  of  breaches  of  Church  discipline  as  freely 
as  he  punished  more  lowly  offenders.  In  1637  he  attempted  to  de- 
fend himself  from  the  charge  of  being  a  Papist  and  an  innovator 
in  religion  by  bringing  three  of  his  most  virulent  assailants — 
Prynne,  Bastwick,  and  Burton — before  the  Star  Chamber.  The 
trial  afforded  him  the  opportunity  of  making  a  speech  in  his  own 
defense,  to  which  nobody  paid  attention.  Prynne  was  sentenced  to 
have  "  S.  L."  (seditious  libeler)  branded  on  both  cheeks,  the  others 
to  lose  their  ears  in  the  pillory,  and  all  to  pay  a  fine  of  5,000/.,  and 
to  imprisonment  for  life.  It  was  not  now"  as  it  had  been  in  1634, 
when  Prynne  stood  alone  in  the  pillory,  no  man  regarding  him. 
The  three  victims  had  a  triumphal  reception  on  their  way  to  the 
pillory.  On  their  way  to  their  several  prisons  in  distant  parts  of 
the  country  men  flocked  to  greet  them  as  martyrs. 

Revolutions  are  never  successful  without  the  guidance  of  men 
devoted  to  ideas ;  but  on  the  other  hand  they  arc  not  caused  only  by 
grievances  felt  by  religious  or  high-minded  people.  To  stir  large 
masses  of  men  to  resistance,  their  pockets  must  be  touched  as  well 
as  their  souls.  In  1635  the  Commissioners  of  tlie  Treasury  laid 
additional  impositions  on  commerce  and  established  corporal  ions 
for  exercising  various  manufactures  under  the  prcMectifjn  of  nn)- 
nopolies.  This  proceeding  was  according  to  the  letter  of  tlie  law, 
as  corporations  had  been  exempted  from  the  act  in  restraint  of 
monopolies  which  had  been  passed  in  1624.  So,  too,  was  a  claim 
put  forward  by  Charles  in  1637  to  levy  fines  from  those  who  liad 
encroached  on  the  old  boundaries  of  tlie  forests.  It  is  true  that, 
in  the  teeth  of  the  opposition  aroused.  Charles  exacted  but  a  small 
])art  of  the  fines  imposed,  but  lie  incurred  almost  as  much  obloquy 
as  if  he  had  taken  the  whole  of  the  money. 

More  important  was  Charles's  effort  to  jjrovidc  himself  with 
a  fleet.  As  the  Dutch  navy  was  ])owerful.  and  tlie  iMX'ncIi  navy  was 
rapidly  growing  in  strength.  Cliarles,  not  niiiiatnr;i]ly.  tlionght  tliat 
England  ought  to  be  able  to  meet  their  combined  foroc-^  ;it  sea. 
In  1634,  by  the  advice  of  .\ttornev-(^ieneral  Xoy.  he  issued  writs  to 
the  port  towns,  to  furnish  him  with  ships,      lie  t^K)k  care  to  ask 


334  ENGLAND 

1634-1638 

for  ships  larger  than  any  port — except  London — had  got,  and  then 
offered  to  supply  ships  of  his  own,  on  condition  that  the  port  towns 
should  equip  and  man  them.  Li  1635  Charles  asked  for  ships 
not  merely  from  the  ports,  but  from  the  inland  as  well  as  from  the 
maritime  counties.  Again  London  alone  provided  ships;  in  all  the 
rest  of  England  money  had  to  be  found  to  pay  for  the  equipment 
and  manning  of  ships  belonging  to  the  king.  In  this  way  Charles 
got  a  strong  navy  which  he  manned  with  sailors  in  the  habit  of 
managing  ships  of  war,  and  entirely  at  his  own  orders.  The 
experience  of  the  Cadiz  voyage  had  shown  him  that  merchant  sail- 
ors were  not  to  be  trusted  to  fight  in  enterprises  in  which  they  took 
no  interest,  and  it  is  from  the  ship-money  fleet  that  the  separation 
of  the  naval  and  mercantile  marine  dates.  Necessarily,  however, 
Englishmen  began  to  complain,  not  that  they  had  a  navy,  but  that 
the  money  needed  for  the  navy  was  taken  from  them  without  a 
Parliamentary  grant.  Year  after  year  ship-money  was  levied,  and 
the  murmurs  against  it  increased.  In  February,  1637,  Charles  con- 
sulted the  judges,  and  ten  out  of  the  twelve  judges  declared  that  the 
king  had  a  right  to  do  what  was  necessary  for  the  defense  of  the 
realm  in  time  of  danger,  and  that  the  king  was  the  sole  judge  of  the 
existence  of  danger. 

It  was  admitted  that,  in  accordance  with  the  Petition  of  Right, 
Charles  could  not  levy  a  tax  without  a  Parliamentary  grant. 
Charles,  however,  held  that  sliip-nioney  was  not  a  tax,  but  money 
paid  in  commutation  of  the  duty  of  all  Englishmen  to  defend  their 
country.  Common  sense  held  that,  whether  ship-money  was  a  tax 
or  not,  it  had  been  levied  without  consulting  Parliament,  simply 
because  the  king  shrank  from  consulting  Parliament;  or,  in  other 
words,  because  he  was  afraid  that  Parliament  would  ask  him  to  put 
an  end  to  Laud's  system  of  managing  the  Church.  Charles  was 
ready,  as  he  said,  to  allow  to  Parliament  liberty  of  counsel,  but  not 
(>f  cr)ntrol.  The  sense  of  irritation  was  now  so'  great  that  the 
nation  wanted  to  control  the  Covernment,  and  knew  that  it  would 
never  be  able  to  do  so  if  Charles  could,  by  a  subterfuge,  take  what 
money  he  needed  without  summoning  Parliament.  Of  this  feeling 
John  Hampden,  a  Ijuckinghamshire  scjuire,  became  tiie  mouthpiece. 
lie  refused  to  pav  20s.  levied  on  his  estate  for  ship-money.  His 
case  was  argued  before  the  twelve  judges  sittin.g  in  the  Exchequer 
Chamber.  In  163S  two  pronounced  distinctly  in  his  favor,  three 
supported  him  un  technical  grounds,  and  seven  pronounced  for  the 


CHARLES     I.  335 

1572-1638 

king,  Charles  continued  to  levy  ship-money,  Init  the  arguments  of 
Hampden's  lawyers  were  circulated  in  the  country,  and  the  judg- 
ment of  the  majority  on  the  Bench  was  ascrihed  to  cowardice 
or  obsequiousness.  Their  decision  ranged  against  the  king  all  who 
cared  about  preserving  their  property,  as  the  Metropolitical  visita- 
tion had  ranged  against  him  all  who  cared  for  religion  in  a  dis- 
tinctly Protestant  form.  Yet,  even  now,  the  Tudor  monarchy  had 
done  its  work  too  thoroughly,  and  had  filled  the  minds  of  men  too 
completely  with  the  belief  that  armed  resistance  to  a  king  was 
unjustifiable,  to  make  Englishmen  ripe  for  rebellion.  They  pre- 
ferred to  wait  till  some  opportunity  should  arrive  which  would 
enable  them  to  express  their  disgust  in  a  constitutional  way. 

The  social  condition  of  Scotland  was  very  different  from  that 
of  England.  The  nobles  there  had  never  been  crushed  as  they  had 
been  in  England,  and  they  had  tried  to  make  the  reformation  con- 
duce to  their  own  profit.  In  1572  they  obtained  the  appointment  of 
what  were  known  as  Tulchan  bishops,  who,  performing  no  episco- 
pal function,  received  the  revenues  of  their  sees  and  then  handed 
tliem  over  to  certain  nobles.^  After  much  vacillation,  James  had 
consented,  in  1592,  to  an  act  fully  reestablishing  tlie  presbyterian 
system.  It  was  not  long  before  he  repented.  Gradually  episco- 
pacy was  restored.  Bishops  were  reappointed  in  1599.  Step  by 
step  episcopal  authority  was  regained  for  them.  In  1610  three  f)f 
their  number  were  consecrated  in  England,  and  in  161 2  the  Scottish 
Tarliament  ratified  all  that  had  been  done.  Despite  all  that  James 
had  done,  or  Charles,  who  w-as  more  eager  than  his  father,  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Church  remained  still  distinctly  Calvinistic  and  Puritan. 
An  attempt  to  enforce  the  use  of  the  new  Prayer  ]j0ok  was  met  in 
Edinburgh  by  a  riot.  In  November  four  committees,  known  as  the 
Tables,  practically  assumed  the  government  of  Scotland.  In  Felj- 
ruary,  163(8,  all  good  Scots  were  signing  a  National  Covenant. 
Nothing  was  said  in  it  about  episcopacy,  but  tliose  who  signed  it 
bound  themselves  to  labor,  by  all  means  lawful,  to  recover  the  ]nn-ity 
and  liberty  of  the  Gospel,  as  it  was  establislied  and  professed  before 
the  recent  innovations. 

The  greater  part  of  1638  was  passed  by  Charles  in  an  endeavor 
to  come  to  an  luiderstanding  with  the  Scots.  Concessions  were 
made  and  on  November  21  a  general  asscml)ly  met  at  (dnsgt.'W,  and 

1  A  Tulchan  was  a  stuffed  calf's  skin  set  by  a  cow  to  induce  her  to  L-ive  her 
milk  frcelv. 


336  ENGLAND 

1638-1640 

assuming  that  it  possessed  a  divine  right  to  settle  all  affairs  relating 
to  the  Church  independently  of  the  king,  sat  on,  despite  the  king's 
dissolution,  deposed  the  bishops,  and  reestablishing  the  presbyterian 
system. 

In  refusing  to  obey  the  order  for  dissolution,  the  Scottish 
General  Assembly  had  practically  made  itself  independent  of  the 
king,  and  Charles  was  driven — unless  he  cared  to  allow  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  precedent,  which  might  some  day  be  quoted  against 
him  in  England — to  make  war  upon  the  Scots.  Yet  he  dared  not 
summon  the  English  Parliament,  lest  it  should  follow  their  exam- 
ple, and  he  had  to  set  forth  on  what  came  to  be  known  as  the  First 
Bishops'  War — because  it  was  waged  in  the  cause  of  the  bishops — • 
with  no  more  money  than  he  could  get  from  a  voluntary  contribu- 
tion, not  much  exceeding  50,000/.  The  war  soon  came  to  an  end 
with  no  fighting  on  account  of  the  lack  of  money.  On  June  24 
Charles  signed  the  Treaty  of  Berwick.  Both  sides  passed  over 
in  silence  the  deeds  of  the  Glasgow  Assembly,  but  a  promise  was 
given  that  all  affairs  civil  and  ecclesiastical  should  be  settled  in  an 
assembly  and  Parliament.  Assembly  and  Parliament  met  at  Edin- 
burgh, and  declared  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  episcopacy;  but 
Charles,  who  could  not,  even  now,  make  up  his  mind  to  submit, 
ordered  the  adjournment  of  the  Parliament,  and  prepared  for  a  new 
attack  on  Scotland. 

In  preparing  for  a  new  war,  Charles  had  Wentworth  by  his 
side.  \\'entworth,  wdio  was  by  far  the  ablest  of  his  advisers,  after 
ruling  the  North  of  England  in  a  high-handed  fashion,  had,  in 
1632,  been  appointed  Lord  Deputy  of  Ireland.  Here  he  had  given 
a  firm  government  and  encouraged  the  material  interest  under  his 
motto  of  "  Thorough."  In  1639  he  visited  England,  and  Charles, 
who  needed  an  aljle  counselor,  made  him  Earl  of  Strafford,  and 
from  that  time  took  him  for  liis  cliief  adviser. 

Straffi.rd's  advice  was  that  Charles  should  summon  an  Eng- 
lish Parliament,  while  lie  liimself  held  a  Parliament  in  Dublin, 
which  might  show  an  example  of  lovalty.  The  Irish  Parliament 
did  all  that  was  expected  of  it.  In  England,  Parliament  met  on 
April  13.  Pym  at  once  laid  before  the  Commons  a  statement  of  the 
grievances  of  the  nation,  after  which  tlie  House  resolved  to  ask  for 
redress  of  these  grievances  hciuve  granting  supply.  Charles  oft'ered 
to  abandon  ship-money  if  the  Commons  would  give  him  twelve  suij- 
sidits  ecjual    to    about  960,000/.     Tlie    Coninioris    hesitated    about 


C  H  A  R  L  E  S     I  337 

1640 

granting  so  much,  and  wished  the  king  to  yield  on  other  points  as 
well  as  upon  ship-money.  In  the  end  they  prepared  to  advise 
Charles  to  abandon  the  war  with  Scotland  altogether,  and,  to  avoid 
this,  he  dissolved  Parliament  on  Alay  5.  As  it  had  sat  for  scarcely 
more  than  three  weeks,  it  is  known  as  the  Short  Parliament. 

In  spite  of  the  failure  of  the  Parliament,  Charles  gathered  an 
army  by  pressing  men  from  all  parts  of  England,  and  found  money 
to  pay  them  for  a  time  by  buying  a  large  quantity  of  pepper  on 
credit  and  selling  it  at  once  for  less  than  it  was  worth.  The  sol- 
diers, as  they  marched  northwards,  broke  into  the  churches,  burned 
the  Communion  rails,  and  removed  the  Communion  tables  to  the 
middle  of  the  building.  There  was  no  wish  among  Englishmen  to 
see  the  Scots  beaten.  The  Scots,  knowing  this,  crossed  the  Tweed, 
and,  on  August  28,  routed  a  part  of  the  English  army  at  Xewburn 
on  the  Tyne.  Even  Strafford  did  not  venture  to  advise  a  prolonga- 
tion of  the  war.  Negotiations  were  opened  at  Ripon,  and  Northum- 
berland and  Durham  were  left  in  the  hands  of  the  Scots  as  a  pledge 
for  the  payment  of  850/.  a  day  for  the  maintenance  of  their  army, 
till  a  permanent  treaty  could  be  arranged.  Charles,  whose  mcMiey 
was  already  exhausted,  summoned  a  Great  Council,  consisting  of 
Peers  alone,  to  meet  at  York.  All  that  the  Great  Council  could  do 
was  to  advise  him  to  summon  another  Parliament,  and  that  advice 
he  was  obliged  to  take. 

On  November  3,  1640,  the  new  Parliament,  which  was  to  be 
known  as  the  Long  Parliament,  met.  Pym  once  more  took  the 
lead,  and  proposed  the  impeachment  of  Strafford,  as  the  king's 
chief  adviser  in  the  attempt  to  carry  on  war  in  defiance  of  Parlia- 
ment. Strafford  had  also  collected  an  Irish  army  for  an  attack  on 
Scotland,  and  it  was  strongly  believed  that  he  had  advised  tlie  king 
to  use  that  army  to  reduce  England  as  well  as  Scotland  under 
arbitrary  government.  This  suspicion  roused  more  than  cn-dinary 
indignation,  as,  in  those  days,  Irishmen  were  both  detested  and 
despised  in  England.  Straft"ord  v.-as  thercfcre  impeached  and  sent 
to  the  Tower.  Laud  was  also  imi)risoned  in  the  Tower,  while 
other  of^cials  escaped  to  tlie  continent  to  rivoid  ;i  similar  fate. 
The  Houses  then  proceeded  to  pass  a  Triennial  Bill,  directing  that 
Parliament  should  meet  every  three  years,  even  if  the  king  did  ni  a 
summon  it,  and  to  this,  with  some  hesitation,  Cliarlcs  assented. 
He  could  not.  in  fact,-  refuse  anvtldng  which  l^uiianient  asked, 
because,  if  he  had  done  so,  Parlianient  woukl  gi\e  him  nu  money  to 


338  ENGLAND 

1641 

satisfy  the  Scots,  and' if  the  Scots  were  not  satisfied,  they  would 
recommence  the  war. 

On  March  22,  1641,  Strafford's  trial  was  opened  in  West- 
minster Hall.  All  his  overbearing  actions  were  set  forth  at  length, 
but,  after  all  had  been  said,  a  doubt  remained  whether  they  consti- 
tuted high  treason,  that  crime  having  been  strictly  defined  by  a 
statute  of  Edward  III.  Young  Sir  Henry  Vane,  son  of  one 
of  the  Secretaries  of  State,  found  among  his  father's  papers  a 
note  of  a  speech  delivered  by  Strafford  in  a  committee  of  the  Privy 
Council  just  after  the  breaking  up  of  the  Short  Parliament,  in  which 
he  had  spoken  of  the  king  as  loose  and  absolved  from  all  rules  of 
government.  "  You  have  an  army  in  Ireland,"  Strafford  was  re- 
ported to  have  said,  "  you  may  employ  here  to  reduce  this  kingdom, 
for  I  am  confident  as  anything  under  heaven,  Scotland  shall  not 
hold  out  five  months."  The  Commons  were  convinced  that  "  this 
kingdom  "  meant  England  and  not  Scotland ;  but  there  were  signs 
that  the  Lords  would  be  likely  to  differ  from  them,  and  the  Com- 
mons accordingly  abandoned  the  impeachment  in  which  the  Lords 
sat  as  judges,  and  introduced  a  Bill  of  Attainder,  to  which,  after 
the  Commons  had  accepted  it,  the  lords  would  have  to  give  their 
consent  if  it  was  to  become  a  law,  as  in  the  case  of  any  ordinary 
bill. 

Pym  would  have  preferred  to  go  on  with  the  impeachment, 
because  he  believed  that  Strafford  was  really  guilty  of  high  treason. 
He  held  that  treason  was  not  an  offense  against  the  king's  private 
person,  but  against  the  king  as  a  constitutional  ruler,  and  that  Straf- 
ford had  actually  diminished  the  king's  authority  by  attempting  to 
make  him  an  absolute  ruler,  and  thereby  to  weaken  Charles's  hold 
upon  the  good  will  of  tlie  people.  This  argument,  however,  did  not 
break  down  the  scruples  of  the  Peers,  and  if  Charles  had  kept  quiet, 
he  would  have  had  them  at  least  on  his  side.  Neither  he  nor  the 
queen  could  keep  quiet.  Before  the  end  of  1640  she  had  urged  the 
Pope  to  send  her  money  and  soldiers,  and  now  she  had  a  plan  for 
bringing  the  defeated  English  army  from  Yorkshire  to  Westminster 
to  overpower  Parliament.  Then  came  an  attempt  of  Charles  to  get 
possession  of  the  Tower,  that  he  might  liberate  Strafford  by  force. 
Pym,  who  had  learned  the  secret  of  the  queen's  armv-plot,  dis- 
closed it,  and  the  Peers,  frightened  at  their  danger,  passed  tlie  Bill 
of  Attainder.  A  mob  gathered  round  Wniitchall  and  howled  for  the 
execution  of  the  sentence.     Charles,   fearino-  lest  the  mob  should 


CHARLES     I  339 

1641 

take  vengeance  on  his  wife,  weakly  signed  a  commission  appointing 
commissioners  to  give  the  royal  assent  to  the  Bill,  though  he  had 
promised  Strafford  that  not  a  hair  of  his  head  should  he  touched. 
With  the  words,  "  Put  not  your  trust  in  princes  "  on  his  lips,  the 
great  royalist  statesman  prepared  for  the  scaffold.  On  May  12  he 
was  beheaded,  rather  because  men  feared  his  ability  than  because 
his  offenses  were  legally  punishable  with  death. 

Englishmen  would  not  have  feared  Strafford  if  they  could  have 
been  sure  that  the  king  could  be  trusted  to  govern  according  to 
law,  without  employing  force  to  settle  matters  in  his  own  way. 
Yet,  though  the  army-plot  had  made  it  difficult  to  feel  confidence 
in  Charles,  Parliament  was  at  first  content  to  rely  on  constitutional 
reforms.  On  the  day  on  which  Charles  assented  to  the  bill  for 
Strafford's  execution  he  assented  to  another  bill  declaring  that  the 
existing  Parliament  should  not  be  dissolved  without  its  own  con- 
sent, a  stipulation  which  made  the  House  of  Commons  legally  irre- 
sponsible either  to  the  king  or  to  its  constituents,  and  which  could 
only  be  justified  by  the  danger  of  an  attack  b}^  an  armed  force  at 
the  bidding  of  the  king.  Acts  were  passed  abolishing  the  Courts 
of  Star  Chamber  and  the  High  Commission,  declaring  sliip-moncy 
to  be  illegal,  limiting  the  king's  claims  on  forests,  prohibiting  fines 
for  not  taking  up  knighthood,  and  preventing  the  king  from  levying 
Tonnage  and  Poundage  or  impositions  without  a  Parliamentary 
grant.  Taking  these  acts  as  a  whole,  they  stripped  the  Crown  of 
the  extraordinary  powers  which  it  had  acquired  in  Tudor  times, 
and  made  it  impossible  for  Charles,  legally,  to  obtain  money  to 
carry  on  the  government  without  the  good-will  of  Parliament,  or  t(j 
punish  offenders  without  the  good-will  of  juries.  All  that  was 
needed  in  the  way  of  constitutional  reform  w'as  thus  accomplished. 
As  far  as  law  could  do  it,  the  system  of  personal  government  which 
Charles  had  in  part  inherited  from  his  predecessors  and  in  part 
had  built  up  for  himself,  was  brought  to  an  end. 


Chapter    XXXIV 


THE   FORMATION    OF   PARLIAMENTARY   PARTIES   AND 
THE   FIRST   YEARS    OF   THE   CIVIL   WAR.     1641— 1644 

LEADING    DATES 

Reigk  of  Charles  I.,  A.D.  1625-1649— The  Debate  ok  the  Graxd 
Remonstraxce,  Nov.  23,  1641 — The  Attempt  o.v  the  Five  Members, 
Jan.  4,  1642 — The  Battle  of  Edgehill,  Oct.  23,  1642 — The  Fair- 
faxes Defeated  at  Adwalton"  Moor,  Juke  30,  1643 — Waller's  De- 
feat  AT  ROUXDWAY   DOWX,  JULY   1 3,    1 643 — ThE   RaISIXG  OF  THE   SlEGE 

OF  Gloucester,  Sept.  5,  1643 — The  First  Battle  of  Newbury,  Sept. 
20,  1643 — The  Solemn"  League  and  Covexakt  Takes  by  the  Houses, 
Sept.  25,  1643 — The  Scottish  Army  Crosses  the  Tweed,  Jax.  19, 
1644 — The  Battle  of  Marstox  Moor,  July  2,  1644 — Capitulatio.v  of 
Essex's  Lvfantry  at  Lostwithiel,  Sept.  2,  1644 — The  Secoxd  B.attle 
OF  Newbury,  Oct.  27,  1644 

IF  Charles  could  have  inspired  his  subjects  with  the  belief  that 
he  had  no  intention  of  overthrowing  the  new  arrangements 
by  force,  there  wrjuld  have  been  little  more  trouble.  L'nfor- 
tunately,  this  was  not  tlie  case.  In  August,  indeed,  the  Houses 
succeeded  in  dis])anding  tlie  English  army  in  Yorkshire,  and  in 
dismissing  the  Scottish  army  across  the  Tweed;  but  in  the  same 
month  Charles  set  out  for  Scotland,  ostensibly  to  give  his  assent 
in  person  to  the  Acts  abolishing  episcopacy  in  that  country,  but  in 
reality  to  persuade  the  Scots  to  lend  him  an  army  to  coerce  the 
English  Parliament.  Pym  and  Hampden  suspecting  this,  though 
they  could  not  prove  it.  felt  it  necessarv  to  be  on  their  guard. 

There  wcmld.  however,  have  Ijcen  little  danger  from  Charles  if 
political  questi'ins  al'.ne  had  been  at  stake.  Parliament  had  been 
unanimC'US  in  ab'lishing  his  personal  government,  and  no  one  was 
likely  to  help  him  to  restore  it  by  force.  In  ecclesiastical  questions, 
hi'jwever.  differences  amse  early.  .Ml.  in-lecd.  wished  to  do  awav 
witii  tlie  ];rac:ices  intrnduced  by  LaU'l.  Ijut  there  was  a  partv.  which 
thougii  wiliing  hj  -'ntroduce  reforms  into  the  Church,  and  to  subject 
it  to  Parliament,  r.lijected  to  th.e  introduction  of  the  presbvterian 
system,  lest  prc-bytcr>  -liould  prr.ve  as  tyrannical  as  bishops.     Of 


CIVIL     WAR  341 

1641 

this  party,  the  leading  members  were  Hyde,  a  politician  who  sur- 
veyed state  affairs  with  the  eyes  of  a  lawyer,  and  the  amiable  Lord 
Falkland,  a  scholar  and  an  enthusiast  for  religious  toleration.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  was  a  party  which  believed  that  the  abolition 
of  episcopacy  was  the  only  possible  remedy  for  ecclesiastical 
tyranny.  If  Charles  had  openly  supported  the  first  party,  it  might, 
perhaps,  have  been  in  a  majority ;  but  as  he  did  nothing  of  the  sort, 
an  impression  gained  ground  that  if  bishops  were  not  entirely  abol- 
ished, they  would  sooner  or  later  be  restored  by  the  king  to  their 
full  authority,  in  spite  of  any  limitations  which  Parliament  might 
put  upon  them.  Moreover,  the  lords,  by  throwing  out  a  bill  for 
removing  the  bishops  from  their  House,  exasperated  even  those 
members  who  were  still  hesitating.  A  majority  in  the  Communs 
supported  a  bill,  known  as  the  Root  and  Branch  Bill,  for  the  aboli- 
tion of  episcopacy  and  for  the  transference  of  their  jurisdiction  to 
committees  of  laymen  in  each  diocese.  Though  this  bill  was  not 
passed,  its  existence  was  sure  to  intensify  the  dislike  of  the  king 
to  those  who  had  brought  it  in. 

In  Ireland  there  had  been  two  parties  discintented  with  Straf- 
ford's rule,  and  now  terrified  by  fear  of  increa/t-d  persecution  by 
the  Puritan  Parliament  at  Westminster.  After  sending  emis- 
saries to  Charles  and  hearing  nothing,  they  broke  out,  seized  Dub- 
lin, and  then  engaged  in  a  general  massacre.  The  lowest  estimate  of 
the  destruction  wdiich  reached  England  raised  the  number  of  vic- 
tims to  30,000,  and,  though  this  was  donl)tless  an  immensely  exag- 
gerated reckoning,  the  actual  numl)er  of  victims  must  have  readied 
to  some  thousands.  In  England  a  bitter  cry  for  vengeance  went 
up,  and  with  that  cry  was  mingled  distrust  of  the  king.  It  was 
felt  to  be  necessary  to  send  an  army  into  Ireland,  and,  if  the  army 
was  to  go  under  the  king's  orders,  there  uas  nothing  to  prevent 
him  using  it — after  Ireland  had  been  subdued — against  the  English 
Parliament. 

The  perception  of  this  danger  led  the  Commons  to  draw  up  a 
statement  of  their  case,  known  as  tlie  Grand  Renionstrance.  They 
began  wdth  a  long  indictment  of  all  Charles's  crrMrs  from  the  begin- 
ning of  his  reign,  and,  thougli  liic  ^tatenlents  were  undimbtedly 
exaggerated,  they  were  adopted  by  the  whole  House.  When,  liow- 
ever,  it  came  to  the  proposal  of  remedies,  there  was  a  great 
division.  The  party  led  by  Pym  and  Hampden,  by  which  the 
Remonstrance  had  been  drawn  up,  askeil  for  the  appointment  of 


34.2  ENGLAND 

1641 

ministers  responsible  to  Parliament,  and  for  the  reference  of  Church 
matters  to  an  Assembly  of  divines  nominated  by  Parliament.  The 
party  led  by  Hyde  and  Falkland  saw  that  the  granting  of  these 
demands  would  be  tantamount  to  the  erection  of  the  sovereignty  of 
Parliament  in  Church  and  state ;  and  fearing,  in  turn,  a  presbyterian 
despotism,  they  preferred  to  imagine  that  it  was  still  possible  to 
make  Charles  a  constitutional  sovereign.  On  November  23  there  was 
a  stormy  debate,  and  the  division  was  not  taken  till  after  midnight. 
A  small  majority  of  eleven  declared  against  the  king.  The 
majority  then  proposed  to  print  the  Remonstrance  for  the  purpose 
of  circulating  it  among  the  people.  The  minority  protested,  and. 
as  a  protest  was  unprecedented  in  the  House  of  Commons,  a  wild 
uproar  ensued.  ^lembers  snatched  at  their  swords,  and  it  needed 
all  Hampden's  persuasive  pleadings  to  quiet  the  tumult. 

Charles  had  at  last  got  a  party  on  his  side.  AMien,  on  Novem- 
ber 25,  he  returned  to  London,  he  announced  that  he  intended  to 
govern  according  to  the  laws,  and  would  maintain  the  "  Protestant 
religion  as  it  had  been  established  in  the  times  of  Elizabeth  and  his 
father."'  He  was  at  once  greeted  with  enthusiasm  in  the  streets, 
and  felt  himself  strong  enough  to  refuse  to  comply  with  the  request 
of  the  Remonstrance.  It  was,  however,  difficult  for  Charles  to  be 
patient.  He  was  kept  short  of  money  by  the  Commons,  and  he 
had  not  the  art  of  conciliating  opponents.  On  December  2^^  he 
appointed  Lunsford,  a  debauched  ruffian.  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower, 
and  the  opponents  of  the  Court  naturally  saw  in  this  unwarrant- 
able proceeding  a  determination  to  use  force  against  themselves. 
On  December  26  they  obtained  Lunsford's  dismissal,  but  on  the 
following  day  they  heard  that  the  rebelli'nn  in  Ireland  was  spreading, 
and  the  increased  necessity  of  providing  an  army  for  Ireland 
impressed  on  them  once  more  the  danger  of  placing  under  the  orders 
of  the  king  forces  which    he  might  use  against  tlicmselves. 

In  order  to  make  sure  that  the  House  of  Lords  would  be  on 
their  side  in  the  time  of  danger  which  was  approacliing.  the 
Commons  and  their  supporters  called  out  for  the  exclusion  of  the 
bishops  and  the  Roman  Catholic  peers  from  their  seats  in  Parlia- 
ment. A  mob  gathered  at  Westminster,  shouting.  ''No  bisliopsi 
No  Popish  lorilsl"  The  king  gathered  a  number  of  disbanded 
officers  at  \\'hitehall  for  his  protection,  and  tr.ese  officers  sallied 
forth  beating  and  chasing  the  mob.  An  .t'ler  day  Williams.  Arcli- 
bishop  of  York,  having  been  hustled  by  the  crowd,  he  and  eleven 


CIVILWAR  S43 

1641-1642 

Other  bishops  sent  to  the  Lords  a  protest  that  anything  done  by 
the  House  of  Lords  in  their  absence  would  be  null  and  void.  The 
Peers,  who  had  hitherto  supported  the  king,  were  offended,  and, 
for  a  time,  made  common  cause  with  the  other  House  against  him ; 
while  the  Commons  impeached  as  traitors  the  twelve  bishops  who 
had  signed  the  protest,  wanting,  not  to  punish  them,  but  merely  to 
get  rid  of  their  votes. 

Charles,  on  his  part,  was  exasperated,  and  fancied  that  he 
could  strike  a  blow  which  his  opponents  would  be  unable  to  parry. 
He  knew  that  the  most  active  of  the  leaders  of  the  opposition.  Lord 
Kimbolton  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  Pym,  Hampden.  Hazlerigg. 
Holies,  and  Strode  in  the  Commons,  had  negotiated  with  the  Scots 
before  they  invaded  England  in  1640,  and  he  believed  that  they  had 
actually  invited  them  to  enter  the  kingdom  in  arms.  H  this  was 
true,  they  had  legally  been  guilty  of  treason,  and  on  January  3, 
1642,  Charles  ordered  the  Attorney-General  to  impeach  them  as 
traitors.  Doubts  were  afterwards  raised  whether  the  king  had  a 
right  to  impeach,  but  Charles  does  not  seem  to  have  doubted  at  the 
time  that  he  was  acting  according  to  law. 

As  the  Commons  showed  signs  of  an  intention  to  shelter  these 
five  members  from  arrest,  Charles  resolved  to  seize  them  himself. 
On  the  4th  of  January,  followed  by  about  500  armed  men,  he 
betook  himself  to  the  House  of  Commons.  Leaving  his  followers 
outside,  he  told  the  House  that  he  had  come  to  arrest  five  traitors. 
As  they  had  already  left  the  House  and  were  on  their  way  to  the 
City,  he  looked  round  for  them  in  vain,  and  asked  Lenthall,  the 
Speaker,  where  they  were.  ''  ]\Iay  it  please  your  Majesty,"  an- 
swered Lenthall,  kneeling  before  him,  "  1  have  neither  eyes  to  see 
nor  tongue  to  speak  in  this  place,  but  as  this  House  is  pleased  to 
direct  me."  Charles  eagerly  looked  round  for  his  enemies.  "  The 
birds  are  llown,"  he  exclaimed,  when  he  failed  to  descry  them.  He 
had  missed  his  prey,  and,  as  he  moved  away,  shouts  of  "  Privilege ! 
privilege!  "  were  raised  from  the  bcnclics  on  either  side. 

The  Commons,  believing  that  tlie  king  wanted,  not  to  try  a 
legal  question,  but  to  intimidate  the  Hcjuse  l)y  the  removal  of  its 
leaders,  t(jok  refuge  in  the  City,  wliicli  now  declared  for  the  Com- 
mons. On  January  10  Lord  Kimbolton  and  the  live  mcml)ers  were 
brought  Inck  in  triumph  to  Westminster  by  the  citizens.  Cliarles 
had  already  left  Whitehall,  never  to  return  till  the  day  on  which  he 
was  brought  back  to  be  tried  for  his  life. 


344.  ENGLAND 

1642 

There  was  little  doubt  that  if  Charles  could  find  enough  sup- 
port the  questions  at  issue  would  have  to  be  decided  by  arms.  To 
gain  time,  he  consented  to  a  bill  excluding  the  bishops  from  their 
seats  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  he  then  sent  the  queen  abroad  to 
pawn  or  sell  the  crown  jewels  and  to  buy  arms  and  gunpowder  with 
the  money.  He  turned  his  own  course  to  the  north.  A  struggle 
arose  between  him  and  the  Houses  as  to  the  command  of  the  militia. 
There  was  no  standing  army  in  England,  but  the  men  of  military 
age  were  mustered  every  year  in  each  county,  the  fittest  of  them 
being  selected  to  be  drilled  for  a  short  time,  at  the  expiration  of 
which  they  were  sent  home  to  pursue  their  ordinary  avocations. 
These  drilled  men  were  liable  to  be  called  out  to  defend  their  county 
against  riots  or  invasion,  and  when  they  were  together  were  formed 
into  regiments  called  trained  bands.  All  the  trained  bands  in  the 
country  were  spoken  of  as  the  militia.  The  Houses  asked  Charles 
to  place  the  militia  under  officers  of  their  choosing.  Charles 
emphatically  refused.  The  feeling  on  both  sides  grew  more  bitter ; 
Charles,  after  taking  up  his  quarters  at  York,  rode  to  Hull,  where 
there  was  a  magazine  of  arms  of  which  he  wished  to  possess  him- 
self. Sir  John  Hotham,  the  Parliamentary  commander,  shut  the 
gates  in  his  face.  Both  Charles  and  the  Parliament  began  to  gather 
troops.  The  Parliament  appointed  the  Earl  of  Essex,  the  son  of 
Elizabeth's  favorite,  a  stead}',  honorable  man,  without  a  spark  of 
genius,  as  their  general.  On  August  22,  1642,  Charles  set  up  his 
standard  at  Nottingham  as  a  sign  of  war. 

The  richest  part  of  England — the  southeast — took,  on  the 
whole,  the  side  of  the  Parliament ;  the  poorer  and  more  rugged 
northwest  took,  on  the  whole,  the  part  of  the  king.  The  greater 
part  of  the  gentry  were  cavaliers  or  partisans  of  the  king;  the 
greater  part  of  the  middle  class  in  the  towns  were  partisans  of  the 
Parliament,  often  called  Roundheads  in  derision,  because  some  of 
the  Puritans  cropped  their  hair  short.  Charles  pushed  on  towards 
London,  hoping  to  end  the  war  at  a  blow.  On  October  23  the  first 
battle  was  fought  at  Edgehill.  Tlie  king's  nephew.  Prince  Rupert, 
son  of  Elizabeth  and  the  Elector  Palatine,  commanded  his  cavalry, 
and  he  drove  Ijefore  him  the  Parliamentary  horse  in  headlong  flight ; 
but  he  did  not  pull  up  in  time,  and  returned  too  late  to  complete 
the  victory  wliicli  he  had  hoped  to  win.  The  fruits  of  victory, 
however,  fell  to  the  king.  The  cautious  Essex  drew  back  and 
Charles  pushed  on  for  London,  reaching  Brentford  on  November 


C  I  V  I  L     W  A  R  345 

1642-1643 

12.  That  He  did  not  enter  London  as  a  conqueror  was  owing  to 
the  resistance  of  the  London  trained  bands,  the  citizen-soldiery  of 
the  capital.  On  the  13th  they  barred  Charles's  way  at  Turnham 
Green.  The  king  hesitated  to  attack,  and  drew  back  to  Oxford. 
He  was  never  to  have  such  another  chance  again. 

Charles's  hopes  of  succeeding  better  in  1643  were  based  on  a 
plan  for  overwhelming  London  with  superior  force.  He  had  three 
armies  and  he  expected  that  while  he  attacked  the  city  in  front,  the 
others  would  interrupt  the  commerce  of  the  city,  without  which  it 
would  be  impossible  for  it  to  hold  out  long.  The  weak  point  in 
Charles's  plan  was  that  his  three  armies  were  far  apart.  Towards 
the  end  of  April,  Essex  besieged  and  took  Reading,  but  his  cautious 
leadership  was  not  likely  to  effect  anything  decisive.  In  the  mean- 
while the  king's  party  was  gaining  the  upper  hand  elsewhere.  In 
Cornwall  and  at  Bristol  he  won  successes.  In  the  north,  too,  the 
king's  cause  was  prospering.  It  seemed  as  if  the  king's  plan  would 
be  carried  out  before  the  end  of  the  summer,  and  that  London 
would  be  starved  into  surrender.  Charles,  however,  failed  to 
accomplish  his  design,  mainly  because  his  armies,  led  by  Hopton 
and  Newcastle,  were  formed  for  the  most  part  of  recruits,  levied 
respectively  in  the  west  and  in  the  north  of  England,  who  cared 
more  for  the  safety  of  their  own  property  and  families  than  for 
the  king's  cause.  In  the  west,  Plymouth,  and  in  the  north,  Hull, 
were  still  garrisoned  by  the  Parliament.  The  Welshmen,  also,  who 
served  in  the  king's  own  army  found  their  homes  endangered  by  a 
Parliamentary  garrison  at  Gloucester,  and  were  equally  unwilling 
to  push  forward.  Charles  had,  therefore,  to  take  Plymout]i,  Hull. 
and  Gloucester,  if  he  could,  before  he  could  attack  London.  In 
August  he  laid  siege  in  person  to  Gloucester.  The  London  citizens 
at  once  perceived  that,  if  Gloucester  fell,  their  own  safety  would 
be  in  peril,  and  amid  the  greatest  enthusiasm  the  London  trained 
bands  marched  out  to  its  relief.  On  September  5  the  king  raised 
the  siege  on  their  approach. 

Charles  did  not,  however,  give  up  the  game.  Hurrying  to 
Newbury,  and  reaching  it  before  Essex  could  arrive  there  on  his 
way  back  to  London  he  blocked  the  way  of  the  Parliamentary  army. 
Essex,  whose  provisions  were  running  short,  must  force  a  passage 
or  surrender.  On  September  20  a  furious  battle  was  fought  (Aitsicle 
Newbury,  l)ut  when  the  evening  came,  though  Essex  had  gained 
ground,  the  royal  army  still  la}-  across  the  l^ondon  road.     It  had, 


346  ENGLAND 

1642-1643 

however,  suffered  heavy  losses,  and  its  ammunition  being  ahnost 
exhausted,  Charles  marched  away  in  the  night,  leaving  the  way 
open  for  Essex  to  continue  his  retreat  to  London.  In  this  battle 
Falkland  was  slain.  He  had  sided  with  the  king,  not  because  he 
shared  the  passions  of  the  more  violent  Royalists,  but  because  he 
feared  the  intolerance  of  the  Puritans.  He  was  weary  of  the  times, 
he  said,  and  threw  himself  into  the  thick  of  the  fight  and  soon  found 
the  death  which  he  sought. 

While  in  the  south  the  resistance  of  Gloucester  had  weakened 
the  king's  power  of  attack,  a  formidable  barrier  was  being  raised 
against  Newcastle's  advance  in  the  East.  Early  in  the  war  certain 
counties  in  different  parts  of  the  country  had  associated  themselves 
together  for  mutual  defense,  and  of  these  combinations  the  strongest 
w^as  the  Eastern  Association,  comprising  the  counties  of  Norfolk, 
Suffolk,  Essex,  Cambridge  and  Hertford.  These  five  counties 
raised  forces  in  common  and  paid  them  out  of  a  common  purse. 

The  strength  which  the  Eastern  Association  soon  developed 
was  owing  to  its  placing  itself  under  the  leadership  of  Oliver  Crom- 
well, a  member  of  Parliament  who  had  taken  arms  when  the  civil 
war  began,  and  who  soon  distinguished  himself  by  his  practical 
sagacity.  "  Your  troops/'  he  said  to  Hampden  after  the  flight  of 
the  Parliamentary  cavalry  at  Edgehill,  "  are,  most  of  them,  old 
decayed  serving  men  and  tapsters,  and  such  kind  of  fellows,  and 
their  troops  are  gentlemen's  sons,  younger  sons,  and  persons  of 
quality;  do  you  think  tliat  the  spirits  of  such  base  and  mean  fellows 
will  ever  be  able  to  encounter  gentlemen  that  have  honor  and  cour- 
age and  resolution  in  them  ?  You  must  get  men  of  a  spirit,  and  take 
it  not  ill  v/liat  I  say — I  know  y^u  will  not — of  a  spirit  that  is  likely 
to  go  on  as  far  as  gentlemen  will  go ;  or  else  you  will  be  beaten  still." 
It  was  this  idea  which  Cromwell,  having  been  appointed  a  colonel, 
put  in  execution  in  the  Eastern  Association.  He  took  for  his 
soldiers  sternly  Puritan  men,  who  had  their  hearts  in  the  cause ; 
but  he  was  not  content  with  religious  zeal  alone.  Everyone  who 
served  under  him  must  undergo  the  severest  discipline.  After  a 
few  months  he  had  a  cavalry  regiment  under  his  orders  so  fiery 
and  at  the  same  time  so  well  under  restraint  that  no  body  of  horse 
on  either  side  could  com[)are  with  it. 

While  the  armies  were  fighting  with  varying  success,  Pym, 
with  undaunted  courage,  was  holding  the  House  of  Commons  to 
its  task  of  resistance.     After  the  Royalist  successes   in  June  and 


CIVILWAR  347 

1643 

July,  the  great  peril  of  the  Parliamentary  cause  made  him  resolve 
to  ask  the  Scots  for  help.  The  Scots,  thinking  that  if  Charles  over- 
threw the  English  Parliament  he  would  next  fall  upon  them,  were 
ready  to  send  an  army  to  fight  against  the  king,  but  only  on  the 
condition  that  the  Church  of  England  shoukl  become  presbyterian 
like  their  own.  Already  some  steps  had  been  taken  in  this  direction, 
and  on  July  i  a  Puritan  Assembly  of  divines  met  at  Westminster 
to  propose  ecclesiastical  alterations,  which  were  to  be  submitted 
to  Parliament  for  its  approval. 

In  August  commissioners  from  the  English  Parliament,  of 
whom  the  principal  was  Sir  Henry  Vane,  arrived  in  Edinburgh  to 
negotiate  for  an  alliance.  The  result  was  a  treaty  between  the  two 
nations,  styled  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant — usually  known 
in  England  simply  as  the  Covenant,  but  altogether  different  from 
the  National  Covenant,  signed  by  the  Scots  only  in  1638.  The 
Scots  wished  the  English  to  bind  themselves  to  ''  the  reforma- 
tion of  religion  in  the  Church  of  England  according  to  the  exam- 
ple of  the  best  reformed  churches";  in  other  words,  according 
to  the  presbyterian  system.  Vane,  however,  who  was  eager  for 
religious  liberty,  insisted  on  slipping  in  the  words,  "  and  according 
to  the  Word  of  God."  The  Scots  could  not  possibly  refuse  to  accept 
the  addition,  though,  by  so  doing,  they  left  it  free  to  every  English- 
man to  assert  that  any  part  of  the  presbyterian  system  which  he  dis- 
liked was  not  "according  to  the  Word  of  God."  The  Covenant,  thus 
amended,  was  carried  to  England,  and  on  September  25,  five  days 
after  the  battle  of  Newbury,  was  sworn  to  by  the  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  was  soon  afterwards  ordered  to  be  sworn 
to  by  every  Englishman.  Money  was  then  sent  to  Scotland,  antl 
a  Scottish  army  prepared  to  enter  England  before  the  opening  of 
the  next  campaign. 

\M-iile  Parliament  looked  for  help  to  Scotland.  Charles  looked 
to  Ireland.  For  the  first  time  in  Ireland  there  was  a  contest  be- 
tween Catholics  and  Protestants,  instead  of  a  contest  between  Celts 
on  one  side  and  those  who  were  not  Celts  on  the  other.  The  allies 
for  the  present,  however,  were  united  by  the  fear  that  the 
Puritan  Parliament  in  England  and  the  Puritan  Government  in 
Dublin  would  attempt  to  destroy  them  and  their  religion  together. 
Charles  opened  negotiations  with  them,  hoping  to  obtain  an  Irish 
army  with  which  he  might  carry  on  war  in  I'Jigland. 

As  yet  Charles  had  to  depend  on  his  English  forces  alone.     On 


348  ENGLAND 

1643-1644 

October  1 1  Cromwell  defeated  a  body  of  Royalist  horse  at  Winceby, 
and  in  the  south  the  Royalist  attack  received  a  check,  and  there 
was  no  long^er  any  likelihood  tliat  the  king's  forces  would  be  able  to 
starve  out  London  by  establishing  themselves  on  the  banks  of  the 
Thames. 

Pym,  whose  statesmanship  had  brought  about  the  alliance  with 
the  Scots,  died  on  December  8,  1643.  On  January  19  the  Scots 
crossed  the  Tweed  again  under  the  command  of  Alexander  Leslie, 
who  had  been  created  Earl  of  Leven  when  Charles  visited 
Edinburgh  in  1641.  Pym's  death,  and  the  necessity  of  carry- 
ing on  joint  operations  with  the  Scots,  called  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  some  definite  authority  at  Westminster,  and,  on  February 
16,  a  Committee  of  Both  Kingdoms,  composed  of  members  of  one 
or  other  of  the  two  Houses,  and  also  of  Scottish  Commissioners  sent 
to  England  by  the  Parliament  of  Scotland,  was  named  to  control 
the  operations  of  the  armies  of  the  two  nations. 

The  spring  campaign  opened  successfully  for  Parliament.  At 
the  king's  headquarters  there  was  deep  alarm.  Essex  and  Waller 
were  approaching  to  attack  Oxford,  but  Charles  slipping  out  of  the 
city  before  it  was  surrounded  dispatched  Rupert  to  the  relief  of 
York.  At  Rupert's  approach  the  besiegers  retreated.  On  July  2 
Rupert  and  Newcastle  fouglit  a  desperate  battle  on  Marston  Moor, 
though  they  were  decidedly  outnumbered  by  their  opponents.  The 
whole  of  the  right  wing  of  the  Parliamentarians,  and  part  of  the 
center,  fled  before  the  Royalist  attack;  but  on  their  left  Cromwell 
restored  the  fight,  and  drove  Rupert  in  flight  before  him.  Crom- 
well did  not,  however,  as  Rupert  had  done  at  Edgehill,  waste  his 
energies  in  the  pursuit  of  the  fugitives.  Promptly  drawing  up,  he 
faccfl  round,  and  hurled  his  squadrons  upon  the  hitherto  victorious 
Royalists  in  the  other  parts  of  the  field.  The  result  was  decisive. 
"  It  had  all  the  evidence,"  wrote  Cromwell,  "  of  an  absolute  victory, 
obtained  by  the  Lord's  blessing  upon  the  godly  party  principally. 
W'e  never  charged  but  we  routed  the  enemy.  God  made  them  as 
stubble  to  our  swords."  All  tlic  North  of  England,  except  a  few 
fortresses,  fell  into  the  hands  of  Parliament  and  the  Scots. 

Cromwell  spoke  of  Marston  r\Ioor  as  a  victory  of  the  "  godly 
party."  The  Westminster  Asscm1)ly  of  Divines  had  declared 
strongly  in  favor  of  Presbyterianism,  but  there  were  a  few  of  its 
members — (^nly  five  at  first,  known  as  tlie  fwc  Dissenting  Brethren 
■ — who  stood  up  for  the  principles  of  the  Separatists,  wishing  to 


CIVIL     WAR  349 

1644 

see  each  congregation  independent  of  any  general  ecclesiastical 
organization.  From  holding  these  opinions  they  were  beginning 
to  be  known  as  Independents.  These  men  now  attracted  to  them- 
selves a  considerable  number  of  the  stronger-minded  Puritans,  such 
as  Cromwell  and  Vane,  of  whom  many,  though  they  had  no  special 
attachment  to  the  teaching  of  the  Independent  divines,  upheld  the 
idea  of  toleration,  while  others  gave  their  adherence  to  one  or 
other  of  the  numerous  sects  which  had  recently  sprung  into  exist- 
ence. Cromwell,  especially,  was  drawn  in  the  direction  of  toleration 
by  his  practical  experience  as  a  soldier.  It  was  intolerable  to  him 
to  be  forbidden  to  promote  a  good  ofificer  on  the  ground  that  he  was 
not  a  Presbyterian.  On  one  occasion  he  was  asked  to  discard  a 
certain  officer  because  he  w^as  an  Anabaptist.  "  Admit  he  be,"  he 
had  replied:  "shall  that  render  him  incapable  to  serve  the  public? 
Take  heed  of  being  too  sharp,  or  too  easily  sharpened  by  others, 
against  those  to  wdiom  you  can  object  little  but  that  they  square  not 
with  you  in  every  opinion  concerning  matters  of  religion."  Pie 
had  accordingly  filled  his  own  regiments  with  men  of  every  variety 
of  Puritan  opinion,  choosing  for  promotion  the  best  soldier,  and 
not  the  adherent  of  any  special  Church  system.  These  he  styled 
"  the  godly  party,"  and  it  was  by  the  soldiers  of  "  the  godly  party," 
so  understood,  that  IMarston  Moor  had  been  won. 

Essex  was  the  hope  of  the  Presbyterians  who  despised  the 
sects  and  hated  toleration.  Being  jealous  of  Waller,  he  left  him 
to  take  Oxford  alone,  if  he  could,  and  marched  off  to  tlie  we^t.  to 
accomplish  what  he  imagined  to  be  the  easier  task  of  wresting  the 
western  counties  from  the  king.  Charles  turned  upon  W^'dler,  and 
fought  an  indecisive  action  with  him  at  Cropredy  Bridge,  after 
which  Waller's  army,  being  composed  of  local  levies  witli  no  heart 
for  permanent  soldiering,  melted  away.  Charles  then  marclied  in 
pursuit  of  Essex,  and  surrounded  him  at  LostwithicI,  in  Cornw;ill. 
Essex's  provisions  fell  short;  and  on  Septemljcr  2,  though  his  litM'se 
cut  their  way  out,  and  he  himself  escaped  in  a  boat,  the  whole  of  his 
infantry  capitulated. 

Eondon  was  tlms  laid  bare,  and  Parliament  hastily  summoned 
]\lancliestcr  and  tlie  army  of  t1ie  E,astern  Association  to  its  aid. 
Manclicster.  being  good-natured  and  constitutit)nally  indulcni. 
longed  for  some  compromise  witli  Charles  whicli  might  I)ring  :;l)oui 
peace.  Cromwell,  on  the  other  liand,  perceived  that  no  coniproniisc 
was  ])o.ssil)le  with  Cliarlcs  af>  long  as  he  was  at  the  li<.\'ul  of  an  army 


350 


ENGLAND 


1644 


in  the  field.  A  second  battle  of  Newbury  was  fought,  on  October 
27,  with  doubtful  results :  Manchester  showed  little  energy,  and  the 
king  was  allowed  to  escape  in  the  night.  Cromwell,  to  whom  his 
sluggishness  seemed  nothing  less  than  treason  to  the  cause,  attacked 
Manchester  in  Parliament,  not  from  personal  ill-will,  but  from  a 


desire  to  remove  an  inefficient  general  from  his  command  in  the 
army.  Two  parties  were  thus  arrayed  against  one  another:  on 
the  one  side  the  Presbyterians,  who  wanted  to  suppress  the  sects  and, 
if  possible,  to  make  peace;  and  on  the  other  side  the  Independents, 
who  wanted  toleration,  and  to  carry  on  the  w^ar  efficiently  till  a 
decisive  victorv  had  "hecn  gained. 


Chapter    XXXV 

THE    NEW    MODEL   ARMY.     1644— 1649 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  Charles  I.,  A.D.  1 625-1 649 — Battle  of  Naseby,  June  14, 
1645 — Glamorgan's  Treaty,  Aug.  25,  1645 — Charles  in  the  Hands 
OF  the  Scots,  May  5,  1646 — Charles  Surrendered  by  the  Scots,  Jan. 
30,  1647 — Charles  Carried  off  from  Holmby,  June  5,  1647 — The 
Army  in  Military  Possession  of  London,  Aug.  7,  1647 — Charles's 
Flight  from  Hampton  Court,  Nov.  11,  1647 — The  Second  Civil  War, 
April  to  Aug.,  1648 — Pride's  Purge,  Dec.  6,  1648 — Execution  of 
Charles,  Jan.  30,  1649 

CROMWELL  dropped  his  attack  on  Manchester  as  soon  as 
he  found  that  he  could  attain  his  end  in  another  way.  A 
proposal  was  made  for  the  passing-  of  a  Self-denying- 
Ordinance,  which  was  to  exclude  all  members  of  either  House 
from  commands  in  the  army.  The  Lords,  knowing  that  members 
of  their  House  would  be  chiefly  affected  by  it,  threw  it  out,  and  the 
Commons  then  proceeded  to  form  a  New  Model  Army — that  is  to 
say,  an  army  newly  organized,  its  officers  and  soldiers  being  chosen 
solely  with  a  view  to  military  efficiency.  Its  general  was  to  be  Sir 
Thomas  Fairfax,  while  the  lieutenant-general  was  not  named ;  but 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  post  was  intended  for  Cromwell. 
After  the  Lords  had  agreed  to  the  New  Model,  they  accepted  the 
Self-denying  Ordinance  in  an  altered  form,  as,  though  all  the 
existing  officers  were  directed  to  resign  their  posts,  nothing  was 
said  against  their  reappointment.  Essex,  Mancliester,  and  Waller 
resigned,  but  when  the  time  came  for  Cromwell  to  follow  their 
example,  he  and  two  or  three  others  were  ap])ointed  to  commands 
in  the  new  army.  Cromwell  became  Lieutenant-General.  with  the 
command  of  the  cavalry.  The  New  Model  was  composed  partly  of 
pressed  men,  and  was  by  no  means,  as  has  been  often  said,  of  a  sternly 
religious  character  throughout;  but  a  large  number  of  decided 
Puritans  had  been  drafted  into  it,  especially  from  the  army  of  the 
Eastern  Association;  and  tlie  majority  of  the  officers  were  Lide- 
pendents,  some  of  them  of  a  strongly  scctarirui  ty])c.  The  New- 
Model  Army  had  the  advantage  of  receiving  regular  pay,  which 

351 


352  ENGLAND 

1644-1645 

had  not  been  the  case  before ;  so  that  the  soldiers,  whether  Puritans 
or  not,  were  now  hkely  to  stick  to  their  colors. 

By  Cromwell,  who  in  consequence  of  his  tolerance  was  the 
idol  of  the  sectarians  in  the  army,  religious  liberty  had  first  been 
valued  because  it  gave  him  the  service  of  men  of  all  kinds  of 
opinions.  On  November  24,  1644,  IMilton,  some  of  whose  books 
had  been  condemned  by  the  licensers  of  the  press  appointed  by 
Parliament,  issued  "  Areopagitica,"  in  which  he  advocated  the  lib- 
erty of  the  press  on  the  ground  that  excellence  can  only  be  reached 
by  those  who  have  free  choice  between  good  and  evil.  "  He  that  can 
apprehend,"  he  wrote,  "  and  consider  vice  wdth  all  her  baits  and 
seeming  pleasures,  and  yet  abstain — he  is  the  true  warfaring 
Christian.  I  cannot  praise  a  fugitive  and  cloistered  virtue,  un- 
exercised and  unbreathed,  that  never  sallies  out  and  seeks  her 
adversary,  but  slinks  out  of  the  race,  when  that  immortal  garland 
is  to  be  run  for,  not  without  dust  and  heat."  Liberty  was  good 
for  religion  as  much  as  it  was  for  literature. 

In  Parliament,  at  least,  there  was  one  direction  in  which  neither 
Presbyterian  nor  Independent  was  inclined  to  be  tolerant.  They 
had  all  suffered  under  Laud,  and  Laud's  impeachment  was  allowed 
to  go  on.  The  House  of  Lords  pronounced  sentence  against  him, 
and  on  January  10,  1645,  '^^  ""^'^^  beheaded.  The  Presbyterians 
had  the  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  they  were  busy 
in  enforcing  their  system,  as  far  as  Parliamentary  resolutions  would 
go.     The  Independents  had  to  wait  for  better  times. 

For  the  present,  however,  the  two  parties  could  not  afford  to 
quarrel,  as  a  powerful  diversitjn  in  the  king's  favor  was  now  threat- 
ening them  from  Scotland.  The  ^Marquis  of  Montrose,  who,  in  the 
Bishops'  Wars,  had  taken  part  with  the  Covenanters,  had  grown 
weary  of  the  interference  of  the  Scottish  Presbyterian  clergy  with 
politics,  and  still  more  weary  of  the  supremacy  in  Scotland  of  the 
Marquis  of  Argyle.  He  aroused  the  Highland  clans  and  made 
repeated  successful  attacks  against  Argyle's  Lowlanders.  ?vIon- 
trose,  however,  did  not  attempt  to  join  Charles,  for  his  Highlanders 
were  accustomed  to  return  home  to  deposit  their  booty  in  tlieir 
own  glens  as  so.  in  as  a  battle  had  been  wrni,  and,  therefore,  victorious 
as  he  had  been,  he  was  unable  to  leave  the  Highlands. 

The  New  MfKJel  army  started  on  its  career  in  April.  Crom- 
well, with  Ills  hig'ily-traincd  horse,  swe])t  round  Oxford,  cutting 
oil"  Charles's  sl:pplic^:  while   i-'airiax  was  ;:ent  bv  the  Committee 


A  ,;//"».;/    /'.■yr.:it    CiUr)-:.    I  -: 


MODEL     ARMY  S5ii 

1645 

of  Both  Kingdoms  to  the  rehef  of  Taunton.  When  Taunton  was 
set  free,  his  main  force  was  stupidly  sent  by  the  Committee  to 
besiege  Oxford,  though  the  king  was  marching  northwards,  and 
might  fall  upon  Leven's  Scots  as  soon  as  he  reached  them.  On 
May  31,  however,  Charles  turned  sharply  round,  and  stormed 
Leicester.  The  popular  outcry  in  London  compelled  the  Commit- 
tee to  allow  their  commander-in-chief  to  act  on  his  own  discretion ; 
and  Fairfax,  abandoning  the  siege  of  Oxford,  marched  straiglit  in 
pursuit  of  the  Royal  army. 

On  June  14  Fairfax  overtook  the  king  at  Naseby.  In  the  Ixit- 
tle  which  followed,  the  Parliamentary  army  was  much  superior  in 
numbers,  but  it  was  largely  composed  of  raw  recruits  and  its  left 
wing  of  cavalry — under  Ireton,  who,  in  the  following  year,  became 
Cromwell's  son-in-law — 'was  routed  by  the  king's  right  under 
Rupert.  As  at  Edgehill,  Rupert  galloped  hard  in  pursuit,  with- 
out looking  back.  The  Parliamentary  infantry  in  the  center 
was  by  this  time  pressed  hard,  but  Cromwell,  on  the  riglit,  at 
the  head  of  a  large  body  of  cavalry,  scattered  the  enemy's  horse 
before  him.  Then,  as  at  Marston  Moor,  he  halted  to  see  how  the 
battle  went  elsewhere.  Sending  a  detachment  to  pursue  the  de- 
feated Royalists,  he  hurled  the  rest  of  his  horse  on  the  king's  foot, 
who  were  slowly  gaining  ground  in  the  center.  In  those  days, 
when  half  of  every  body  of  infantry  fought  with  pikes,  and  the 
other  half  with  inefficient  muskets,  it  was  seldom  that  foot- 
soldiers  could  withstand  a  cavalry  charge  in  the  open,  and  the  whole 
of  Charles's  infantry,  after  a  short  resistance,  surrendered  on  the 
spot.  Rupert  returned  onlv  in  time  to  see  that  defeat  was  certain. 
The  king,  with  what  horse  he  could  gather  round  him,  n^adc  off 
as  fast  as  he  could.  The  stake  played  for  at  Naseby  was  the  crown 
of  England,  and  Charles  had  lost  it. 

Disastrous  as  Charles's  defeat  had  been,  he  contrived  to  strug- 
gle on  for  some  months.  The  worst  thing  that  befell  him  after 
the  battle  was  the  seizure  of  his  cabinet  containing  liis  correspond- 
ence, which  revealed  his  constant  intrigues  to  bring  alien  armies — 
French,  Lorrainers,  and  Irish — into  England.  It  was,  theref(n-c,  in 
a  more  determined  spirit  than  ever  that  Parliament  carried  on  the 
war.  After  retaking  Leicester,  on  June  18.  Fairfax  marched  on 
to  the  west  and  won  two  victories  there.  Then,  lea\ing  forces  to 
coop  up  the  remaining  Royalist  troops,  h'airfax  turned  eastw;ird. 
On    September    10      the  king    received    a    se\'ere    blow.      I^iirla:. 


354  ENGLAND 

1645-1646 

stormed  the  outer  defenses  of  Bristol,  and  Rupert,  who  commanded 
the  garrison,  at  once  capitulated.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that 
he  had  no  other  choice ;  but  Charles  would  hear  no  excuse,  and  dis- 
missed him  from  his  service. 

Charles's  hopes  were  always  springing  up  anew,  and  now  that 
Rupert  had  failed  him,  he  looked  to  Montrose  for  deliverance. 
Montrose,  after  two  crushing  victories,  had  entered  Glasgow  and 
received  the  submission  of  the  Lowlands.  Charles  marched  north- 
ward to  meet  him,  but  on  the  way  was  met  and  defeated  by  the 
Parliamentary  general,  Poyntz.  Almost  immediately  afterwards 
he  heard  the  disastrous  news  that  David  Leslie,  an  able  officer  who 
had  won  renown  in  the  German  wars,  and  had  fought  well  at 
Marston  Moor,  had  been  dispatched  from  the  Scottish  army  in 
England,  had  fallen  upon  Montrose  at  Philiphaugh,  at  a  time  when 
he  had  but  a  scanty  following  with  him,  and  had  utterly  defeated 
him.  After  this  Cromwell  reduced  the  south,  while  Fairfax  be- 
took himself  to  the  siege  of  Exeter.  In  October,  Charles,  misled 
by  a  rumor  that  Montrose  had  recovered  himself,  made  one  more 
attempt  to  join  him;  but  he  was  headed  by  the  enemy,  and  com- 
pelled to  retreat  to  Oxford,  where,  with  all  his  followers  ardently 
pleading  for  peace,  he  still  maintained  that  his  conscience  would 
not  allow  him  to  accept  any  terms  from  rebels,  or  to  surrender  the 
Church  of  England  into  their  hands. 

Not  one  of  Charles's  intrigues  with  foreign  powers  did  him 
so  much  harm  as  his  continued  efforts  to  bring  over  an  Irish  army 
to  fight  his  battles  in  England.  In  1645  he  dispatched  the  Roman 
Catholic  Earl  of  Glamorgan  to  Ireland,  giving  him  almost  unlim- 
ited powers  to  raise  money  and  men,  and  to  make  treaties  with  this 
object.  To  the  extreme  demands  of  the  Confederate  Catholics  he 
assented,  in  consideration  of  an  engagement  by  the  Confederates 
to  place  him  at  the  head  of  10,000  Irishmen  destined  for  England. 
Before  anything  liad  been  done,  a  Papal  nuncio,  Rinuccini,  landed 
in  Ireland  and  required  fresh  concessions,  to  which  Glamorgan 
readily  assented.  On  January  16,  1646,  however,  before 
Glamorgan's  army  was  ready  to  start,  the  treaty  which  he  had 
made  became  known  at  Westminster ;  and,  though  Charles 
promptly  disavowed  having  authorized  its  signature,  there  re- 
mained a  grave  suspicion  that  he  was  not  as  innocent  as  he  pre- 
tended to  be. 

In  the  beginning  of  1646  the  Civil  War  virtually  came  to  an 


MODEL     ARMY  365 

1646 

end.  On  March  14  Charles's  army  in  the  west  surrendered  to 
Fairfax  in  Cornwall,  and  in  the  same  month  the  last  force  which 
held  the  field  for  him  was  overthrown  at  Stow-on-the-Wokl.  Many 
fortresses  still  held  out,  but,  as  there  was  no  chance  of  relief,  their 
capture  was  only  a  question  of  time ;  and  though  the  last  of  them — 
Harlech  Castle — did  not  surrender  till  1647,  there  was  absolutely 
no  doubt  what  the  result  would  be.  Charles,  now  again  at  Oxford, 
had  but  to  choose  to  whom  he  would  surrender.  He  chose  to  give 
himself  up  to  the  Scots,  whose  army  was  at  the  time  besieging 
Newark.  He  seems  to  have  calculated  that  they  would  replace  him 
on  the  throne  without  insisting  on  very  rigorous  conditions,  think- 
ing that  they  would  rather  restore  him  to  power  than  allow  the 
English  army,  formidable  as  it  was,  to  have  undisputed  authority 
in  England,  and  possibly  to  crush  the  independence  of  Scotland. 
The  Scots,  on  the  other  hand,  seem  to  have  thought  that,  when 
Charles  was  once  in  their  power,  he  must,  for  his  safety's  sake, 
agree  to  establish  Presbyterianism  in  England,  by  which  means 
the  party  which  would  of  necessity  lean  for  support  on  themselves 
would  have  the  mastery  in  England.  On  May  5,  1646,  Charles 
rode  in  to  the  quarters  of  the  Scottish  army.  He  was  conveyed 
to  Newcastle,  where,  as  he  refused  to  consent  to  the  establishment 
of  Presbyterianism  in  England,  he  was  practically  treated  as  a 
prisoner.  At  the  end  of  1645  and  the  beginning  of  1646  there  had 
been  fresh  elections  to  fill  up  seats  in  the  House  of  Commons  left 
vacant  by  Royalists  expelled  for  taking  the  king's  part ;  but,  though 
many  Independent  officers  were  chosen,  there  was  still  a  deciclcclly 
Presbyterian  majority.  On  July  14  propositions  for  peace  were 
delivered  to  Charles  on  behalf  of  Parliament  and  the  Scots.  He 
was  to  surrender  his  power  over  the  militia  for  twenty  years,  to 
take  the  Covenant,  and  to  support  Presbyterianism  in  the  Church. 
Charles,  in  his  correspondence  with  his  wife,  showed  himself  more 
ready  to  abandon  the  militia  than  to  abandon  episcopacy;  wliilc 
she  advised  him  at  all  hazards  to  cling  to  the  command  of  the 
militia.  Charles  hoped  everything  from  mere  ])r()crastination. 
"  All  my  endeavors,"  he  wrote  to  tlie  queen,  "  must  be  the  delaying 
of  my  answer  till  there  be  considerable  parties  visibly  formed  " — 
in  other  words,  till  Presbyterians  and  Independents  were  ready  to 
come  to  blows,  and,  therefore,  to  take  him  at  his  own  price.  In 
order  to  liastcn  that  day,  he  made  in  October  a  proposal  of  his  own, 
in  which  he  promised,  in  case  of  his  being  restored  to  power,  to 


356  ENGLAND 

1646-1647 

establish  Presbyterianism  for  three  years,  during'  which  time  the 
future  settlement  of  the  Church  might  be  publicly  discussed.  He, 
however,  took  care  to  make  no  provision  for  the  very  probable 
event  of  the  discussion  leaving  parties  as  opposed  to  one  another 
as  they  had  been  before  the  discussion  was  opened,  and  it  was 
obvious  that,  as  he  had  never  given  the  royal  assent  to  any  Act  for 
the  abolition  of  episcopacy,  the  whole  episcopal  system  would 
legally  occupy  the  field  when  the  three  years  came  to  an  end.  The 
Presbyterians  would  thus  find  themselves  checkmated  by  an  un- 
worthy trick. 

The  Scots,  discontented  with  the  king's  refusal  to  accept  their 
terms,  began  to  open  their  ears  to  an  offer  by  the  English  Parlia- 
ment to  pay  them  the  money  owing  to  them  for  their  assistance,  on 
the  open  understanding  that  they  would  leave  England,  and  the 
tacit  understanding  that  they  would  leave  the  king  behind  them. 
Once  more  they  implored  Charles  to  support  Presbyterianism,  as- 
suring him  that,  if  he  would,  they  would  fight  for  him  to  a  man. 
On  his  refusal,  they  accepted  the  English  oflfer,  took  their  money, 
and  on  January  30,  1647,  marched  away  to  their  own  country, 
leaving  Charles  in  the  hands  of  Commissioners  of  the  English 
Parliament,  who  conveyed  him  to  Holmby  House,  in  Northamp- 
tonshire. 

The  leading  Presbyterians,  of  whom  the  most  prominent  was 
Holies,  were  so  anxious  to  come  to  terms  with  the  king  that  before 
the  end  of  January  they  accepted  Charles's  illusory  proposal  of  a 
three  years'  Presbyterianism,  offering  to  allow  him  to  come  to 
London  or  its  neighborhood  in  order  to  carry  on  negotiations. 
The  fact  was,  that  they  were  now  more  afraid  of  the  army  than  of 
the  king,  believing  it  to  be  ready  to  declare  not  merely  for  toleration 
of  the  sects,  but  also  for  a  more  democratic  form  of  government 
than  suited  many  of  the  noblemen  and  gentlemen  who  sat  on  the 
benches  of  the  Lords  and  Commons.  In  ^March  tlie  Commons 
voted  that  only  a  small  body  of  cavalry  should  be  kept  up  in 
England,  and  no  infantry  at  all,  except  a  small  force  needed  to 
garrison  the  fortress,  and  also  that  when  the  infantry  regi- 
ments were  broken  up  the  disbanded  soldiers  should  be  asked 
to  volunteer  for  service  in  Ireland.  Of  the  cavalry  in  England 
Eairfax  was  to  be  general,  but  no  officer  under  him  was  to  hold  a 
higher  rank  than  that  of  a  colonel,  a  rule  which  would  enable  Crom- 
well's opponents  in  Parliament  to  oust  liim  from  his  position  in  the 


MODEL    ARMY  357 

1647 

army.  So  strong  was  the  feeling  in  the  nation  for  peace,  and  for 
the  diminution  of  the  heavy  burden  of  taxation  which  the  main- 
tenance of  the  army  required,  that  the  Presbyterians  would 
probably  have  gained  their  object  had  they  acted  with  reasonable 
prudence,  as  a  large  number  of  soldiers  had  no  sympathy  with  the 
religious  enthusiasts  in  the  ranks.  There  were,  however,  consider- 
able arrears  of  pay  owing  to  the  men,  and  had  they  been  paid  in 
ready  money,  and  an  ordinance  passed  indemnifying  them  for  acts 
done  in  war  time,  most,  if  not  all,  would,  in  all  probability,  either 
have  gone  home  or  have  enlisted  for  Ireland.  Instead  of  doing  this. 
Parliament  only  voted  a  small  part  of  the  arrears,  and  fiercely 
denounced  the  army  for  daring  to  prepare  a  petition  to  Fairfax 
asking  for  his  support  in  demanding  full  pay  and  indemnity.  In 
a  few  weeks  Parliament  and  army  were  angrily  distrustful  of  one 
another,  and  the  soldiers,  organizing  themselves,  chose  representa- 
tives, who  were  called  Agitators  or  agents,  to  consult  on  things 
relating  to  their  present  position. 

Cromwell's  position  during  these  weeks  was  a  delicate  one. 
He  sympathized  not  only  with  the  demands  of  the  soldiers  for  full 
pay,  but  also  with  the  demand  of  the  religious  enthusiasts  for  tolera- 
tion. Yet  he  had  a  strong  sense  of  the  evil  certain  to  ensue  f^oni 
allowing  an  army  to  overthrow  the  civil  institutions  of  the  country,^ 
and  both  as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  and  as  an  off-ccr 
he  did  his  best  to  avert  so  dire  a  catastrophe.  In  March  he  had 
even  proposed  to  leave  England  and  take  service  in  Germany  under 
the  Elector  Palatine,  the  son  of  Frederick  and  Elizabeth.  As  this 
plan  fell  through  he  was  sent  down,  in  May,  with  other  commis- 
sioners, to  attempt  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between  the  army  and 
the  Parliament.  In  this  he  nearly  succec<Ied ;  but  a  few  days  after 
his  return  to  Westminister  Parliament  decided  to  disband  the  army 
at  once,  without  those  concessions  wliidi,  in  consequence  of  Crom- 
well's report,  it  at  first  seemed  prepared  to  miake.  The  soldiers, 
finding  that  only  a  small  portion  of  their  arrairs  was  to  be  i)aid, 
refused  to  disband,  and  before  the  end  of  May  everything  was  in 
confusion. 

The  fact  was  that  the  Presbyterian  leaders  fancied  themselves 

1  Cromwell  did  not  hold  that,  in  fighting  against  the  king,  he  had  liiinselt  been 
assailing  the  civil  institutions  of  the  countr.v.  In  liis  eyes,  as  in  the  eyes  of  ail 
others  on  his  side,  the  king  was  the  aggressor,  aU.aeking  those  institutions,  and 
war  against  him  was  therefore  defensive,  being  waged  to  save  the  nio.^i  impor- 
tant part  of  tiieni  from  destruction. 


358  ENGLAND 

1647 

masters  of  the  situation.  Receiving  a  favorable  answer  from  the 
king  to  the  proposals  made  by  them  in  January,  they  entered  into 
a  negotiation  with  the  French  ambassador  and  the  Scottish  com- 
missioners to  bring  about  a  Scottish  invasion  of  England  on  the 
king's  behalf,  and  this  invasion  was  to  be  supported  by  a  Presby- 
terian and  royalist  rising  in  England.  In  the  meanwhile  Charles 
was  to  be  conveyed  away  from  Holmby  to  preserve  him  from  the 
army.  This  design  was  betrayed  to  Cromwell,  and,  to  hinder  the 
Scots  and  Presbyterians  from  carrying  off  the  king,  he  sent  Cornet 
Joyce,  with  a  picked  body  of  horse,  to  Holmby,  where  he  invited 
the  king  to  leave  Holmby  the  next  morning.  When  the  morning 
came  Charles,  stepping  out  on  the  lawn,  asked  Joyce  for  a  sight  of 
the  commission  which  authorized  him  to  give  such  unexpected 
orders.  "  There  is  my  commission,"  answered  Joyce,  pointing  to 
his  soldiers.  There  was  no  resisting  such  an  argument,  and  Charles 
was  safely  conducted  to  Newmarket. 

Parliament,  dissatisfied  with  this  daring  act,  began  to  levy 
troops  in  London,  and  reorganized  the  London  trained  bands,  ex- 
cluding all  Independents  from  their  ranks.  The  army  declared  that 
eleven  members  of  the  House  of  Commons — the  leaders  of  the 
Presbyterian  party — were  making  arrangements  for  a  new  war, 
and  sent  in  charges  against  them.  The  eleven  members,  finding 
themselves  helpless,  asked  leave  of  absence.  The  city  of  London 
was  as  Presbyterian  as  Parliament.  A  mob  burst  into  the  House, 
and,  under  stress  of  violence,  the  Independent  members,  together 
with  the  Speakers  of  the  two  Houses,  left  Westminster  and  sought 
protection  with  the  army.  The  Presbyterians  kept  their  seats,  and 
voted  to  resist  the  army  by  force.  The  army  took  advantage  of 
the  tumult  to  appear  on  the  scene  as  the  vindicators  of  the  liberties 
of  Parliament  and,  marching  upon  London,  passed  through  the 
City  on  August  7,  leaving  sufficient  forces  behind  to  occupy  West- 
minster and  the  Tower.  The  eleven  Presbyterian  members  sought 
refuge  on  the  continent. 

In  the  meanwhile  Cromwell  was  doing  his  best  to  come  to  an 
understanding  with  Charles.  A  constitutional  scheme,  to  which 
was  given  the  name  of  "  The  Pleads  of  the  Proposals,"  was  drawn 
up  by  Ireton  and  presented  in  the  name  of  the  army  to  the  king.  It 
provided  for  a  constant  succession  of  biennial  Parliaments  with 
special  powers  over  the  appointment  of  officials,  and  it  proposed  to 
settle  the  religious  difficulty  by  giving  complete  religious  liberty 


M  O  D  E  L     A  R  M  Y  359 

1647-1648 

to  all  except  Roman  Catholics,  but  no  civil  penalties  were  to  be  in- 
flicted on  those  who  objected  either  to  episcopacy  or  presbyteri- 
anism  or  to  both. 

No  proposals  so  wise  and  comprehensive  had  yet  been  made, 
but  neither  Charles  nor  the  Parliament  was  inclined  to  accept  them. 
Many  of  the  Agitators,  finding  that  there  was  still  a  Presbyterian 
majority  in  Parliament,  talked  of  using  force  once  more  and  of 
purging  the  Houses  of  all  the  members  who  had  sat  in  them  while 
the  legitimate  Speakers  were  absent.  In  the  meanwhile  the  king 
grew  more  hostile  to  Cromwell  every  day,  and  entered  secretly  into 
a  fresh  negotiation  with  the  Scottish  commissioners  who  formed 
part  of  the  Committee  of  Both  Kingdoms,  asking  them  for  the  help 
of  a  Scottish  army.  The  more  advanced  Agitators  proposed  a  still 
more  democratic  constitution  than  "  The  Heads  of  the  PVoposals," 
under  the  name  of  "  The  Agreement  of  the  People,"  and  attempted 
to  force  it  upon  their  officers  by  threats  of  a  mutiny.  At  the  same 
time  they  and  some  of  the  officers  talked  of  bringing  the  king  to 
justice  for  the  bloodshed  which  he  had  caused.  Charles,  becoming 
aware  of  his  danger,  fled  on  November  1 1  to  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
thinking  that  it  would  be  easy  to  escape  whenever  he  wished.  He 
was,  however,  detained  in  Carisbrooke  Castle,  where  he  was  treated 
very  much  as  a  prisoner, 

Cromwell  put  down  the  mutiny  in  the  army,  but  he  learned  that 
the  king  was  intriguing  with  the  Scots,  and  at  last  abandoned  all 
hope  of  settling  the  kingdom  with  Charles's  help.  On  December 
26,  1647,  Charles  entered  into  an  "  Engagement  "  with  the  Scottish 
commissioners.  On  the  condition  of  having  toleration  for  his  own 
worship,  according  to  the  Prayer  Book,  he  agreed  to  establish  Pres- 
byterianism  in  England  for  three  years,  and  to  supj^ress  all  lieresy. 
The  Scottish  army  w^as  then  to  advance  into  England  to  secure  the 
king's  restoration  to  power  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  oi  a  free 
Parliament,  to  be  chosen  after  the  existing  one  had  been  dissolved. 
The  English  Parliament,  indeed,  had  no  knowledge  of  this  "  h^n- 
gagement,"  but,  finding  that  Charles  refused  to  accept  tlieir  terms, 
they  replied,  on  January  17,  1648,  by  a  "  Vote  of  Xo  Addresses," 
declaring  that  they  would  make  no  more  proposals  to  the  king. 

The  majority  of  Englishmen  were,  on  the  contrary,  ready  to 
take  Charles  at  his  word.  Men  were  weary  of  being  controlled  by 
the  army,  and  still  more  of  paying  the  taxes  needed  for  the  sujiport 
of  the  army.     There  were  risings  in  Wales  and  Kent,  and  a  Scot- 


360  ENGLAND 

1648-1649 

tish  army  prepared  to  cross  the  borders  under  the  Duke  of  Hamil- 
ton. The  EngHsh  army  had,  however,  made  up  its  mind  that 
Charles  should  not  be  restored.  Fairfax  put  down  the  rising  in 
Kent  after  a  sharp  fight  and  drove  some  of  the  fugitives  into  Col- 
chester, to  which  he  laid  siege,  though  the  Londoners  threatened  to 
rise  in  his  rear,  and  a  great  part  of  the  fleet  deserted  to  the  Prince 
of  Wales.  In  the  meanwhile  Cromwell  suppressed  the  insurrection 
in  Wales,  and  then  marched  northwards.  On  August  17,  with  less 
than  9,000  men,  he  fell  upon  the  24,000  who  followed  Hamilton, 
and,  after  three  days'  fighting,  routed  them  utterly.  On  August  28 
Colchester  surrendered  to  Fairfax. 

The  army  had  lost  all  patience  with  the  king,  and  it  had  also 
lost  all  patience  with  Parliament.  While  Fairfax  and  Cromwell 
were  fighting,  the  Houses  passed  an  ordinance  for  the  suppression 
of  heresy,  and  opened  the  negotiations  with  the  king  which  bear 
the  name  of  the  Treaty  (or  Negotiation)  of  Newport.  The  king 
only  played  with  the  negotiations,  trying  to  spin  out  the  time  till 
he  could  make  his  escape,  in  order  that  he  might,  with  safety  to  his 
own  person,  obtain  help  from  Ireland  or  the  continent.  The  army 
was  tired  of  such  delusions,  seeing  clearly  that  there  could  be  no 
settled  government  in  England  as  long  as  Charles  could  play  fast- 
and-lose  with  all  parties,  and  it  demanded  that  he  should  be  brought 
to  justice.  By  military  authoritv  he  was  removed  on  December  i 
from  Carisbrooke  to  the  desolate  Hurst  Castle,  where  no  help  could 
reach  him.  On  December  5  the  House  of  Commons  declared  for  a 
reconciliation  with  the  king.  On  the  6th  a  body  of  soldiers,  under 
the  command  of  Colonel  Pride,  forced  it  to  serve  the  purposes  of 
the  army  by  forcibly  expelling  all  members  who  took  the  side  of 
the  king.  This  act  of  violence  is  commonly  known  as  Pride's 
Purge. 

On  January  i,  1649,  the  purged  House  proposed  to  appoint 
a  High  Court  of  Justice  to  try  Charles,  but  the  Lords  refused  to 
take  part  in  the  act.  On  the  4th  the  Commons  declared  that  the 
people  were,  under  God,  the  source  of  all  just  power,  and  that  the 
House  of  Commons,  being  chosen  by  tlie  people,  formed  the  supreme 
power  in  England,  having  no  need  of  either  king  or  House  of  Lords. 
Never  was  constitutional  pedantry  carried  further  than  when  this 
declaration  was  issued  by  a  mere  fragment  of  a  Llouse  which,  even 
if  all  its  members  had  been  present,  could  only  claim  to  have  repre- 
sented the  people  some  years  before.     On  January  6  a  special  High 


MODEL     ARM  Y  361 

1649 

Court  of  Justice  was  constituted  by  the  mutilated  House  of  Com- 
mons alone,  for  the  trial  of  the  king.  On  January  19  Charles  was 
brought  up  to  Westminster.  Only  the  sternest  opponents  of  Charles 
would  consent  to  sit  on  the  Court  which  tried  him.  Of  135  mem- 
bers named,  only  67  were  present  when  the  trial  began. 

Charles's  accusers  had  on  their  side  the  discredit  which  always 
comes  to  those  who,  using  force,  try  to  give  it  the  appearance  of 
legality.  Charles  had  all  the  credit  for  standing  up  for  the  law, 
which,  in  his  earlier  life,  he  had  employed  to  establisli  absolutism. 
He  refused  to  plead  before  the  Court,  on  the  ground  that  it  had  no 
jurisdiction  over  a  king.  His  assailants  fell  back  on  the  merest 
technicalities.  Instead  of  charging  him  with  the  intrigues  to  bring 
foreign  armies  into  England,  of  which  he  had  been  really  guilty, 
they  accused  him  of  high  treason  against  the  nation,  because,  for- 
sooth, he  had  appeared  in  arms  against  his  subjects  in  the  first 
Civil  War.  The  Court,  as  might  have  been  expected,  passed  sen- 
tence against  him,  and,  on  January  30,  he  was  beheaded  on  a  scaffold 
in  front  of  his  own  palace  at  Whitehall. 

With  the  king's  execution  all  that  could  be  permanently  effected 
by  his  opponents  had  been  accomplished.  When  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment met,  in  November,  1640,  all  Englishmen  had  combined  to 
bring  Charles  to  submit  to  Parliamentary  control.  After  the  sum- 
mer of  1 64 1  a  considerable  part  of  the  nation,  coming  to  the  con- 
clusion that  Charles  was  ready  to  use  force  rather  than  to  submit, 
took  arms  against  him  to  compel  him  to  give  way.  Towards  the  end 
of  1647  ^  minority  of  Englishmen,  including  the  army,  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  was  necessary  to  dci)rive  Charles  of  all  real 
powder,  if  the  country  was  not  to  be  exposed  to  constantly  recurring 
danger  whenever  he  saw  fit  to  reassert  his  claim  to  the  authority 
which  he  had  lost.  Li  1648  a  yet  smaller  minority  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  security  could  only  be  obtained  if  he  were  deprived  of 
life.  In  depriving  the  king  of  life  all  had  ])ccn  done  which  force 
could  do.  The  army  could  guard  a  scaffold,  but  it  could  not  recon- 
struct society.  The  vast  majority  of  that  part  of  tlie  nation  wliicli 
cared  about  politics  at  all  disliked  being  ruled  by  an  army  even 
more  than  it  had  formerly  disliked  being  ruled  by  Charles,  and  re- 
fused its  support  to  the  new  institutions  which,  under  the  patronage 
of  the  army,  were  being  erected  in  tlie  name  of  the  people. 


Chapter  XXXVI 

THE    COMMONWEALTH    AND    PROTECTORATE. 

1649 — 1660 

LEADING   DATES 

The  Establishment  of  the  Common-wealth,  1649 — Cromwell  in  Ire- 
land, 1649 — Battle  of  Dunbar,  Sept.  3,  1650 — Battle  of  Worces- 
ter, Sept.  3,  1651 — The  Long  Parliament  Dissolved  by  Cromwell, 
April  20,  1653 — The  So-called  Barebones  Parliament,  July  4  to 
Dec.  II,  1653 — Establishment  of  the  Protectorate,  Dec.  16,  1653 — 
The  First  Protectorate  Parliament,  Sept.  3,  1654,  to  Jan.  22,  1655 — 
Treaty  of  Alliance  with  France,  Oct.  24,  1655 — The  Second  Pro- 
tectorate Parliament,  Sept.  17,  1656,  to  Feb.  4,  1658 — Death  of 
Oliver  Cromwell,  Sept.  3,  1658 — Richard  Cromwell's  Protectorate, 
Sept,  3,  1658,  to  April  22,  1659 — The  Long  Parliament  Restored, 
May  7  TO  Oct.  13,  1659 — Military  Government,  Oct.  13  to  Dec. 
26,  1659 — The  Long  Parliament  a  Second  Time  Restored,  Dec.  26, 
1659,  TO  March  16,  1660 — The  Declaration  of  Breda,  April  4,  1660 — 
Meeting  of  the  Convention  Parliament,  April  14,  1660 — Resolution 
that  the  Government  is  by  King,  Lords,  and  Commons,  May  i,  i66a 

IT  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  men  in  Parhament  or  in  the 
army  by  whom  great  hopes  of  improvement  were  entertained 
should  discover  that  they  had  done  all  that  it  was  possible  for 
them  to  do.  They  believed  it  to  be  still  in  their  power  to  regenerate 
England.  The  House  of  Commons  declared  England  to  be  a 
C')inm()nwealth.  "  without  a  king  or  House  of  Lords,"  and,  taking 
the  name  of  Parliament  for  itself,  appointed  forty-one  persons 
to  be  a  Council  of  State,  charged  with  the  executive  government, 
and  renewed  annually.  IMost  members  of  the  Council  of  State 
were  also  members  of  Parliament;  and,  as  the  attendance  in  Parlia- 
ment seliiom  exceeded  fifty,  the  Councilors  of  State  (if  they  agreed 
together)  were  able  to  command  a  majority  in  Parliament,  and  thus 
to  control  its  decisions.  Such  an  arrangement  was  a  mere  bur- 
]e-'|ue  on  Parliamentary  institutions,  and  could  hardly  have  existed 
for  a  week,  if  ii  had  not  been  supported  by  the  ever-victorious  army. 
In  the  army,  indeed,  it  had  its  opponents,  who,  under  the  name  of 
Le\ek-rs.  ealk'<l  out  for  a  more  truly  democratic  government, 
but  they  liad  no  man  of  intluence  to  lead  them.     Cromwell  had  too 

3U-2 


THE     COMMONWEALTH  363 

1649-1650 

much  common  sense  not  to  perceive  the  difficulty  of  establishing  a 
democracy  in  a  country  in  which  that  form  of  government  had  but 
few  admirers,  and  he  suppressed  the  Levelers  with  a  strong  hand. 
In  quiet  times,  Cromwell  would  doubtless  have  made  some  attempt 
to  place  the  constitution  of  the  Commonwealth  on  a  more  satis- 
factory basis,  but  for  the  present  it  needed  to  be  defended  rather 
than  improved.  After  the  king's  execution,  Charles  II,  was  pro- 
claimed in  Ireland,  Ormond,  Charles  I.'s  lieutenant,  himself  a 
Protestant,  having  now  an  army  in  which  Irish  Catholics  and  Eng- 
lish Royalist  Protestants  were  combined,  hoped  to  be  able  to  over- 
throw the  Commonwealth  both  in  Ireland  and  in  England.  To 
Cromwell  such  a  situation  was  intolerable,  and  he  set  out  to  con- 
quer Ireland,  On  August  15  he  landed  at  Dublin.  On  September 
II  he  stormed  Drogheda,  where  he  put  2,000  men  to  the  sword,  a 
slaughter  which  was  in  strict  accordance  with  the  laws  of  war  of 
that  day,  which  left  garrisons  refusing,  as  that  of  Drogheda  had 
done,  to  surrender  an  indefensible  post,  when  summoned  to  do  so, 
to  the  mercy  or  cruelty  of  the  enemy.  Cromwell  had  a  half-suspi- 
cion that  some  further  excuse  was  needed.  "  I  am  persuaded,"  he 
wrote,  "  that  this  is  a  righteous  judgment  of  God  upon  those  bar- 
barous wretches  who  have  imbrued  their  hands  in  so  much  innocent 
blood;  and  that  it  will  tend  to  prevent  the  effusion  of  blood  for  the 
future — which  are  the  satisfactory  grounds  to  such  actions,  which 
otherwise  cannot  but  work  remorse  and  regret."  At  Wexford 
there  was  another  slaughter.  Town  after  town  surrendered.  In 
the  spring  of  1650  Cromwell  left  Ireland.  The  conquest  was  prose- 
cuted by  his  successors,  and  when,  in  1652,  the  war  came  to  an  end, 
a  great  part  of  three  out  of  the  four  provinces  of  Ireland  was  con- 
fiscated for  the  benefit  of  the  conquering  race. 

In  1650  Cromwell's  services  were  needed  in  Scotland.  On 
June  24  Charles  II.  landed  in  Scotland,  and,  on  his  engaging  to  be 
a  Presbyterian  king,  found  the  whole  nation  ready  to  support  him. 
Fairfax  declined  to  lead  the  English  army  against  Charles,  on  the 
plea  that  the  Scots  had  a  right  to  choose  their  own  form  of  govern- 
ment. Cromwell  had  no  such  scruples,  knowing  that,  if  Charles 
were  once  established  in  Scotland,  the  next  thing  would  be  that  the 
Scots  would  try  to  impose  their  form  of  government  on  England. 
Cromwell,  being  appointed  General  in  the  room  of  Fairfax,  marched 
into  Scotland,  and  attempted  to  take  Edinburgh  ;  but  he  was  out- 
maneuvered   by   Da\id   Leslie,   who   was   now   tlie   Scottish   com- 


J36J!  ENGLAND 

t6b0-1651 

mandcr,  and,  to  save  his  men  from  starvation,  had  to  retreat  to 
Dunbar. 

Cromwell's  position  at  Dunbar  was  forlorn  enough.  The 
Scots  seized  the  passage  by  which  alone  he  could  retreat  to  England 
by  land,  while  the  mass  of  their  host  was  posted  inaccessibly  on 
the  top  of  a  long  hill  in  front  of  him.  If  he  sailed  home,  his  flight 
would  probably  be  the  signal  for  a  rising  of  all  the  Cavaliers  and 
Presbyterians  in  England.  The  Scots,  however,  relieved  him  of 
his  difficulties.  They  were  weary  of  waiting,  and,  on  the  evening 
of  September  2,  they  descended  the  hill.  Early  on  the  morning  of 
the  3d  Cromwell,  crying  "Let  God  arise;  let  His  enemies  be 
scattered,"  charged  into  their  right  wing  before  the  whole  army 
had  time  to  draw  up  in  line  of  battle,  and  dashed  them  into  utter 
ruin.  Edinburgh  surrendered  to  him.  but  there  was  still  a  large 
Scottish  army  on  foot,  and,  in  August,  1651,  its  leaders,  taking 
Charles  with  them,  pushed  on  into  England,  where  they  hoped  to 
raise  an  insurrection  before  Cromwell  could  overtake  them.  On 
they  marched,  with  Cromwell  following  hard  upon  their  heels. 
Fear  kept  those  who  sympathized  with  Charles  from  rising,  and, 
at  W'orcester,  on  September  3 — -the  anniversarv  of  the  battle  of 
Dunbar — Cromwell  absolutely  destroyed  the  Scottish  army.  Those 
who  were  not  slain  were  taken  prisoners,  and  many  of  the  prisoners 
sent  as  slaves  to  Barbadoes.  Charles  succeeded  in  making  his  escape 
to  France.  Cromwell  was  never  again  called  on  to  draw  sword  in 
England. 

Ever  since  the  days  of  James  L  there  had  existed  a  com- 
mercial rivalry  between  England  and  the  Dutch  Republic,  and 
disi)utes  relating  tn  trade  constantly  arose.  Latterly  these  disputes 
liad  been  growing  more  acute.  Early  in  i64(S  Spain  came  to  terms 
with  tlie  Dutch  by  acknowledging  their  independence,  and  later 
in  the  same  year  the  Thirty  Years'  War  in  Germany  was  brought 
to  :in  cMid  l)y  the  l\'ace  of  Westphalia.  In  1650  the  Stadtholder, 
William  II. — the  son-in-law  of  Charles  I. — died,  and  the  office 
wliich  Ik  held  was  al)i>]ished,  the  government  of  the  Dutch  Republic 
falling  C'>ini)leLcly  under  the  control  of  the  merchants  of  the 
I'rovincc  oi  lb. Hand,  in  which  were  situated  the  great  commercial 
I)nrts  of  Amsterd-un  and  Rotterdam.  The  Dutch  had  got  into 
their  hands  the  carrying  trade  of  Europe.  In  1651  the  English 
Parliament  pavser]  the  Xavigation  .Act,  to  put  an  end  to  this  state  of 
things.      I'.ngh-h  vessels  alone  were  to  be  allowed  to  import  goods 


THE     COMMONWEALTH  365 

1651-1653 

into  England,  except  in  the  case  of  vessels  belonging  to  the  country 
in  which  the  goods  which  they  carried  were  produced. 

War  with  the  Dutch  soon  followed.  Vane,  the  leading  man 
in  the  Committee  of  the  Council  of  State  which  managed  the  navy, 
had  put  the  fleet  into  excellent  condition.  Its  command  was  given 
to  Blake,  who  had  been  noted  as  a  soldier  by  the  defense  of  Taunton 
in  the  Civil  War,  but  who  never  went  to  sea  till  1649,  when 
he  was  over  fifty.  Yet  Blake  soon  found  himself  at  home  on 
board  ship,  and  won  the  confidence  of  officers  and  men.  Battle 
after  battle  was  fought  between  the  English  and  Dutch  fleets.  The 
sturdy  antagonists  were  well  matched,  though  the  English  ships 
were  larger  and  more  powerfullv  armed.  Tn  November,  1652, 
Tromp  (the  Dutch  Admiral)  got  the  better  of  Blake,  but  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1653,  there  was  another  battle,  in  which  Blake  got  the  upper 
hand :  but  it  was  no  crushing  victory,  like  Dunbar  and  Worcester. 
In  the  summer  of  1653  the  English  gained  two  more  victories,  but 
though  the}^  attempted  to  blockade  the  Dutch  ports,  they  were 
obliged  to  give  up  the  attempt. 

At  home  the  truncated  Parliament  was  becoming  increasingly 
unpopular.  Ever  since  the  end  of  the  first  Civil  \\'"ar  Parliament 
had  supplied  itself  with  money  by  forcing  Royalists  to  compound 
— that  is  to  say,  to  pay  down  a  sum  of  money,  without  which  they 
were  not  allowed  to  enjoy  their  estates ;  and  these  compositions, 
as  they  were  called,  were  still  exacted  from  men  who  had  joined 
in  the  second  Civil  War,  or  had  favored  the  invasion  by  Charles 
II.  The  system,  harsh  in  itself,  was  not  fairly  carried  on.  Alcm])crs 
of  Parliament  took  bribes,  and  let  the  briber  off  more  easily  than 
they  did  others  who  neglected  to  give  them  money.  Tliose  wlio 
were  not  Royalists  had  grievances  of  their  own.  Many  of  tlie 
members  used  their  power  in  their  own  interest,  disrcg;irdmg 
justice,  and  promoting  their  sons  and  nephews  in  the  public  service. 

For  a  long  time  Cromwell  and  the  officers  had  been  urging 
Parliament  to  dissolve  itself  and  to  provide  for  the  election  of  a 
new  I'arliament,  which  would  be  more  truly  representative.  Vane 
had.  indeed,  brought  in  a  Reform  Bill,  providing  for  a  redis- 
tribution (jf  seals,  depriving  small  hamlets  of  tlie  franchise,  and 
conferring  it  upon  populous  towns  and  counties;  but  the  discussion 
dragged  on,  and  the  army  was  growing  impatient.  Yet,  inijjatient 
as  tlic  army  was,  officers  and  ])oliticians  alike  recognized  tliat  a 
freel3'-e!ccted  Parliament  would  j)rol);ibly  overthrow  the  Common- 


366  ENGLAND 


1653 


wealth  and  recall  the  king.  Cromwell  suggested  that  a  committee 
of  officers  and  politicians  should  he  formed  to  consult  on  securities 
to  be  taken  against  such  a  catastrophe.  The  securities  which  pleased 
the  members  of  Parliament  were,  that  all  members  then  sitting 
should  continue  to  sit  in  the  next  Parliament,  without  fresh  election, 
and  should  be  formed  into  a  committee  having  power  to  reject 
any  new  member  whom  they  considered  it  desirable  to  exclude. 

Cromwell,  who  disliked  this  plan,  was  assured,  on  April  19, 
by  one  of  the  leading  members  of  Parliament  that  nothing  would  be 
done  in  a  hurry.  On  the  next  day,  April  20,  he  heard  that  the 
House  was  passing  its  bill  in  the  form  which  he  disliked.  Going 
to  the  House,  when  the  last  vote  on  the  bill  was  about  to  be  taken 
he  rose  to  speak.  Parliament,  he  said,  had  done  well  in  its  care  for 
the  public  good,  but  it  had  been  stained  with  "  injustice,  delays  of 
justice,  self-interest."  Being  interrupted  by  a  member,  he  blazed 
up  into  anger.  "  Come,  come !  "  he  cried ;  "  we  have  had  enough 
of  this.  I  will  put  an  end  to  this.  It  is  not  fit  you  should  sit  here 
any  longer."  He  called  in  his  soldiers,  and  bade  them  clear  the 
House,  following  the  members  with  words  of  obloquy  as  they  passed 
out. 

Cromwell  and  the  officers  shrank  from  summoning  an  elected 
Parliament.  They  gathered  an  asseml3ly  of  their  own  nominees, 
to  which  men  gave  in  derision  the  title  of  the  Barebone's  Parlia- 
ment, because  a  certain  Praise-God  Barebone  sat  in  it.  In  a  speech 
at  its  opening,  on  July  4,  Cromwell  told  them  that  England  ought 
to  be  governed  l>y  godly  men,  and  that  they  had  been  selected  to 
govern  it  because  they  were  godly.  Unfortunately,  many  of  these 
godly  men  were  crotchety  and  unpractical.  A  large  number  of 
tlicm  wanted  to  abulish  the  Court  of  Chancery  without  providing  a 
substitute,  and  a  majority  resolved  to  abolish  tithes  without  pro- 
viding any  other  means  for  the  support  of  the  clergy.  At  the  same 
time  entlnisirists  outside  Parliament — the  Fifth  Monarchy  men,  as 
they  were  called — declared  that  the  time  had  arrived  for  the  reign 
od  the  saints,  and  that  they  were  themselves  the  saints.  All  who 
had  anything-  [<,  jnse  were  terrified,  and  turned  to  Cromv^'ell  for  sup- 
port, as  it  was  known  that  no  man  in  luigland  had  stronger  common 
sense,  or  was  less  likely  to  Ix.'  carried  away  ])y  such  dreamers.  In 
the  Parliament  itself  there  was  a  strong  min(jrity  which  thought  it 
<ie,-^;i-ahle  tliat.  if  tithes  were  abolished,  sti])port  should  be  provided 
ii-r  tise  cUtl-.t  m  .-^^nie  (jther  way.     These  men,  cm   December   ii, 


THE     COMMONWEALTH  367 

1653 

got  up  early  in  the  morning,  and,  before  their  opponents  knew  what 
they  were  about,  declared  Parhament  to  be  dissolved,  and  placed 
supreme  authority  in  the  hands  of  Cromwell. 

On  December  i6  a  constitutional  document,  known  as  "  The 
Instrument  of  Government,"  was  drawn  up  by  Cromwell's  military 
supporters,  and  accepted  by  himself,  Cromwell  was  to  be  styled 
Lord  Protector,  a  title  equivalent  to  that  of  Regent,  of  which  the 
last  instance  had  been  that  of  the  Protector  Somerset.  The 
Protector  was  to  enter,  to  some  extent,  upon  the  duties  which 
had  formerly  devolved  on  the  king.  There  was  to  be  a  Parliament 
consisting  of  a  single  House,  which  was  to  meet  once  in  three 
years,  from  which  all  who  had  taken  the  king's  part  were  excluded, 
as  they  also  were  from  voting  at  elections.  The  constituencies 
were  to  be  almost  identical  with  the  reformed  ones  established  by 
Vane's  Reform  Bill.  The  Protector  was  to  appoint  the  execu- 
tive officials,  and  to  have  a  fixed  revenue  sufficient  to  pay  the 
army  and  navy  and  the  ordinary  expenses  of  Government ;  but 
if  he  wanted  more  for  extraordinary  purposes  he  could  only  obtain  it 
by  means  of  a  Parliamentary  grant.  New  laws  were  to  be  made  by 
Parliament  alone,  the  Protector  having  no  veto  upon  them,  though 
he  was  to  have  an  opportunity  of  criticising  them,  if  he  wished  to 
urge  Parliament  to  change  its  purpose.  The  main  lines  of  tlie  consti- 
tution were,  however,  laid  down  in  the  Instrument  itself,  aiid 
Parliament  had  no  power  given  it  to  make  laws  contrary  to  tlie 
Instrument.  In  the  executive  government  the  Protector  was 
restrained,  not  by  Parliament,  but  by  a  Council  of  State,  the  mem- 
bers of  which  he  could  not  dismiss  as  the  king'  had  dismissed  his 
Privy  Councilors.  The  first  meml^ers  were  nominated  in  tlie 
Instrument,  and  were  appointed  for  life;  but  wlien  vacancies 
occurred  Parliament  was  to  give  in  six  names,  of  which  the  Council 
was  to  select  two,  leaving  to  the  Protector  only  the  final  choice  of 
one  out  of  two.  Without  the  consent  of  this  entirely  independent 
Council,  the  Protector  could  take  no  step  of  importance.  The 
Instrument  of  Government  allowed  less  Parliamentary  control  than 
had  been  given  to  the  Long  Parliament  after  tlie  passing  of  the 
Triennial  Act  and  the  Tonnage  and  Poundage  Act :  as  tliough 
Parliament  could  now  pass  laws  without  any  check  corresi^ond- 
ing  to  the  necessity  of  submitting  them  to  the  royal  assent,  it  could 
not  pass  laws  on  the  constitutional  points  which  the  Instrument 
of  Government  professed  to  ha\"e  settled  lore\-er.     Xeitlier — excei)t 


368  ENGLAND 

1653-1654 

when  there  was  an  extraordinary  demand  for  money — could  it  stop 
the  supplies,  so  as  to  bring-  the  executive  under  its  power.  It  w^as, 
rather,  the  intention  of  the  framers  of  the  Instrument  to  prevent 
that  Parliamentary  absolutism  which  had  proved  so  hurtful  in  the 
later  years  of  the  Long-  Parliament.  On  the  other  hand,  they  gave 
to  the  Council  of  State  a  real  control  over  the  Protector ;  and  it  is 
this  which  shows  that  they  were  intent  on  averting  absolutism  in 
the  Protector,  as  well  as  absolutism  in  Parliament,  though  the 
means  taken  by  them  to  effect  their  end  was  different  from  any- 
thing adopted  by  the  nation  in  later  years. 

Before  meeting  Parliament,  Oliver  had  some  months  in  which 
he  could  show  the  quality  of  the  new  government.  On  April  5, 
1654,  he  brought  the  war  with  the  Dutch  to  a  close,  and  subse- 
quently concluded  treaties  with  other  European  powders.  He  had 
more  than  enough  domestic  difficulties  to  contend  with.  The 
Fifth-Monarchy  men,  and  other  religious  enthusiasts,  attacked  him 
for  treachery  to  republicanism,  while  Charles  II.  incited  his 
followers  to  rise  in  insurrection  against  the  usurper.  In  the  mean- 
while the  Protector  and  Council  moved  forward  in  the  path  of 
conservative  reform.  The  Instrument  allowed  them  to  issue 
ordinances,  which  would  be  valid  till  Parliament  could  examine 
lliem ;  and,  among  others  which  he  sent  forth,  was  one  to  reform 
the  Court  of  Chancery,  and  another  to  establish  a  Commission  of 
Triers,  to  reject  all  ministers  presented  to  livings,  if  it  considered 
them  to  be  unfit,  and  another  Commission  of  Ejectors,  to  turn  out 
those  who,  being  in  possession,  were  deemed  unw^orthy.  Oliver 
Wduld  have  nothing  to  say  to  the  Voluntary  system.  Tithes  were 
to  l)c  retained,  and  religious  worship  was  to  be  establislicd ;  but 
tlierc  was  to  be  no  inquiry  whether  the  ministers  were  Presby- 
terians, Independents,  or  anytliing  else,  provided  they  were 
I'uritans.  'I'hcre  wns  to  be  complete  toleration  of  other  Puritan 
cnnL,M-i'o;ati()ns  not  belonging  to  the  established  churclies;  while  the 
l'-l)isco])a]ians,  thougli  n!)t  legally  tolerated,  were  as  yet  frequently 
allnwed  to  meet  privately  without  notice  being  taken  of  them. 
Other  ordinances  decreed  a  complete  Union  with  Scotland  and 
Ireland,  both  conntrics  being  ordered  to  return  members  to  the 
Parliament  at  Westminster.  As  far  as  the  real  Irisli  were  con- 
cerned the  I'nion  was  entirely  illusory,  as  all  Roman  Catholics 
were  excluded  fi;  ,ni  tlie  fi-anrliise. 

On  September  3,  ir)34,  the  I'irst  Prutectorate  Parliament  met. 


THE     C  O  i\I  M  O  N  W  E  A  L  T  H  369 

1654-1655 

Its  first  act  was  to  question  the  authority  of  private  persons  to 
frame  a  constitution  for  the  State,  on  which  Oliver  required  the 
members  of  ParHament  to  sign  a  paper  acknowledging  the  govern- 
ment as  estabhshed  in  a  single  person  and  in  Parhament,  and  turned 
out  of  the  House  those  who  refused  to  sign  it.  The  House,  thus 
diminished,  drew  up  a  new  constitution,  altering  the  balance  in 
favor  of  Parliament,  and  expressly  declaring  that  the  constitution 
was  liable  to  revision  whenever  the  Protector  and  Parliament  agreed 
to  change  it.  It  is  probable  that  Oliver  would  have  consented  to 
this  change,  but  a  dispute  arose  upon  the  control  of  the  army. 
Oliver  wished  that  it  should  permanently  remain  under  the 
Protector,  and  that  Parliament  should  be  unable  to  withdraw  the 
sums  of  money  fixed  for  its  maintenance.  Parliament,  on  the  other 
hand,  insisted  on  voting  the  money  only  for  five  years,  thus  claim- 
ing to  determine,  at  the  end  of  that  time,  whether  the  army  should 
be  disbanded  or  not.  The  only  real  solution  of  tlie  difficulty  lay 
in  a  frank  acknowledgment  that  the  nation  must  be  allowed  to 
have  its  way  for  evil  or  for  good.  Oliver,  however,  suspected — 
doubtless  with  truth — that,  if  the  nation  were  freely  consulted,  it 
would  sweep  aw^iy  not  only  the  Protectorate,  but  Puritanism  itself. 
Practically,  therefore,  the  question  at  issue  was  whether  the  Govern- 
ment should  be  controlled  by  Parliament  or  by  the  army.  On 
January  22,  finding  that  the  Plouse  was  not  likely  to  give  way,  he 
dissolved  Parliament. 

The  Instrument  of  Government  authorized  the  Protector  to 
levy  sufficient  taxes  without  consent  of  Parliament  to  enable  him 
to  meet  the  expenditure  in  quiet  times,  and  after  the  dissolution 
Oliver  availed  himself  of  this  authorization.  Many  people,  how- 
ever, refused  to  pay,  on  the  ground  that  the  Instrument,  unless 
recognized  by  Parliament,  was  not  binding;  and,  as  some  of  the 
judges  agreed  with  them,  Oliver  could  only  enforce  payment  by 
turning  out  those  judges  who  opposed  him,  and  putting  olliers  in 
their  places.  Moreover,  the  Government  was  embarrassed  by  at- 
tempts to  overthrow  it.  There  were  preparations  for  resistance 
by  the  republicans  in  the  army — and  there  was  an  actual  Royalist 
outburst  in  the  south  of  England.  In  the  face  of  such  danger, 
Oliver  abandoned  all  pretense  of  constitutional  government.  He 
divided  England  into  eleven  military  districts,  over  each  of  v.hicii 
he  set  a  major-general,  with  arbitrary  powers  for  maintaining 
order,  and,  by  a  mere  stroke  of  the  pen,  ordered  a  payment  of  10 


370  ENGLAND 

1654-1655 

per  cent,  on  the  incomes  of  Royalists.  Military  rule  developed 
itself  more  strongly  than  before.  On  November  27  Oliver,  in  his 
fear  of  the  Royalists,  ordered  the  suppression  of  the  private 
worship  of  those  who  clung  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer ;  per- 
ceiving rightly  that  the  most  dangerous  opponents  of  his  system 
were  to  be  found  among  sincere  Episcopalians.  He  also  made  use 
of  the  major-generals  to  suppress  vice  and  immorality  by  shutting 
up  alehouses  and  imprisoning  persons  whose  lives  were  disorderly. 

Partly,  perhaps,  because  he  hoped  to  divert  attention  from  his 
difficulties  at  home,  partly  because  he  wished  his  country  to  be 
great  in  war  as  well  as  in  peace,  Oliver  had  for  some  time  been 
engaging  in  naval  enterprise.  In  the  early  part  of  his  career  he 
had  been  friendly  to  Spain,  because  France  intrigued  with  the 
Presbyterians  and  the  king.  France  and  Spain  were  still  at  war, 
and  when  Cromwell  became  Protector  he  offered  his  alliance  to 
Spain,  on  condition  that  Spain  would  help  him  to  reconquer  Calais, 
and  would  place  Dunkirk  in  his  hands  as  a  pledge  for  the  sur- 
render of  Calais  after  it  had  been  taken.  He  also  asked  that  com- 
merce between  England  and  her  own  West  Indian  colonies  should 
be  free  from  Spanish  attacks,  and  for  more  open  liberty  of  religion 
for  the  English  in  the  Spanish  dominions  than  had  been  offered  by 
Spain  in  its  treaty  with  Charles  I.  The  Spanish  ambassador  re- 
plied that  to  ask  these  two  things  was  to  ask  his  master's  two  eyes, 
and  plainly  refused  to  admit  an  English  garrison  into  Dunkirk. 
Upon  this,  Cromwell  sent  out,  in  the  end  of  1654,  two  fleets,  one — 
under  Blake — to  go  to  the  Mediterranean,  to  get  reparation  from 
tlie  pirates  of  Tunis  and  Algiers  for  wrongs  done  to  English  com- 
merce; and  the  other — under  Penn  and  Venables — to  seize  a  Span- 
isli  island  in  the  West  Indies.  Blake  was  successful,  but  Penn  and 
\'cnal)lcs  failed  in  an  attempt  on  San  Domingo,  though  they  took 
])'Ksscssioii  of  Jamaica,  which  at  that  time  was  not  thought  to  be 
of  much  value. 

As  Oliver  could  not  get  what  he  wanted  from  Spain,  he  agreed 
t(i  a  treaty  with  I  "ranee  to  end  what  had  been  virtually  a  maritime 
war,  in  wincli  trading-ships  had  been  seized  on  both  sides.  Free- 
dom of  reh^ion  was  to  be  accorded  to  Englishmen  in  France.  Be- 
fore any  treaty  had  been  signed,  news  arrived  of  the  persecution 
of  the  Vau.lois— a  sect  with  Protestant  ideas — by  the  Duke  of 
.^avoy.  I  he  soldiers  committed  terrible  outrages  aiuong  the 
peaceahle  mountaineers.      Cromwell  at  once  told  Mazarin  that,   if 


THE     COMMONWEALTH  371 

1655-1658 

he  cared  for  peace  with  England,  this  persecution  must  stop. 
Mazarin  put  pressure  on  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  and  Hberty  of  worship 
was  secured  to  the  Vaudois.  Then,  on  October  24,  1655,  OHver 
concluded  the  treaty  with  France. 

War  with  Spain  was  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  seizure 
of  Jamaica,  and,  in  1656,  Oliver  called  a  second  Parliament,  to  give 
him  money.  Yet  it  was  certain  that  any  freely-elected  Parliament 
would  try  to  grasp  authority  for  itself.  When  Parliament  met,  on 
September  17,  Cromwell  began  by  excluding  about  a  hundred  mem- 
bers who  were  likely  to  oppose  him.  After  this,  his  relations  with 
the  House  were  smoother  than  they  had  been  in  1654 — especially 
as  news  arrived  that  part  of  the  Spanish  treasure-fleet  had  been 
captured  on  its  way  from  America ;  and,  soon,  thirty-eight  wagons 
laden  with  Spanish  silver  rolled  through  the  London  streets.  Par- 
liament voted  the  money  needed,  and  Oliver,  in  return,  withdrew 
the  major-generals.  Then  there  was  discovered  a  plot  to  murder 
the  Protector,  and  Parliament,  anxious  for  security,  drew  up 
amendments  to  the  Constitution,  known  as  "  The  Humble  Petition 
and  Advice."  Members  of  the  Council  of  State  were  to  be  approved 
by  Parliament,  and  the  power  of  excluding  members  from  the 
House  of  Commons  was  to  be  renounced  by  the  Protector.  There 
was  also  to  be  a  second  House  named  in  the  first  instance  by  the 
Protector,  who  was  given  power  to  exclude  members  subsequently 
named  by  himself  or  his  successors  from  taking  their  seats.  The 
object  of  this  curious  provision  was  to  secure  a  house  which  might 
be  trusted  for  all  time  to  throw  out  measures  opposed  to  Puritan- 
ism, even  when  they  were  supported  by  the  House  of  Commons. 
Oliver  was  asked  to  take  the  title  of  king,  with  the  right  of  naming 
his  own  successor.  He  refused  the  kingship,  as  the  army  disliked 
it,  and  also,  perhaps,  because  he  felt  that  there  would  be  an  incon- 
gruity in  its  assumption  by  himself.  The  rest  of  the  terms  he 
accepted,  and,  on  June  26,  1657,  before  the  end  of  the  session,  he 
was  installed  as  Lord  Protector  with  greater  solemnity  than  be- 
fore. It  was  already  known  that,  on  April  20,  Blake  had  destroyed 
a  great  Spanish  fleet  at  Santa  Cruz,  in  Teneriffe.  On  his  way 
back,  on  August  7,  he  died  at  sea,  and  was  brought  home  to  Ije 
buried  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

On  January  20,  1658,  Parliament  met  for  its  second  session. 
The  House  of  Commons  had  to  take  liack  the  hnn(h"c<l  excluded 
members  who  were  enemies  of  Olixer,  and  to  lose  a  large  numljer 


372  ENGLAND 

'  1657-1658 

of  Oliver's  warmest  supporters,  who  were  removed  to  the  other 
House.  The  Commons  had  no  longer  an  Oliverian  majority,  and 
without  attacking  the  Protector  himself,  they  now  attacked  the 
second  House,  which  gave  itself  the  airs  of  the  ancient  House  of 
Lords.  On  February  4,  in  a  speech  of  mingled  sadness  and  irri- 
tation, Oliver  dissolved  his  second  Parliament.  "  The  Lord,"  he 
said,   "  judge  between  me  and  you." 

Abroad  Oliver's  policy  was  crowned  with  success.  In  1657 
a  treaty  of  alliance  was  made  with  France,  and  6,000  English 
troops,  cooperating  with  the  Frencli  army,  captured  Mardyke.  On 
June  4,  1658,  they  defeated  the  Spanish  army  in  a  great  battle  on 
the  Dunes,  and  on  the  14th  Dunkirk  surrendered,  and  was  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  English.  It  has  often  been  doubted  whether 
these  successes  were  worth  gaining.  France  was  growing  in 
strength,  while  Spain  was  declining,  and  it  would  not  be  long 
before  France  would  become  as  formidable  to  England  as  Spain 
had  been  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth.  Cromwell,  however,  was  not 
the  man  to  base  his  policy  on  the  probabilities  of  the  future.  At 
liome  and  abroad  he  faced  the  present,  and,  since  the  day  on  which 
the  king  had  mounted  the  scaffold,  the  difficulties  at  home  had  been 
overwhelming.  Though  his  efforts  to  restore  constitutional  order 
had  been  stupendous,  and  his  political  aims  had  been  noble,  yet  he 
was  attempting  that  which  he,  at  least,  could  never  do.  Men  will 
submit  to  the  clearly  expressed  will  of  the  nation  to  which  they 
belong,  or  to  a  government  ruling  in  virtue  of  institutions  which 
they  and  their  ancestors  have  been  in  the  habit  of  obeying,  but 
tliey  will  not  long  submit  to  a  successful  soldier,  even  though,  like 
(Oliver,  he  be  a  statesman  as  well. 

Oliver  was  growing  weary  of  his  unending,  hopeless  struggle. 
On  August  6.  1658.  he  lost  his  favorite  daughter,  and  soon  after- 
wards lie  sickened.  There  were  times  when  old  doubts  stole  over 
his  mind:  "It  is  a  fearful  thing,"  he  repeated,  "to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  ilic-  living  God."  Such  fears  did  not  retain  their  hold  on 
Ins  brave  si)iril  for  long:  "  T  am  a  conqueror,"  he  cried,  "  and  more 
tlian  :\  con(|ucM-or,  tlirough  Christ  that  strengtheneth  me."  On 
.\n.L;n-;t  30  a  mighty  storm  passed  over  England.  The  devil,  said 
the  (  avalicr.s,  was  fetchnig  home  the  soul  of  the  usurper.  Oliver's 
own  sonl  f^nn.]  utterance  in  one  last  prayer  of  faith:  "Lord,"  he 
innrnmred,  "  tliough  I  am  a  miserable  and  wretched  creature,  I  am 
in  rovenant   with   '1  iirc  ihrougli  grace;  an"   I   may,   I   will  come  to 


THE     COMMONWEALTH  373 

1658-1659 

Thee,  for  Thy  people.  Thou  hast  made  me,  though  very  un- 
worthy, a  mean  instrument  to  do  them  some  good,  and  Thee 
service;  and  many  of  them  have  set  too  high  a  value  upon  me, 
though  others  wish,  and  would  be  glad  of,  my  death.  .  .  . 
Pardon  such  as  desire  to  trample  upon  the  dust  of  a  poor  worm, 
for  they  are  Thy  people  too;  and  pardon  the  folly  of  this  short 
prayer,  even  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake,  and  give  us  a  good  night,  if 
it  be  Thy  pleasure.  Amen."  For  three  days  more  Oliver  lingered 
on.  On  September  3,  the  anniversary  of  Dunbar  and  Worcester, 
he  passed  away  to  the  rest  which  he  had  never  known  on  earth. 

On  his  deathbed  Oliver  named,  or  was  said  to  have  named,  his 
eldest  son  Richard  as  his  successor.  The  nation  preferred  Richard 
to  his  father,  because  he  was  not  a  soldier,  and  was  very  little  of  a 
Puritan,  On  January  27.  1659,  a  new  Parliament  met,  chosen  by 
the  old,  unreformed  constituencies,  as  they  had  existed  in  the  time 
of  Charles  I. ;  and  not  by  those  reformed  ones  appointed  by  the 
Instrument  of  Government,  though  Royalists  were  still  excluded 
both  from  voting  at  the  elections  and  from  sitting  in  Parliament. 
In  this  Parliament  a  majority  supported  Richard,  lioping  that  he 
would  consult  the  wishes  of  the  army  less  than  his  father  had  done. 
For  that  very  reason  the  officers  of  the  army  turned  against  him, 
and  asked  not  only  that  Fleetwood,  Oliver's  son-in-law.  should  be 
their  commander,  but  that  he  should  be  entirely  independent  of  the 
authority  of  the  Protector.  Richard  nominated  Fleetwood,  l3Ut 
insisted  upon  his  acting  under  the  Protector  as  his  lieutenant- 
g^eneral.  Parliament  upheld  the  control  of  the  civil  power  over 
the  army.  On  April  22  the  soldiers  forced  Richard  to  dissolve 
Parliament.  On  May  25  Richard  abdicated  and  the  Protectorate 
came  to  an  end. 

Already  on  May  7,  at  the  invitation  of  the  soldiers,  forty-two 
members  of  the  so-called  Rump — the  portion  of  the  Pong  Par- 
liament which  had  continued  sitting  till  it  was  ejected  by  Cromwell 
in  1653 — had  installed  themselves  at  Westminster.  No  heredi- 
tary king  was  ever  more  tenacious  of  his  rights  than  they.  They 
told  the  officers  "that  the  Parliament  expected  faithfulness  and 
obedience  to  the  Parliament  and  Commonwealth.''  and,  declaring 
all  Oliver's  acts  to  have  been  illegal,  resolved  that  all  wlio  had 
collected  taxes  for  him  must  repav  the  money.  Tlie  otTicers, 
many  of  whom  had,  as  major-generals,  gathered  taxes  by  au- 
thority from  Oliver,  were  naturally  indignant.     Before  anything 


374  ENGLAND 

1659-1660 

could  be  done,  news  arrived  that  Sir  George  Booth  had  risen  in 
Cheshire  for  Charles  II.  Lambert  marched  against  him,  and  de- 
feated him  at  Winnington  Bridge.  When  he  returned,  the 
officers  made  high  demands  of  Parhament,  and,  when  these  were 
rejected,  they  sent  troops,  on  October  13,  to  keep  the  members 
out  of  the  House. 

The  soldiers  had  come  to  despise  civiHans  merely  because  they 
were  civihans.  They  tried  to  govern  directly,  without  any  civilian 
authority  whatever.  The  attempt  proved  an  utter  failure.  It  was 
discovered  that  taxes  were  paid  less  readily  than  when  there  had 
been  a  civilian  Government  to  exact  them.  The  soldiers  quarreled 
amongst  themselves,  and  the  officers,  finding  themselves  helpless, 
restored  the  Rump  a  second  time.  On  December  26  it  resumed  its 
sittings  at  Westminster, 

George  Monk,  who  commanded  the  forces  in  Scotland,  had 
little  inclination  to  meddle  with  politics ;  but  he  was  a  thorough 
soldier,  and  being  a  cool,  resolute  man,  was  determined  to  bear 
this  anarchy  no  longer.  On  January  i,  1660,  he  crossed  the 
Border  with  his  army,  and  on  January  11  was  joined  by  Fairfax 
at  York,  who  brought  with  him  all  the  w^eight  of  his  unstained 
name  and  his  high  military  reputation.  On  February  3  Monk  en- 
tered Ix)ndon,  evidently  wishing  to  feel  his  way.  On  February  6  the 
City  of  London,  which  had  no  members  sitting  in  the  Rump,  de- 
clared that  it  would  pay  no  taxes  without  representation.  Monk 
was  ordered  by  the  Rump  to  suppress  the  resistance  of  the  City. 
On  the  loth  he  reached  Guildhall.  Keeping  his  ears  open,  he  soon 
convinced  himself  that  the  Rump  was  detested  by  all  parties,  and, 
on  themorning  of  the  i6th,  declared  for  a  free  Parliament. 

It  \\as  easy  to  coerce  the  Rump,  without  the  appearance  of 
using  violence.  On  February  26  under  the  pressure  from  Monk 
it  called  in  the  Presbyterian  members  shut  out  by  Pride's  Purge. 
After  they  had  taken  their  seats,  a  dissolution,  to  be  followed 
by  new  elections,  was  voted.  At  last,  on  T^Iarch  16,  the  Long 
Parliament  came,  by  its  own  act,  to  its  unhonored  end.  The 
destinies  of  England  were  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  new 
Parliament,  which  was  to  be  freely  elected.  The  Restoration 
was  a  foregone  conclusion.  The  predominant  wish  of  Englishmen 
was  tr,  escape  from  llic  rule  of  soldiers,  and,  as  every  recent  form 
"t  <-ivil  g..vcrniiient  bad  Ix-cn  discredited,  it  was  natin-al  to  turn 
back  to  tha:    which   had   ilcjurished   for  centuries,  and  which  had 


1660 


THE     COMMONWEALTH  875 


fallen  rather  through  the  personal  demerits  of  the  last  king  than 
through  any  inherent  vices  of  the  system. 

On  April  4  Charles  signed  a  declaration  known  as  the 
Declaration  of  Breda.  He  offered  a  general  pardon  to  all  except 
those  especially  exempted  by  Parliament,  and  promised  to  secure 
confiscated  estates  to  their  new  owners  in  whatever  way  Parliament 
should  approve.  He  also  offered  to  consent  to  a  bill  for  satisfying 
the  arrears  of  the  soldiers,  and  to  another  bill  for  the  establish- 
ment of  "  a  liberty  for  tender  consciences."  By  the  Declaration 
of  Breda  Charles  had  carefully  thrown  upon  Parliament  the  bur- 
den of  proposing  the  actual  terms  on  which  the  settlement  was 
to  be  effected,  and  at  the  same  time  had  shaken  himself  free 
from  his  father's  policy  of  claiming  to  act  independently  of 
Parliament. 

The  new  Parliament,  composed  of  the  two  Houses  of  Lords 
and  Commons,  was  known  as  the  Convention  Parliament,  because, 
though  conforming  in  every  other  respect  to  the  old  rules  of  the 
Constitution,  the  House  of  Commons  was  chosen  without  the 
king's  writs.  It  met  on  April  25.  The  Declaration  of  Breda 
reached  it  on  May  i.  After  unanimously  welcoming  the  Declara- 
tion, Parliament  resolved  that  "  according  to  the  ancient  and  funda- 
mental laws  of  this  kingdom,  the  Government  is,  and  ought  to  be, 
by  Kings,  Lords,  and  Commons." 

The  Puritan  Revolution  had  come  to  an  end.  It  was  an  error 
to  declare  that  twenty  years  of  revolution  had  passed  over  England 
in  vain  and  to  believe  that  the  ancient  order  of  things  could  be 
reestablished  unchanged.  That  mistake  was  soon  to  render  neces- 
sary a  second  revolution.  Moreover  the  despotism  of  the  Tudors 
was  not  according  to  the  ancient  order  of  things,  for  the  oldest 
thing  in  England  was  public  liberty.  This  had  not  been  killed, 
but  only  put  to  sleep  by  the  fatigue  of  thirty  years'  warfare  during 
the  struggle  of  the  Roses.  Then  had  come  the  Reformation  which 
had  engrossed  all  minds,  and  the  war  with  Philip  II.,  when  the  very 
existence  of  England  had  been  at  stake.  Confrcjntcd  by  such  perils, 
the  country  had  allowed  the  authority  of  its  kings  to  increase.  But 
now  that  the  glory  and  power  of  Spain  were  passing  away  and 
France  was  no  longer  threatening,  and  religious  questions  were 
definitely  settled,  England  wished  to  enter  again  into  the  inher- 
itance of  her  youth  and  to  wander  once  more  along  the  peace-giving 
paths  of  freedom. 


376  ENGLAND 

*^ ' "  1660 

Charles  II.  seemed  at  first  to  understand  this  state  of  the  popu- 
lar mind.  He  remained  faithful  to  Anglican  Protestantism  and 
permitted  Parliament  to  enjoy  its  ancient  prerogatives.  But  frivo- 
lous and  debauched,  he  soon  found  himself  forced  through  need  of 
money  to  make  himself  dependent  on  the  Commons  for  the  sake  of 
receiving  subsidies,  or  upon  some  foreign  power  for  the  purpose  of 
obtaining  therefrom  a  pension.  He  quickly  made  his  choice,  and  a 
.grievous  choice  it  proved.  He  sold  himself  to  Louis  XIV.  of 
France.  His  successor,  James  II.,  completed  the  solution  of  the 
problem  and  found  the  answer  to  be  exile  for  himself,  and  a  new 
lease  of  life  for  England. 


PART  VII 

THE  POLITICAL  REVOLUTION 
1660—1689 


Chapter    XXXVII 

CHARLES    II    AND    CLARENDON.     1660-1667 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  Charles  II.,  A.D.  1660-1685 — Charles  II.  Lands  at  Dover, 
May  25,  1660 — Dissolution  of  the  Convention  Parliament,  Dec.  29, 
1660 — Meeting  of  the  Cavalier  Parliament,  May  8,  1661 — Corpora- 
tion Act,  1661 — Act  of  Uniformity,  1662 — Expulsion  of  the  Dis- 
senting Ministers,  Aug.  24, 1662 — The  King  Declares  for  Toleration, 
Dec.  26,  1662 — Repeal  of  the  Triennial  Act,  1664 — Conventicle 
Act,  1664 — First  Dutch  War  of  the  Restoration,  1665 — The  Plague, 
1665 — Five  Mile  Act,  1665 — Fire  of  London,  1666 — Peace  of  Breda, 
July  31,  1667 — Clarendon's  Fall,  1667 

ON  May  25,  1660,  Charles  II.  landed  at  Dover,  amid  shout- 
I  ing  crowds.  On  his  thirtieth  birthday,  ]\Iay  29,  he  entered 
London,  amid  greater  and  equally  enthusiastic  crowds.  At 
Blackheath  was  drawn  up  the  army  which  had  once  been  com- 
manded by  Cromwell.  ]\Iore  than  anything  else,  the  popular  ab- 
horrence of  military  rule  had  brought  Charles  home,  while  the  army 
itself,  divided  in  opinion,  and  falling  under  the  control  of  Monk, 
was  powerless  to  keep  him  away.  When  the  king  reached  Whitehall 
he  confirmed  Magna  Carta,  the  Petition  of  Right,  and  other  statutes 
by  wdiich  the  royal  power  had  at  various  times  been  limited. 

Something  more  than  Acts  of  Parliament  was  needed  to  limit 
the  power  of  the  king.  It  had  been  found  useless  to  bind  Charles 
I.  by  Acts  of  Parliament,  because  he  tried  again  and  again  to 
introduce  foreign  armies  into  England  to  set  Parliament  at  naught. 
Charles  II.  was,  indeed,  a  man  of  far  greater  ability  than  his  father, 
and  was  quite  as  readv  as  his  father  to  use  foreign  help  to  get  his 
way  at  home.  In  the  first  year  after  his  return  he  tried  to  get 
money  both  from  the  Dutch  and  from  the  Spaniards  in  order  to 
make  himself  independent  of  Parliament,  but  his  character  was  very 
different  from  his  father's,  in  so  far  as  he  always  knew — what 
Charles  T.  never  knew — how  much  he  ccnild  do  with  impunity. 
Having  none  of  his  father's  setise  of  dutv.  he  was  always  inclined 
to  give  way  whenever  he  found  if  unpleasant  to  resist.  He  is 
reported  to  have  said  that  he  was  determined  that,  w'hatever  else 

379 


380  ENGLAND 

1660 

happened,  he  would  not  go  on  his  travels  again,  and  he  was 
perfectly  aware  that  if  a  single  foreign  regiment  were  brought  by 
him  into  England,  he  would  soon  find  himself  again  a  wanderer  on 
the  Continent.  The  people  wished  to  be  governed  by  the  king,  but 
also  that  the  king  should  govern  by  the  advice  of  Parliament.  The 
restoration  was  a  restoration  of  Parliament  even  more  than  a 
restoration  of  the  king. 

The  Privy  Council  of  Charles  II.  was,  at  the  advice  of  Monk, 
composed  of  Cavaliers  and  Presbyterians.  It  was,  however,  too 
numerous  to  direct  the  course  of  government,  and  Charles  adopted 
his  father's  habit  of  consulting,  on  important  matters,  a  few  special 
ministers,  who  were  usually  known  as  the  Junto.  The  supreme 
direction  of  affairs  fell  to  Hyde,  the  Lord  Chancellor.  Charles  was 
too  indolent  and  too  fond  of  pleasure  to  control  the  government 
himself,  and  was  easily  guided  by  Hyde,  who  was  thoroughly 
loyal  to  him,  and  an  excellent  man  of  business.  Hyde  stood  to  the 
king's  other  advisers  very  much  in  the  position  of  a  modern  Prime 
Minister,  but  he  carefully  avoided  introducing  the  name.  In 
religion  and  politics  he  was  still  what  he  had  been  in  1641,  a  warm 
supporter  of  episcopacy  and  the  Prayer  Book.  In  politics  he  was  the 
same  as  the  Convention  Parliament,  and  this  made  his  position 
stronger.  The  Cavaliers  in  it  naturally  accepted  the  legislation 
of  the  Long  Parliament,  up  to  August,  1641,  when  Charles  I.  left 
for  Scotland,  as  their  own  party  had  concurred  in  it.  The  Presby- 
terians, on  the  other  hand,  who  now  represented  the  party  which 
had  formerly  been  led  by  Pym  and  Hampden,  saw  no  reason 
to  distrust  Charles  II.  as  they  had  distrusted  his  father,  and 
were,  therefore,  ready  to  abandon  the  demand  for  further  restric- 
tions on  the  royal  power,  on  which  tliey  had  vehemently  insisted 
in  t!ic  latter  part  of  1647  and  in  Ih.c  earlier  part  of  1642. 
In  constitutional  matters,  therefore,  Cavaliers  and  Presbyterians 
were  fn.<c'l  into  o;ic.  on  the  basis  of  taking  up  the  relations  between 
the  C"r'!\vn  and  Pnvhamcnt  as  they  stood  in  August,  1641.  This  view 
of  tlic  sitintiMii  was  favored  by  the  lawyers,  one  of  whom.  Sir 
Orlando  Pirulgnian,  jjointed  out  that,  though,  the  king  was  not 
rospi  :n-iliK',  ii;^  niini-trrs  were:  and  fur  the  time  everyone  seemed 
to  l;c  sruislicd  v.iJi  I'lis  way  of  kee]Mng  up  the  indispensable  under- 
standing hctwrcMi  king  and  i\-ir]iament.  What  would  happen  if  a 
king  ;■;!■-('  \\]\i'.  iil:('  C'liarlos  [.,  deliberately  set  himself  against 
Parliament,  no  ont  cared  to  inquire. 


CHARLESII  ggl 

1660 

Of  the  four  articles  of  the  Declaration  of  Breda,  three  were 
concerned  with  politics,  and  these  were  adopted  by  Parliament,  with 
such  modifications  as  it  pleased  to  make.  The  estates  of  the  king 
and  of  the  bishops  and  chapters  were  taken  out  of  the  hands  of 
those  who  had  acquired  them.  An  Act  of  Indemnity  was  passed, 
in  which,  however,  there  were  many  exceptions,  and,  in  the  end, 
thirteen  regicides,  together  with  Vane,  were  executed,  and  the 
bodies  of  Cromwell,  Ireton,  and  Bradshaw  dug  up  and  hanged. 
Many  regicides  and  others  were  punished  with  imprisonment  and 
loss  of  goods,  while  others,  again,  who  escaped,  remained  exiles 
till  their  death.  Money  was  raised  in  order  that  the  army  might 
be  paid  as  had  been  promised,  after  which  it  was  disbanded. 
Feudal  dues  and  purveyance  were  abolished,  and  an  excise  voted 
to  Charles  in  their  place.  The  whole  revenue  of  the  Crown  was 
fixed  at  1,200,000/. 

On  ecclesiastical  matters  the  two  parties  were  less  harmonious. 
The  Cavaliers  wanted  to  restore  episcopacy  and  the  Prayer  Book. 
The  Presbyterians  were  ready  to  go  back  in  religion,  as  in  politics, 
to  the  ideas  of  August,  1641,  and  to  establish  a  modified  episcopacy, 
in  which  bishops  would  be  surrounded  with  clerical  councihjrs, 
whose  advice  they  would  be  bound  to  take.  To  this  scheme  Charles 
gave  his  approval,  and  it  is  probable  that  if  nothing  else  had  been 
in  question  Parliament  would  have  accepted  it.  Charles,  however, 
had  an  object  of  his  own.  His  life  v^'as  dissolute,  and,  being 
without  any  religious  convictions,  he  cherished,  like  some  other 
dissolute  men  of  that  time,  a  secret  attachment  to  the  Church  of 
Rome.  In  order  to  do  that  Church  a  good  turn,  he  now  asked  for 
a  toleration  in  which  all  religions  should  be  included.  Tlie  proposal 
to  include  Roman  Catholics  in  the  proposed  toleration  wrecked  the 
chances  of  modified  episcopacy.  Cavaliers  and  Presbyterians  were 
so  much  afraid  of  the  Roman  Catholics  that  when  a  bill  for  giving 
effect  to  the  scheme  for  uniting  episcopacy  and  presbyterianism 
was  brought  into  Parliament,  it  was  rejected  through  fear  lest  it 
should  be  a  prelude  to  some  other  tolerationist  measure  favoring 
the  Roman  Catholics.  On  December  29.  1660,  the  Convention 
Parliament  was  dissolved. 

No  one  in  the  Convention  Parliament  had  had  any  sympathy 
with  the  Independents,  and  still  less  with  the  more  fanatical  sects 
which  had  received  toleration  when  the  Independents  were  in  power. 
The  one  thing  which  the  people  of  England  as  a  body  specially  de- 


382  ENGLAND 

1661-1662 

tested  was  the  rule  of  the  Cromwellian  army,  and  the  two  parties 
therefore  combined  to  persecute  the  Independents  by  whom  that 
army  had  been  supported.  A  rising  in  1661  which  was  easily  put 
down  gave  an  excuse  to  Charles — who  was  just  then  paying  off  the 
army — to  retain  two  regiments,  one  of  horse  and  one  of  foot,  besides 
a  third,  which  was  in  garrison  at  Dunkirk.  There  was  thus  formed 
the  nucleus  of  an  army  the  numbers  of  which,  before  long, 
amounted  to  5,000.  To  have  an  armed  force  at  all  was  likely  to 
bring  suspicion  upon  Charles,  especially  as  his  revenue  did  not 
suffice  for  the  payment  of  5,000  men  without  having  recourse  to 
means  which  would  cause  ill-feeling  between  himself  and  Parlia- 
ment. 

On  May  8,  1661,  a  new  Parliament,  sometimes  known  as  the 
Cavalier  Parliament,  met.  In  times  of  excitement  nations  are  apt 
to  show  favor  to  the  party  which  has  a  clear  and  decided  opinion ; 
and,  on  this  occasion,  nine-tenths  of  the  new  members  were 
Cavaliers.  The  new  Parliament  voted  that  neither  House  could 
pretend  to  the  command  of  the  militia,  nor  could  lawfully  make 
war  upon  the  king.  Before  the  end  of  1661  it  passed  the  Corpora- 
tion Act,  which  was  aimed  at  the  Presbyterians  as  well  as  at  the 
Independents.  All  who  held  office  in  municipal  corporations 
were  to  renounce  the  Covenant,  and  to  take  an  oath  of  non-resist- 
ance, declaring  it  to  be  unlawful  to  bear  arms  against  the  king;  and 
no  one  in  future  was  to  hold  municipal  office  who  had  not  received 
the  Sacrament  according  to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  England. 
In  many  towns  the  corporations  elected  the  members  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  hence,  by  excluding  nonconformists  from 
corporations  in  towns.  Parliament  indirectly  excluded  them  from 
many  seats  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

After  the  dissolution  of  the  Convention  Parliament,  the  old 
number  of  bishops  was  filled  up,  and,  in  April,  1661,  a  conference 
between  some  bishops  and  some  Presbyterian  clergy  was  held  at 
the  Savoy  Palace,  and  has  tlicrefore  been  known  as  the  Savoy 
Conference.  The  two  parties  differed  too  much  to  come  to  terms, 
and  the  whole  question  of  the  settlement  of  the  Church  was  left 
to  the  Cavalier  Parliament.  In  1662  Parliament  decided  it  by  pass- 
ing the  Act  of  Tniformity.  Every  clergyman  and  every  school- 
master refusing  to  express,  by  August  24.  lijs  unfeigned  consent  to 
everything  contained  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  to  be 
prcchided  from  holding  a  benefice.     On  August  24  (St.  Bartholo- 


CHARLESII  383 

1662 

mew's  day),  about  2,000  clergy  resigned  their  cures  for  conscience' 
sake,  as  their  opponents  had,  in  the  time  of  Puritan  domination, 
been  driven  from  their  cures,  rather  than  take  the  Covenant. 

The  expulsion  of  the  dissenting  clergy,  as  they  were  now 
called,  made  a  great  change  in  the  history  of  English  Christianity. 
The  early  Puritans  wished,  not  to  separate  from  the  national 
Church,  but  to  mold  the  national  Church  after  their  own  fashion. 
The  Independents  set  the  example  of  separating  from  the  national 
Church,  in  order  to  form  communities  outside  it.  The  Presby- 
terian clergy  who  kept  up  the  tradition  of  the  early  Puritans  were 
now  driven  out  of  the  national  Church,  and  were  placed  in  very 
much  the  same  position  as  the  Independents,  Hence,  these  two 
bodies,  together  with  the  Baptists  and  the  Society  of  Friends — 
popularly  known  as  Quakers — and  other  sects  which  had  recently 
arisen,  began  to  be  known  by  the  common  name  of  Dissenters. 
The  aim  of  those  who  had  directed  the  meeting  of  the  Savoy 
Conference  had  been  to  bring  about  comprehension,  that  is  to 
say,  the  continuance  within  the  Church  of  those  who,  after  its 
close,  became  Dissenters.  Their  failure  had  resulted  from  tlie 
impossibility  of  finding  any  formularies  which  could  satisfy  both 
parties;  and  in  consequence  of  this  failure  the  Dissenters  now 
abandoned  all  thought  of  comprehension,  and  contented  tliemsehes 
with  asking  for  toleration,  that  is  to  say.  for  permission  to  worship 
apart  from  the  Church,  in  their  own  assemblies. 

The  Presbyterian  clergy  were  followed  by  most  of  their 
supporters  among  tlie  tradesmen  and  merchants  of  the  towns. 
They  were  not  followed  by  the  Presl)vlerians  annmg  the  gentry. 
The  party  in  Parliament  which  had  hitherto  styled  itself  Presby- 
terian had  originally  become  so  mainly  tlirough  dislike  of  the  power 
of  the  bishops.  They  now  consented  to  accept  the  Prayer  Book, 
when  they  found  that  the  regulation  of  tlic  Cburcli  was  to  depend 
on  Acts  of  Parliament  and  not  either  on  tlie  bishops  or  the  king. 
The  few  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  wlio  had  hitherto 
been  known  as  Presbyterians  formed  tlie  nucleus  of  a  party  of 
toleration,  asking  for  a  modification  of  the  law  against  Dissenters, 
though  refusing  to  become  Dissenters  themselves. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  members  of  the  Cavalier  party  had, 
in  1641,  become  Royalists  because  tlicy  desired  the  retention  of  the 
doctrine  and  discipline  of  tlie  Churcli  of  luigland.  and.  in  1662, 
the  Cavaliers  were  supporters  of  the  Churcli  even  more  than  they 


384  E  N  G  L  A  N  D 

1662-1663 

were  Royalists.  As  soon  as  Charles  expressed  his  aproval  of  the 
Act  of  Uniformity,  and  not  before,  the  House  of  Commons  voted 
him  a  chimney  tax  of  two  shillings  on  every  chimney.  If  Charles 
had  been  an  economical  man.  instead  of  an  extravagant  one,  he 
might  possibly  have  contrived  to  live  within  his  income.  He  was, 
however,  beyond  measure  extravagant.  The  reaction  against 
Puritanism  was  not  political  only.  There  were  plenty  of  sober  men 
among  the  English  gentry,  but  there  were  also  many  who  had 
been  so  galled  by  the  restrictions  of  Puritanism  that  they  had 
thrown  off  all  moral  restraint.  Riot  and  debauchery  became  the 
fashion,  and  in  this  bad  fashion  Charles's  court  led  the  way. 

In  1662  Charles  married  Catharine  of  Braganza.  a  Portuguese 
Princess,  He  professed  his  intention  of  leading  a  new  life,  but 
he  was  weak  as  water,  and  he  soon  returned  to  his  evil  courses. 
Politically  alone  was  the  marriage  of  importance.  Catharine 
brought  with  her  the  possessions  of  Tangier,  and  of  Bombay,  the 
first  spot  on  the  soil  of  India  acquired  by  the  English  Crown,  It 
was  also  a  seal  of  friendship  between  Charles  and  Louis  XIV,  of 
France,  who  had  favored  Portugal  as  against  Spain.  Charles's 
marriage  was,  therefore,  a  declaration  in  favor  of  France.  In 
November,  1662,  after  Parliament  had  dispersed  for  a  vacation, 
Charles  further  showed  his  attachment  to  France,  by  selling 
Dunkirk  to  Louis  for  200.000/.  He  thus  saved  an  annual  cost  of 
120,000/.,  which  he  would  be  able,  if  he  pleased,  to  spend  on  an 
army.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  possession  of  Dunkirk  was 
of  any  real  use,  but  there  was  a  howl  of  indignation,  in  consequence 
of  its  loss,  especially  directed  against  Hyde,  who  had  been  created 
Earl  of  Clarendon  in  1661,  it  being  falsely  supposed  that  Clarendon 
recei\"ed  briljcs  from  Louis. 

Before  Parliament  met.  Cliarles,  nn  December  26.  1662,  issued 
a  declaration  in  favor  of  tolcratit^n.  He  asked  Parliament  to  pass 
an  act  enabling  him  to  mitigate  tlie  rigor  of  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity by  exercisii]g  that  dis])ens!ng  power  "  which  he  conceived 
to  be  inherent  in  him."  Again  aiid  again,  in  former  reigns,  tlie  king 
had  dispensed  from  the  penalties  imposed  bv  various  laws,  though 
there  had  been  times  when  Parliament  had  remonstrated  in  cases 
where  those  |)C!iahies  were  imp-iscd  t.  ^  ■'•entrain  the  Roman  Catholic 
religion.  When  Parliament  met  again  in  1663.  the  Cavaliers 
rejected  the  king's  proixisal.  They  wmikl  liear  nothing  of  toler- 
ation for  Dissenters,  and  still  less  of  toleration  for  ''  Papists."     The 


CHARLESII  385 

1664 

fear  of  a  restoration  of  "  Popery  "  was  the  strong-est  motive  of 
Englishmen  of  that  day,  and  Charles,  who,  unlike  his  father, 
always  recoiled  from  strong  opposition,  even  consented  to  banish 
all  Roman  Catholic  priests.  Yet  it  was  in  their  interest  and  not 
in  that  of  the  Dissenters  that  he  had  issued  his  declaration.  This 
affair  sowed  the  first  seeds  of  ill-will  between  Charles  and  Claren- 
don, as  the  latter  had  warmly  supported  the  opposition  to  the 
Declaration. 

Parliament  was  roused  to  proceed  still  further  in  its  course  of 
intolerance.  The  Act  of  Uniformity  had  turned  the  Dissenting 
clergy  out  of  the  Church,  but  had  not  prevented  them  from  holding 
meetings  for  worship.  In  May,  1664,  a  Conventicle  Act  was  passed 
by  which  any  adult  attending  a  conventicle  was  made  liable  to  an 
ascending  scale  of  penalties,  ending  in  seven  years'  transportation, 
according  to  the  number  of  times  that  the  offense  had  been  com- 
mitted. A  conventicle  was  defined  as  being  a  religious  meeting 
not  in  accordance  with  the  practice  of  the  Church  of  England,  at 
which  more  than  four  persons  were  present  in  addition  to  the 
household.  The  sentence  of  transportation  was,  indeed,  a  terrible 
one,  as  it  implied  working  like  a  slave,  generally  under  the  burning 
sun  in  Barbadoes  or  some  West  India  colon)-.  It  was  fear  which 
produced  the  eagerness  of  English  gentlemen  to  persecute  Dis- 
senters. They  remembered  how  they  had  themselves  been  kept 
under  by  Cromwell's  Puritan  army,  and,  knowing  that  most  of 
Cromwell's  soldiers  were  still  in  the  prime  of  life,  they  feared 
lest,  if  the  Dissenters  were  allowed  to  gatlier  head,  they  might 
become  strong  enough  to  call  again  to  arms  that  ever-victorious 
army. 

In  the  spring  of  1664.  before  the  passing  of  the  Conventicle 
Act,  the  Cavalier  Parliament  had  been  alarmed  lest  it  should  be 
thought  that  it  ought  to  be  dissolved  in  the  following  May,  because 
it  would  then  have  sat  three  years,  in  compliance  with  tlie  Triennial 
Act.  In  reality  there  was  nothing  in  the  Triennial  Act  or  in  any 
other  Act  which  rendered  Parliament  liable  to  dissolution,  as  long 
as  the  king  lived,  unless  he  chose  to  dissolve  it;  but  Charles  t(3ok 
the  opportunity  to  ask  Parliament  to  repeal  it,  v.-hich  was  promjitly 
(lone,  thougli  in  the  Act  of  Repeal  was  included  a  clause  to  tlie 
effect  that  there  should,  in  future,  be  no  intermission  of  Parliaments 
for  more  than  tlnxe  years. 

It  was  not  fear,  but  commercial  rivalrv.  which  made  England 


386  ENGLAND 

1664-1665 

hate  the  Dutch.  In  1660  the  Convention  Parliament  had  reenacted 
the  Navigation  Act.  Legislation  alone,  however,  could  not  prevent 
the  Dutch  from  driving  the  English  out  of  the  markets  of  the 
world,  either  by  superior  trading  capacity,  or  by  forcibly  excluding 
them  from  ports  in  which  Dutch  influence  was  supreme.  Besides 
this,  the  Dutch  refused  to  surrender  Pularoon,  a  valuable  spice- 
bearing  island  in  the  East  Indies,  though  they  had  engaged  to  do 
so  by  treaty.  If  there  was  anything  about  which  Charles  11.  was  in 
earnest  it  was  in  the  spread  of  English  colonies  and  commerce. 
He  had  also  private  reasons  for  bearing  ill-will  against  the  Dutch, 
who  by  abolishing  the  office  of  Stadtholder  in  1650  had  deprived 
the  young  William  of  Orange,  the  son  of  Charles's  sister  Mary, 
of  any  post  in  the  Republic. 

In  1664  hostilities  broke  out  between  England  and  the  Dutch 
Republic,  without  any  declaration  of  war.  English  fleets  captured 
Dutch  vessels  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  seized  islands  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  took  possesion  of  the  Dutch  settlement  in  America 
called  by  its  founders  New  i\msterdam,  but  re-named  by  the 
English  New  York,  after  the  king's  only  surviving  brother,  the 
Duke  of  York,  who  was  Lord  High  Admiral.  Later  in  the  year, 
De  Ruyter,  one  of  the  best  of  the  Dutch  admirals,  retaliated  by 
seizing  most  of  the  English  forts  on  the  coast  of  Guinea,  and  in 
1665  war  was  openly  declared.  Parliament  made  what  was  then 
the  enormous  grant  of  2,500,000/.,  and  on  June  3  a  battle  was 
fought  off  Lowestoft  in  which  the  English  were  completely 
victorous. 

The  rejoicing  in  England  was  marred  by  a  terrible  calamity. 
For  more  than  lialf  a  century  the  Plague  had  appeared  in  England, 
at  intervals  of  five  years.  It  now  broke  out  with  unusual  virulence, 
especially  in  London.  The  streets  there  were  narrow  and  dirty, 
and  the  air  was  close,  because  tiic  upper  stories  of  the  houses 
overhung  the  lower  ones.  No  medical  aid  appeared  to  avail  any- 
thing against  the  Plague.  On  the  door  (jf  every  house  in  which  it 
appeared  was  painted  a  red  cross  with  the  words,  *'  The  Lord  have 
mercy  upon  us."  r.\-eryone  rich  cnouLjii  fled  into  the  country  and 
spread  the  infection.  "  How  fearful,"  wrote  a  contemporary, 
"people  were,  thirty  or  forty,  if  not  a  hundred  miles  from  London, 
of  anything  that  they  brought  from  any  mercer's  or  draper's  shop; 
or  of  any  goods  that  were  brought  to  ihcni :  or  of  any  persons  that 
came  to  their  houses  I     How  ihcy  would  shut  their  doors  against 


CHARLES     II  387 

1665-1666 

their  friends;  and  if  a  man  passed  over  the  fields,  how  one  would 
avoid  another !  "  The  dead  were  too  numerous  to  be  buried  in  the 
usual  way,  and  carts  went  their  rounds  at  night,  accompanied  by  a 
man  ringing  a  bell  and  calling  out,  "  Bring  out  your  dead."  The 
corpses  were  flung  into  a  huge  pit  without  coffins,  there  being  no 
time  to  provide  them  for  so  many.  It  was  not  till  winter  came  that 
the  sickness  died  away. 

In  October  Parliament  met  at  Oxford,  through  fear  of  the 
Plague.  It  offered  the  king  1,250,000/.  for  the  war  if  he  would 
consent  to  fresh  persecution  of  the  Dissenters.  He  took  the  money, 
and  gave  his  assent  to  the  Five  Mile  Act.  The  Conventicle  Act 
had  been  largely  evaded,  and,  during  the  Plague,  Dissenting 
ministers  had  preached  in  pulpits  from  which  the  clergy  had  fled 
through  fear  of  infection.  The  Five  Mile  Act  was  to  strike  at  the 
ministers  ejected  on  St.  Bartholomew's  day.  Xot  one  of  them  was 
allowed  to  come  within  five  miles  of  a  borough  town,  or  of  any 
place  in  which  he  had  once  held  a  cure,  and  was  therefore  likely  to 
find  a  congregation,  unless  he  would  take  the  oath  of  non- 
resistance,  and  swear  that  he  would  never  endeavor  to  alter  the 
government  in  Church  or  state,  a  condition  to  which  few,  if  any, 
of  the  Dissenters  were  willing  to  submit. 

In  the  autumn  of  1665  the  ravages  of  the  Plague  kept  the 
English  fleet  in  the  Thames,  and  the  Dutch  held  the  sea.  On  land 
they  were  exposed  to  some  peril  and  called  upon  the  king  of 
France,  Louis  XIV.,  for  help,  and  he,  being  bound  by  treaty  to 
assist  them,  declared  war  against  England  in  January,  1666.  If  he 
had  given  earnest  support  to  the  Dutch  the  consequences  would 
have  been  serious  for  England,  but  though  he  and  other  conti- 
nental allies  of  the  Dutch  frightened  off  the  enemies  of  the 
Republic,  Louis  had  no  wish  to  help  in  the  destruction  of  the 
English  navy.  What  he  wanted  was  to  see  the  Dutch  and  English 
fleets  destroy  one  another  in  order  that  his  own  might  be  mistress 
of  the  sea.  Through  the  first  four  days  of  June  a  desperate  naval 
battle  was  fought  between  the  English  and  the  Dutch,  off  th.e  North 
Foreland,  at  the  end  of  which  the  h^ngiish  fleet,  under  Albermarle 
and  Rupert,  was  driven  to  take  shelter  in  the  Thames,  while  the 
Dutch  had  been  so  crippled  as  to  be  forced  to  put  back  to  refit. 
On  July  25  and  26  there  was  another  battle  off  the  mouth  of  the 
Thames.  This  time  the  Dutch  liad  the  worst,  and  in  August  the 
English  fleet  sailed  along  the  islands  at  the  entrance  of  the  Zuyder 


ENGLAND 

1666-1667 

Zee,  destroying  i6o  merchant  ships  and  burning  a  town.  The 
struggle  had  been  a  terrible  one.  The  sailors  of  both  nations  were 
equally  brave,  and  equally  at  home  in  a  sea-fight,  but  the  English 
ships  were  better  built  and  the  English  guns  w-ere  better,  while 
the  Dutch  commanders  did  not  work  well  together  in  consequence 
of  personal  and  political  jealousies. 

In  September,  1666,  London  suffered  a  calamity  only  second 
to  that  of  the  Plague.  A  fire  broke  out,  and  burned  for  three  days. 
All  the  City  from  the  Tower  to  the  Temple,  and  from  Thames  to 
Smithfield,  was  absolutely  destroyed.  Old  St.  Paul's,  the  longest 
cathedral  in  England,  perished  in  the  flames.  Great  as  the  suffer- 
ing caused  by  the  fire  was.  it  was  not  without  its  benefits,  as  the 
old  houses  with  their  overhanging  stories  were  destroyed  by  it, 
and  were  replaced  by  new  ones  built  in  the  modern  fashion,  so  that 
there  was  more  air  in  the  streets.  After  this  reconstruction  of 
London  it  was  never  again  visited  by  the  Plague. 

Soon  after  the  fire  died  down  Parliament  voted  1,800,000/. 
for  continuing  the  war,  but  the  country  was  exhausted,  and  it  was 
known  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  collect  so  large  a  sum.  Both 
king  and  Parliament  were  therefore  anxious  for  peace,  and  there 
were  now  reasons  which  made  the  Dutch  also  ready  to  make  peace. 
Louis  XI\^  had  designs  on  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  and  in 
March,  1667,  he  made  a  secret  treaty  with  Charles  IL  of  England, 
in  which,  on  condition  of  his  engaging  not  to  help  the  Dutch,  he 
was  allowed  to  do  as  he  pleased  in  the  Spanish  Netherlands.  In 
May  he  began  what  is  known  as  the  War  of  Devolution  with 
Spain.  Spain  had  neither  money  nor  means  to  defend  her  territory 
in  the  Netherlands,  and  the  I-'rench  armies  captured  one  place  after 
another. 

The  advance  of  Louis  greatly  alarmed  the  Dutch.  The  mere 
risk  of  this  danger  had,  even  before  the  war  between  France  and 
Spain  began,  inclined  them  to  peace  with  England,  and  a  con- 
ference was  opened  at  Breda  to  consider  the  terms.  All  was 
quickly  agreed  (M1  except  tl-.c  question  about  the  right  of  England  to 
Pularoon,  and  Charles,  imagining  that  this  would  be  settled  in  his 
favor,  dismissed  his  sailors  and  dismantled  his  fleet,  in  order  to 
save  money  to  spend  on  his  own  extravagant  pleasures.  The 
Dutch  fleet  at  once  entered  tlic  1'haines.  sailed  up  the  Medway, 
burned  three  nicn-of-war,  and  carried  ofl'  a  fourth.  For  sf^me  days 
it  blockaded  the  Thames,  S(j  that  the  Londoners  could  get  no  coal. 


CHARLESII  389 

1667 

Men  openly  said  that  such  things  would  not  have  happened  if 
Oliver  had  been  living.  Orders  were  sent  to  the  English  ambassa- 
dors at  Breda  to  give  up  Pularoon,  and  on  July  31  the  Treaty  of 
Breda  was  signed.  It  was  not  wholly  disastrous.  If  England  lost 
her  last  hold  on  the  spice  islands  of  the  East,  she  gained  New  York 
and  all  the  territory  formerly  Dutch  in  the  West,  which  had  broken 
up  the  continuity  of  her  colonies  in  America. 

The  events  of  the  last  months  of  the  war  had  produced  impor- 
tant effects  upon  the  temper  of  Parliament.  Long  before  the 
Dutch  appeared  in  the  Medway,  the  House  of  Commons  had 
demanded  an  inquiry  into  the  expenditure  of  the  money  granted 
to  the  Crown,  suspecting  that  much  of  the  supply  distinctly 
intended  for  purposes  of  war  had  been  diverted  to  pay  for  the 
amusements  of  the  Court.  This  demand,  which  opened  a  new 
chapter  in  the  history  of  the  financial  struggle  between  the  House 
of  Commons  and  the  Crown,  brought  the  Commons  into  collision 
with  Clarendon.  It  had  been  settled  by  the  Long  Parliament  that 
the  king  was  to  levy  no  taxes  without  a  grant  from  Parliament.  The 
Cavalier  Parliament.  Royalist  as  it  was,  was  beginning  to  ask  that 
the  king  should  not  spend  the  proceeds  of  taxes  uithout  the  appro- 
bation of  Parliament.  V\'hen  once  this  had  been  secured,  P^arliament 
would  indubitably  become  supreme.  Against  this  attempt  to  obtain 
the  mastery  Clarendon  struggled.  He  was  a  good  lawyer  and  an 
excellent  man  of  business,  but  lie  was  not  a  statesman  of  genius. 
He  wanted  each  part  of  the  government  to  act  in  harmony  with 
the  others ;  but  he  could  never  understand  the  meaning  of  the  saying 
th.at  if  two  men  ride  on  horseback,  one  must  ride  in  front.  He 
wanted  the  king  and  Parliament  bc^th  to  ride  in  front,  both — that 
is  to  say — to  have  their  own  way  in  certain  directions.  His  notion 
of  a  king  was  that  of  one  prudently  doing  his  best  for  his  people, 
always  ruling  according  to  law,  and  irresponsible  in  everything, 
even  in  the  expenditure  of  mone^^  A  wasteful,  riotous  Charles  II. 
was  a  phenomenon  for  the  contnjl  of  which  his  constitutional 
formulas  were  not  prepared. 

Though  Clarendon  was  unable  to  C(Micur  in  any  diminution  of 
the  power  of  the  Crown,  his  eyes  were  widely  open  to  the  profligacy 
of  Charles's  life.  Again  and  again  he  had  remonstrated  with  him, 
and  had  refused  to  pass  under  the  great  seal  grants  in  favor  of 
Lady  Castlemaine,  to  whom,  among  his  many  mistresses,  Charles 
was  at  this  time  most  completely  sul>jngated.     As  might  have  been 


390  ENGLAND 

1660-1667 

expected,  this  abandoned  woman  irritated  her  paramour  against  his 
upright  Chancellor,  telling  him  that  he  was  no  king  as  long  as  he 
was  ruled  by  Clarendon.  As  Parliament  continued  its  attacks, 
Charles,  on  August  30,  dismissed  Clarendon  from  office.  On 
October  10  the  fallen  minister  was  impeached  by  the  House  of 
Commons,  on  charges  the  greater  part  of  which  were  ridiculously 
untrue.  He  tried  to  rouse  Charles  to  support  him,  reminding  him 
that,  after  Charles  I.  allowed  Strafford  to  die,  the  king's  own  head 
had  fallen  on  the  scaffold.  Charles  H..  an  easy-going  but  clever 
politician,  probably  thought  that  he  could  always  escape  his  father's 
fate  by  refraining  from  imitating  his  father's  stiffness.  He  gave 
Clarendon  a  strong  hint  to  withdraw,  and  on  November  29  the 
minister  who  had  done  more  than  any  other  man  to  establish  the 
restored  monarchy  fled  to  France,  never  to  return  alive. 

At  the  Restoration,  the  close  connection  established  by  Crom- 
well between  England  and  Scotland  was  necessarily  broken  up. 
Scotland  hated  English  control  even  when  it  came  in  the  guise  of 
a  union  of  Parliaments,  and  the  old  relation  of  separate  states 
united  only  by  the  Crown  was  at  once  resumed.  The  main  profit 
of  the  restoration  in  Scotland,  however,  fell  to  the  nobility.  The 
clergy  was  discredited  by  its  divisions,  and  once  more,  as  in  the 
days  of  James  I.,  they  were  muzzled  by  the  restoration  of  epis- 
copacy and  the  assertion  of  the  authority  of  the  Crown.  In  Ireland 
the  main  question  was  how  to  satisfy  alike  the  recent  immigrants 
who  had  received  lands  from  Cromwell  and  the  Irish  proprietors 
who  had  been  deprived  of  their  lands  in  favor  of  the  intruders. 

In  1 661,  at  the  king's  desire,  an  Act  of  Settlement  was  passed, 
but  the  English  settlers  contrived  to  maintain,  by  constitutional 
authority,  much  of  what  they  had  taken  with  the  strong  hand. 
According  to  the  best  evidence  now  procurable,  whereas  before 
1641  about  two-thirds  of  Irish  lands  fit  for  cultivation  had  been 
in  the  hands  of  Catholics,  before  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 
two-thirds  were  in  the  hands  of  Protestants. 


Chapter    XXXVIII 

CHARLES    11.    AND   THE    CABAL.     1667— 1674 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  Charles  II.,  A.D.  1660-1685 — TREA-n-  of  Dover,  June  i, 
1670 — Second  Dutch  War  of  the  Restoratiom,  March  13,  1672 — 
Declaration  of  Indulgence,  March  15,  1672 — Test  Act,  March  29, 
1673 — Dismissal  of  Shaftesbury,  Nov.  9,  1673 — Peace  with  the 
Dutch,  Feb.  19,  1674 

WHILE  Clarendon  and  his  allies  were  fortifying-  the  legal 
position  of  the  Church  of  England,  the  old  Puritanism 
which  they  attempted  to  crush  found  a  voice  in  liter- 
ature. Milton,  who  had  become  blind,  at  last  gave  to  the  world 
"  Paradise  Lost,"  in  1667.  The  poem  was  Puritan,  not  only  because 
its  main  theme  was  the  maintenance  or  destruction  of  the  purity  of  a 
single  human  soul,  but  because  it  based  that  purity  on  oljedience  to 
the  commands  of  the  great  Taskmaster;  while,  in  the  solemn 
cadence  of  its  blank  verse  there  is  something  to  remind  the  reader 
of  the  stern  world  of  duty,  in  the  midst  of  which  the  nol)ler  spirits 
of  the  Commonwealth  and  Protectorate  had  moved.  As  Milton 
was  the  poet  of  Puritanism,  John  liunvan  was  the  prose-poet  of 
Dissent.  He  had  himself  fought  as  a  soldier  on  tlie  side  of  Par- 
liament in  the  Civil  War,  and,  having  become  an  earnest  Baptist 
preacher,  he  continued  to  preach  after  the  Restoration,  and,  boldly 
defying  the  law,  was  requited  with  a  long  imprisonment.  His 
masterpiece.  "  The  Pilgrim's  Progress."  was  proba1)ly  not  written 
till  1675,  but  many  of  his  religious  writings  \\  ere  pul)lishe(l  before 
that  date.  His  force  of  imagination  made  him  the  greatest 
allegorist  the  world  lias  seen.  His  moral  aim  lay  in  the  preserva- 
tion of  a  few  choice  souls  from  the  perils  and  temptations  of  a 
society  wholly  given  up  to  evil. 

Tliere  was,  doubtless,  much  in  th.e  world  round  Milton  and 
Bunyan  to  awake  indignation.  Samuel  lUitler  was  a  man  of 
genius,  but  his  "  Hudibras."  whicli  ap])eared  in  i(^(\^.  shows  but 
poorly  by  the  side  of  "  Paradise  Lost  "  and  '*  The  Pilgrim's  I'rog- 
ress."  This  mock-heroic  account  of  i\  Puritan  knight  is  tiie  work 
of  a  strong  writer,  who  can  find  nothing  better  to  do  with   the 

391 


392  ENGLAND 

1663-1667 

warriors  and  disputants  who  had  lately  controlled  England  than  to 
laugh  at  them.  The  mass  of  Restoration  poetry  was  far  weaker 
than  "  Hudibras,"  while  its  dramatic  writers  vied  with  one  another 
in  the  expression  of  licentious  thought  either  in  prose  or  in  the 
regular  heroic  couplets  which  were,  at  this  time,  in  vogue.  It 
was,  indeed,  impossible  to  put  much  human  passion  into  two  neat 
lines  which  had  to  be  made  to  rhyme ;  but  at  Court  love-making  had 
been  substituted  for  passion,  and  the  theaters,  now  reopened,  after 
they  had  been  suppressed  by  the  Puritans,  were  meant  for  the 
vicious  Court  and  not  for  the  people  at  large. 

The  satire  of  Butler,  and  the  licentiousness  of  the  dramatists, 
both  sprang  from  a  reaction  against  the  severe  morality  of  the 
Puritans ;  but  it  would  have  been  a  poor  prospect  for  the  generation 
following  that  of  Puritan  repression  if  the  age  had  not  produced 
any  positive  work  of  its  own.  Its  work  was  to  be  found  in  the 
increase  of  respect  for  human  reason.  In  the  better  minds  among 
the  clergy  of  the  Restoration,  the  reasonable  character  of  the 
Church  of  England  was  more  than  ever  predominant.  A  few, 
such  as  Wilkins,  Bishop  of  Chester,  and  Stillingfleet,  Dean  of  St. 
Paul's,  were  even  anxious  to  find  some  way  of  comprehension  by 
which  Dissenters  might  be  reconciled  to  the  Church,  while  others, 
like  Morley  and  Barrow,  attached  far  more  importance  to  argu- 
ments addressed  to  the  understanding  than  to  that  uniformitv  of 
ceremonial  which  had  been  so  dear  to  the  mind  of  Laud.  Still 
more  important  was  the  spread  of  devotion  to  natural  science.  The 
Royal  Society,  founded  for  its  promotion  in  1660,  brought  to- 
gether men  who  thought  more  about  air-pumps  than  about  the 
mysteries  of  theology;  and  it  was  mainly  the  results  of  their  in- 
quiries which  made  any  renewed  triumph  of  Puritanism  impossible. 
In  "  The  Pilgrim's  Progress  "  the  outer  world  was  treated  as  a 
mere  embarrassment  to  the  pursuit  of  spiritual  perfection.  By 
the  hallows  of  the  Royal  Society  it  was  treated  as  calling  for 
reverent  investigation,  in  order  that,  in  the  words  of  Bacon,  nature 
might  be  brought  into  the  service  of  man  by  his  obedience  to  her 
laws. 

The  first  step  taken  after  the  Restoration  in  the  direction  of 
religious  t(jlcration  had  come  from  Charles,  who  was  actuated 
partly  by  sneaking  fondness  for  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  and 
partly  by  dislike  of  being  dictated  to  by  Parliament.  He  there- 
fore,  after   Clarendon's   fall,   ga\c  his   confidence  mainly   to   men 


CHARLES     II  393 

1667-1669 

who,  for  various  reasons,  were  inclined  to  support  his  wishes  in 
this  respect. 

Among  these  men  the  principal  were  the  Duke  of  Bucking- 
ham and  Lord  Arlington.  Buckingham,  the  son  of  the  favorite  of 
Charles  L — "  everything  by  turns  and  nothing  long  " — was  trying 
his  hand  at  politics  by  way  of  amusement.  Arlington,  who,  like 
Charles,  hardly  knew  whether  he  was  Catholic  or  Protestant,  was 
entrusted,  as  Secretary  of  State,  with  the  direction  of  foreign  af- 
fairs. Lie  was  a  man  of  ability,  but  perfectly  unscrupulous.  Both 
hated  Clarendon,  and  w'cre  ready  to  support  the  king  in  any  scheme. 
The  Dissenters  confined  to  prison  were  liberated,  and  a  bill  pre- 
pared to  modify  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church,  so  as  to  enable  the 
expelled  Presbyterians  to  reenter  the  Church..  When,  howe\er, 
Parliament  met  in  February,  1668,  it  showed  its  determination  to 
have  nothing  to  do  with  either  toleration  or  comprehension.  It 
offered  the  king  300,000/.,  but  only  under  the  implied  condition 
that  he  would  abandon  his  scheme.  Charles  took  the  money  and 
dropped  his  schemes.  He  prorogued  Parliament  in  May,  and  did 
not  reassemble  it  till  October,  1669.  While  Parliament  was  not 
in  session  Charles  sheltered  the  Dissenters  from  persecution,  and 
even  thought  of  dissolving'  Parliament.  Albemarle,  however,  cau- 
tiously reminded  him  that,  even  if  he  got  a  new  Parliament  in  wliich 
the  Dissenters  and  his  friends  were  ])redominant,  it  would  probably 
cause  him  trouble  by  wanting  to  persecute  those  who  had  hitherto 
persecuted  the  Dissenters.  Accordingly  Charles,  who  hated  noth- 
ing so  much  as  trouble,  not  only  allowed  the  old  Parliament  to 
meet  again,  but  even  issued  a  proclamation  enforcing  the  penal 
laws  against  Dissenters. 

In  1668  a  triple  alliance  was  formed  between  England,  the 
Dutch  Republic,  and  Sweden,  to  put  an  end  to  the  War  of  Devolu- 
tion. The  allies  demanded  that  Louis  shcuild  content  himself 
with  certain  strong  towns  on  liis  northern  frontier  which  he 
had  already  conquered  from  vSpain,  and  sin  mid  desist  from  at- 
tempting to  conquer  more.  Louis  assented,  and  the  Peace  of  A\x- 
la-Chapelle  was  signed  on  these  conditions.  In  England  there 
was  already  a  rising  feeling  against  the  b^-ench,  and  Charles  ac- 
quired no  little  popularity  by  bis  supposed  firmness.  In  reality  he 
had  betrayed  the  secrets  of  tlie  alliance  to  Louis,  and  had  only 
shown  his  teeth  to  gain  good  terms  for  himself  from  the  l-'rench 
king". 


394  ENGLAND 

1669-1670 

Louis  owed  the  Dutch  a  deep  grudge,  and  set  himself  to  win 
Charles  to  neutrality,  if  not  to  active  help,  in  the  war  which  he  now 
purposed  to  make  against  them.  Charles  disliked  the  Dutch  as 
the  commercial  rivals  of  England,  and  was  ready  to  sell  himself 
to  Louis  if  only  the  price  offered  was  high  enough.  Though 
Charles  never  suffered  religion  of  any  kind  to  be  a  check  on  his  con- 
duct, his  facile  nature  yearned  after  the  imposing  authority  of  the 
Roman  Church.  In  1669  his  brother,  James,  avowed  himself  a 
Catholic,  and  in  the  same  year  Charles,  under  the  strictest  secrecy, 
declared  his  own  conversion  to  a  small  circle  of  men  whom  he 
could  trust.  Before  the  end  of  the  war  he  offered  Louis  support 
against  the  Dutch,  but  asked  such  enormous  concessions  in  return 
that  Louis  refused  to  agree  to  them.  Charles,  before  lowering  the 
terms  of  his  bargain  v.ith  Louis,  drove  another  bargain  with  his 
Parliament.  In  the  spring  of  1670,  by  dropping  his  demand  for 
toleration,  he  obtained  a  grant  of  300,000/.  a  year  for  eight  years. 
In  return  he  gave  the  royal  assent  to  a  second  Conventicle  Act, 
even  more  stringent  than  the  first. 

Having  secured  a  grant,  Charles  prorogued  Parliament,  which 
he  had  deceived  by  giving  it  to  understand  that  he  had  abandoned 
the  idea  of  toleration,  and  turned  to  Louis.  Louis  sent  over 
Charles's  youngest  sister,  Henrietta,  Duchess  of  Orleans,  to  con- 
clude an  alliance,  and  on  June  i.  1670,  a  treaty  between  England 
and  France  was  secretly  signed  at  Dover.  Charles  agreed  to  join 
Louis  in  his  projected  war  against  the  Dutch,  by  sending  an  Eng- 
lish force  of  6,000  men  to  serve  in  the  French  army,  and  to  assist 
Louis  to  seize  upon  the  territories  of  the  Spanish  monarchy  in  the 
event  of  the  death  of  Charles  IL  of  Spain  without  male  heirs. 
Charles  was  also  to  acknowledge  himself  a  Catholic  whenever  he 
thought  lit  to  do  so.  To  support  Charles  against  his  subjects  in 
case  of  their  resisting  him  in  tlie  declaration  of  his  conversion, 
Louis  was  to  give  him  154,000/.  and  the  aid  of  6,000  troops  to  be 
employed  in  England  in  his  defense.  Aloreover,  Charles  was  to 
receive  230,000/.  a  year  during  the  proposed  war,  and  thirty 
French  ships  were  to  serve  under  an  I'.nglish  admiral.  .\t  the  end 
of  the  war  lie  was  to  receive  W'alcheren,  Sluys  and  Cadsand  from 
the  Dutch  Republic,  and  ultimately,  if  Louis  made  good  his  claims 
to  the  Spanish  m<jnarchy,  he  was  to  g;iiri,  from  Spain,  Ostend, 
Minorca,  and  varif)us  territories  in  South  America.  Charles  H. 
was  no  more  scrupulous  tlian  his  father  had  been  about  using  the 


CHARLES     II  395 

1670 

troops  of  foreign  princes  to  suppress  the  opposition  of  his  own 
subjects,  but  he  was  shrewd  enough  to  know — what  Charles  I.  had 
never  known — that  foreign  princes  would  not  lend  him  troops 
unless  he  gave  them  something  in  return.  The  breach  of  the 
Triple  Alliance  and  the  assistance  offered  by  Charles  to  Louis  in  the 
proposed  war  against  the  Dutch  were  considered  in  France  to  be  a 
fair  equivalent  for  the  payments  which  Louis  had  bound  himself  to 
make.  It  was  another  question  whether  Charles  could  be  kept  to 
his  engagements.  To  secure  this  as  much  as  possible  Louis  sent 
him  over  a  new  French  mistress,  Louise  de  Keroualle.  Charles  soon 
created  her  Duchess  of  Portsmouth,  and  she  fulfilled  her  duty  to 
her  own  king  by  betraying  to  him  all  the  secrets  of  her  lover. 

After  Clarendon's  fall  Charles  had  been  his  own  chief  minister. 
The  ministers  wdiom  he  consulted  from  time  to  time  were  known  as 
his  Cabal,  a  word  then  applied  to  any  body  of  secret  advisers, 
without  carrying  with  it  the  opprobrious  meaning  which  it  now 
has.  At  last  the  wits  discovered  that  the  initials  of  five  ministers 
who  were  principally  consulted  about  the  time  of  the  Treaty  of 
Dover,  Clifford,  Arlington,  Buckingham,  Ashley,  and  Lauderdale, 
spelled  the  word  cabal.  No  ministry,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the 
word,  had  ever  existed.  Not  only  did  they  nijt  form  a  council  meet- 
ing for  purposes  of  government,  but,  though  they  agreed  together 
in  favoring  toleration,  they  disagreed  on  other  points.  Nor  were 
they  usually  consulted  by  Charles  in  a  body.  Sometimes  he  took 
the  advice  of  persons  not  of  their  number;  sometimes  he  took  the 
advice  of  some  of  them  only,  while  he  kept  the  others  entirely  in 
the  dark.  Thus  Clifford,  who  was  a  bra\c  and  honest  Catholic, 
and  Arlington,  who  would  support  any  measure  as  long  as  it  was 
liis  interest  to  do  so,  knew  all  about  tp.c  Treaty  of  Dover,  wliile 
Buckingham,  Lauderdale,  and  Ashley  ucre  in  complete  ignorance 
of  it.  Of  Buckingham  and  Arlington  enough  has  already  been 
said.  Lauderdale,  who  had  liillc  to  d(.)  with  luiglish  affairs,  kepi 
himself  almost  entirely  to  the  laslc  <'t  building  up  tiie  king's 
authority  in  Scotland,  where  he  had  already  got  together  an  army 
completely  at  Charles's  disposal.  The  character  of  Ashley  deserves 
a  longer  consideration. 

Anthony  Ashley  Cooper,  who  had  been  created  Lord  Ashley 
since  the  Restoration,  had  changed  sides  again  and  again  during 
the  late  troubles.  He  was  a  born  party  leader,  and  though  in  party 
conflict  he  was  quite  unscrupulous  and  despised  no  means  wnich 


396  ENGLAND 

1670-1672 

would  enable  him  to  gain  his  ends,  he  had  the  statesmanhke  qual- 
ities of  common  sense  and  moderation.  He  had  deserted  Charles 
I.  when  he  leaned  upon  the  Catholics,  had  supported  Cromwell  in 
his  struggle  with  the  zealots  of  the  Barebone's  Parliament,  and  had 
left  him  when  he  rejected  the  constitutional  scheme  of  the  first 
Parliament  of  the  Protectorate.  In  disgust  at  the  humors  of  the 
Rump  and  the  army,  he  had  done  everything  in  his  power  to  hasten 
the  Restoration,  and  had  soon  shown  hostility  to  Clarendon  and 
to  the  persecuting  laws  of  the  Cavalier  Parliament.  In  fact,  there 
were  two  principles  to  which  he  was  never  entirely  false,  a  love  of 
Parliamentary  government  and  a  love  of  toleration,  which  last  was 
based,  not  as  was  that  of  Oliver,  upon  sympathy  with  religious  zeal 
of  every  kind,  but  upon  dislike  of  clerical  interference.  At  present 
he  attached  himself  to  Charles,  because  he  knew  of  Charles's  al- 
leged wish  to  establish  toleration,  and  knew  nothing  of  the  con- 
spiracy against  Parliament  on  which  Charles  had  embarked,  or  of 
Charles's  secret  design  to  favor  the  Roman  Church  under  cover  of 
a  general  scheme  of  toleration. 

To  deceive  those  who  were  in  ignorance  of  the  secret  treaty 
of  the  previous  year,  Buckingham  was  sent  to  Paris  to  negotiate 
a  sham  treaty  in  which  all  mention  of  Charles's  conversion  was 
omitted,  and  the  whole  of  the  money  oftered  by  Louis  represented 
as  given  solely  for  the  war.  Charles  particularly  enjoyed  making 
a  fool  of  Buckingham,  who  imagined  himself  to  be  exceedingly 
clever,  and  he  had  also  the  temporary  satisfaction  of  gaining  the 
hearty  support  of  Ashley  as  well  as  Buckingham,  because  Ashley 
was  quite  ready  to  accept  Louis's  help  in  a  joint  enterprise  for 
crushing  the  commerce  of  the  Dutch,  and  had  no  scruples  about 
abandoning  the  Triple  Alliance.  Charles  was  the  more  ready  to 
begin  the  war  because  he  liad  lately  succeeded  in  obtaining  from 
Parliament  another  800.000/.  on  the  false  plea  that  he  wanted  the 
money  to  enable  him  to  hold  head  at  sea  against  the  French  as  well 
as  the  Dutch.  As  soon  as  the  money  was  obtained  he  prorogued 
Parliament. 

Charles  prudently  dekiyed  the  declaration  of  his  conversion 
to  a  more  convenient  season,  but  the  opening  of  the  war  was  fixed 
for  the  spring  of  1^)72.  In  spite  of  the  large  sums  which  he  drew 
from  Louis  and  from  Parliament,  liis  finances  were  in  hopeless 
confusion,  because  of  the  enormous  amount  of  money  which  he 
squandered  on  his  numerous  mistresses  and  his   illegitimate  chil- 


CHARLES     II  397 

1672 

dren.  At  this  time  it  is  said  lie  had  in  the  exchequer  1,400,000/., 
lent  to  him  by  the  goldsmiths  who,  in  those  days,  acted  as  bankers. 
On  January  2,  1672,  probably  at  Clifford's  suggestion,  he  refused  to 
pay  the  principal,  and  arbitrarily  diminished  the  interest  from  12  to 
6  per  cent.  In  consequence  of  this  stop  of  the  exchequer,  as  it  was 
called,  many  of  the  goldsmiths  became  bankrupt,  but  Clifford  be- 
came a  peer  and  Lord  High  Treasurer. 

On  March  15  Charles,  though  still  hesitating  to  proclaim  him- 
self a  Catholic,  issued  a  Declaration  of  Lidulgence.  Claiming  a 
dispensing  power,^  he  suspended  all  penal  laws  in  matters  ecclesi- 
astical, affecting  either  recusants  or  nonconformists,  thus  giving 
complete  religious  liberty  to  Roman  Catholics  as  well  as  to  Dis- 
senters. To  this  measure,  wise  and  statesmanlike  in  itself,  but 
marred  by  the  motives  of  its  author  and  by  its  defiance  of  the  law 
and  of  public  opinion,  Ashley  gave  his  hearty  support.  He  was  re- 
warded with  the  Earldom  of  Shaftesbury.  He  had  shortly  before 
been  made  Lord  Chancellor,  being  the  last  who  held  that  post 
without  being  a  lawyer.  At  that  time  the  decisions  of  the  Court 
of  Chancery  were  still  given  in  accordance  with  the  view  taken  by 
the  Chancellor  of  what  seemed  fair  and  ef|uitable,  and  did  not, 
therefore,  require  any  elaborate  legal  knowledge.  Even  Shaftes- 
bury's bitterest  enemies  acknowledged  that  he  was  scrupulously 
just. 

Both  Charles  and  Louis  had  resolved  to  take  the  Dutch  by 
surprise.  On  March  13  Admiral  Holmes,  obeying  orders,  at- 
tacked a  rich  Dutch  merchant  fleet  sailing  up  the  Cliannel,  before 
war  was  declared,  but  succeeded  in  taking  only  two  vessels.  In  the 
war  now  begun  the  discipline  of  the  English  navy  was  worse,  and 
that  of  the  Dutch  navy  better,  than  it  had  been  in  the  former  war. 
On  land  the  Dutch  were  unprepared,  and  only  by  cutting  the  dykes 
was  Louis's  progress  stopped.  The  Republic  needed  a  strong 
hand  to  preserve  it,  and  the  office  of  Stadtholder  was  revived  and 
given  to  William.  Buckingham  came  to  urge  him  iu  submit  to 
Louis's  terms.  "  Do  you  not  see,"  said  the  F.nglishman,  ''  that  the 
Republic  is  lost?"  "I  know  one  sure  means  of  never  seeing  it," 
was  William's  firm  reply — "  to  die  on  the  last  dyke."     His  cun- 

1  The  right  of  pardon  allows  the  king  to  remit  the  consequences  to  a  particu- 
lar person  of  a  sentence  passed  on  him.  1'lie  right  of  dispensation  aHows  liim  to 
remit  beforehand  the  consequences  of  a  breach  of  a  law  either  to  such  persons  as 
are  named,  or  to  all  persons  generally  who  may  commit  such  a  breach. 


398  ENGLAND 

1673 

fidence  was  justified.  Louis  could  not  pierce  the  girdle  of  waters 
which  surrounded  the  Dutch  towns,  and,  returning  to  Paris, 
brought  the  campaign  to  an  end. 

On  February  4,  1673,  Charles,  having  once  more  spent  all 
his  money,  again  met  his  Parliament,  Shaftesbury  urged  the  voting 
of  supply  for  the  war  with  the  Dutch,  whom  he  styled  the  eternal 
enemies  of  England.  So  far  as  the  war  was  concerned,  the  House 
of  Commons  answered  his  appeal  by  offering  1,260,000/.^  though 
they  kept  back  the  bill  till  they  had  brought  him  to  terms. 

It  was  at  the  withdrawal  of  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence  that 
the  House  was  aiming.  In  vain  Charles  simulated  firmness,  de- 
claring himself  to  be  resolved  to  stick  to  his  declaration.  The 
Commons  bitterly  resented  his  interference  with  the  law.  Forty 
statutes,  it  was  said,  had  been  violated  by  the  Declaration,  and  the 
House  passed  a  resolution  that  "penal  statutes  in  matters  ecclesiasti- 
cal cannot  be  suspended  but  by  act  of  Parliament."  Charles  tried  to 
evade  the  summons  of  the  Commons,  but  the  Lords  having  come 
on  March  7  to  the  same  conclusion  as  the  other  House,  he  gave  way 
on  the  8th  and  recalled  his  Declaration.  As  no  new  statute  was 
passed  on  the  subject,  the  legal  question  remained  just  where  it  was 
before. 

Charles  had  entered  on  a  struggle  with  Parliament  and  had 
been  defeated.  The  Royalist  Parliament  of  1661  was  still  Royalist 
so  far  as  the  maintenance  of  the  throne  was  concerned,  but  it  had 
entered  on  a  course  of  opposition  which  had  brought  it  into  open 
collision  with  the  king.  From  first  to  last  the  chief  characteristic 
of  this  Parliament  was  its  resolution  to  maintain  the  supremacy  of 
the  Church,  and  it  was  now  obA-ious  that  the  Church  was  in  more 
danger  from  Roman  Catholics  than  from  Dissenters.  Though 
Charles's  conversion  was  unknown,  it  was  no  secret  that  the  Duke 
of  York,  the  heir  to  the  throne,  was  a  Catholic,  and  in  spite  of  the 
veil  thrown  over  the  terms  of  tlie  Treaty  of  Dover,  tlie  danger  of 
an  invasion  by  French  troops  in  support  of  the  English  Catholics  was 
obvious  to  all.  For  the  first  time  since  the  Restoration  a  bill  was 
brought  in  to  relieve  Protestant  Dissenters,  and,  though  this  pro- 
posal came  to  nothing,  the  very  fact  of  its  being  made  showed  that 
a  new  state  of  feeling  was  growing  up.  Arlington,  seeing  how 
things  stood,  and  wishing  to  oust  tlie  Catholic  Clifford  from  the 
Treasury  that  he  might  be  his  successor,  put  up  a  member  of  the 
Commons  to  propose  a  bill  which  soon  became  law  under  the  name 


li    \I^I  KS     M 


'/;.■    s.-.:l    nf     tin 


CHARLES     II  399 

1673 

of  the  Test  Act.  By  it,  no  one  was  to  hold  office  who  refused  to 
take  the  test — that  is  to  say,  to  make  a  deckiration  of  his  disbehef 
in  the  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation  and  to  receive  the  Sacrament 
according-  to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  England.  It  was  only 
after  Charles  had  given  his  assent  to  this  Act  on  March  29  that 
the  proposed  grant  of  1,260,000/.  was  actually  made. 

Though  most  Dissenters  were  excluded  from  office  by  the 
latter  clause  of  the  Test  Act,  there  were  some  who  did  not  feel  their 
opposition  to  the  Church  to  be  so  strong  as  to  preclude  them  from 
taking  the  Sacrament  occasionally  according  to  its  rites.  Every 
honest  Roman  Catholic,  on  the  other  hand,  was  at  once  driven 
from  office.  The  Duke  of  York  surrendered  the  Admiralty  and 
Clifford  the  Treasury.  The  Test  Act  was  not  a  persecuting  act 
in  the  sense  in  which  the  Conventicle  Act  and  the  Eive  Mile  Act 
were  persecuting  acts.  It  inflicted  no  direct  penalty  on  the  mere 
holding  of  a  special  belief,  or  on  the  attendance  on  a  special  form  of 
worship,  but  excluded  persons  holding  a  certain  religious  belief  from 
offices  the  retention  of  which,  according  to  the  prevalent  conviction, 
would  be  dangerous  to  tiie  state. 

The  Treasurership,  taken  from  Clifford,  was  given,  not  to 
Arlington,  but  to  Sir  Thomas  Osborne,  whose  sentiments,  being 
strongly  in  favor  of  maintaining  the  predominance  of  the  Church 
of  England,  were  likely  to  commend  him  to  the  good  vill  of  tk.e 
Houses.  In  foreign  policy  he  represented  uiiat  was  fast  becoming 
a  general  opinion,  that,  as  the  main  danger  to  England  came  from 
Erance,  it  had  been  a  mistake  to  go  to  uar  with  the  Duich.  This 
belief  was  driven  home  by  the  disasters  at  sea  in  the  summer  oi  1673. 
In  May  a  combined  Erench  and  English  licet,  under  Trinoe  Eupcrt, 
fought  without  advantage  against  the  Dutch.  In  August  Rupert 
was  defeated  off  the  Texel,  because  the  h'rench  fleet  which  accom- 
panied him  took  no  part  in  the  action,  Eouis  not  wishing  to  see  the 
English  masters  of  the  sea.  On  this,  the  English  nation  turned  all 
its  hatred  against  Erance. 

The  alarm  inspired  by  tlie  Catholics  was  increased  in  the 
course  of  1673  by  a  marriage  which  took  place  in  the  royal  family. 
Soon  after  the  Restoration  the  Duke  of  ^'()rk  luad  married  Claren- 
don's daughter,  Anne  Hyde,  and  had  l)y  her  two  daughters,  Mary 
and  Anne,  botlt  of  whom  were  brought  up  as  Protestants,  st^  that, 
if  the  Duke  otttlived  his  brotlicr,  lie  would,  when  he  himself  died, 
transmit  the  crown  to  a  ProtesirtiVi  ([uecn.      lie  was  now,  however, 


400  ENGLAND 

1673-1674 

a  widower,  and  took  as  his  second  wife  a  Catholic  princess,  Mary  of 
iModena.  If  the  new  duchess  should  bear  a  son,  the  boy,  who 
would  inevitably  be  educated  as  a  Catholic,  would  be  the  future 
king  of  England.  \A'hen  Parliament  met  in  October  it  was  highly 
indignant,  and,  as  it  attacked  the  king's  ministers,  it  was  prorogued 
after  a  session  of  a  few  days.  Charles  revenged  himself  by  dis- 
missing a  minister  whom  the  Commons  had  not  attacked.  Shaftes- 
bury had,  earlier  in  the  year,  learned  the  contents  of  the  secret 
articles  of  the  Treaty  of  Dover,  and  had  thereby  discovered  that 
Charles  had  made  a  fool  of  him  as  completely  as  he  had  made  a 
fool  of  Buckingham  when  he  sent  him  to  negotiate  a  sham  treaty. 
Shaftesbury  remained  true  to  his  policy  of  toleration,  but  it  was 
now  to  be  toleration  for  Dissenters  only.  Toleration  for  Catholics, 
he  now  knew,  was  connected  with  a  scheme  for  overthrowing  Eng- 
lish independence  with  the  aid  of  French  soldiers.  Accordingly, 
he  supported  the  Test  Act.  and,  as  he  continued  uncompliant, 
Charles,  on  November  9,  dismissed  him.  Shaftesbury  at  once 
threw  himself  into  the  most  violent  opposition.  Buckingham  was 
dismissed  not  long  afterwards,  and  the  so-called  Cabal  was  thus 
finally  broken  up. 

The  war  with  the  Dutch  was  brought  to  an  end  by  a  treaty 
signed  on  February  19,  1674.  On  the  24th  Charles  prorogued 
Parliament,  and  did  not  summon  it  again  for  more  than  a  year. 
During  the  interval  he  attempted  to  win  friends  all  round,  without 
committing  himself  to  any  definite  policy.  On  the  one  hand,  he 
remained  on  friendly  terms  with  Louis,  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  offered  the  hand  of  Mary,  the  eldest  child  of  his  brother  James, 
to  her  cousin,  William  of  Orange.  William's  position  was  far 
higher  than  it  had  been  two  vears  ])efnre.  He  was  now  at  the 
head  of  an  alliance  in  wliich  the  Emperor  Leopold,  the  king  of 
Spain,  and  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  com!)ine(l  with  him  to  restrain  the 
inordinate  ambition  of  Louis.  It  is  tnie  that  liis  generalship  was 
less  conspicuous  than  his  diplomacv.  and  that  in  the  whole  course 
of  his  life  he  never  succeeded  in  beating  a  French  armv  in  the  field. 
Yet  even  in  war  his  indomitable  courage  and  conspicuous  coolness 
stood  him  in  good  stead,  and  lie  knew  better  than  most  commanders 
how  to  gatlier  his  tror)ps  after  a  defeat  ami  to  place  them  in  strong 
positions  in  which  the  enemy  did  nr)t  dare  to  attack  them.  Ihe 
historv  of  Europe  during  tlie  remainder  of  liis  fife  was  the  history 
of  a  duel  between  the  ambitious  and  autocratic  Louis  and  the  cool- 


C  H  A  R  L  E  S     I  I  401 

1673-1674 

headed  William,  the  first  magistrate  of  a  republic  in  which  his  action 
was  checked  by  constitutional  restraints  on  every  side,  and  the  head 
of  a  coalition  of  which  the  members  were  always  prone  to  take 
offense  and  to  pursue  their  individual  interests  at  the  sacrifice  of 
the  common  good.  To  win  England  to  the  alliance  was,  for  William, 
a  most  desirable  object,  but  he  knew  that  James  might  very  well 
have  a  son  by  his  second  marriage,  and,  knowing  that  in  that  case 
he  would  reap  no  political  advantage  from  a  marriage  with  Mary, 
he  for  the  present  refused  the  offer  of  her  hand. 


Chapter    XXXIX 

DANBY'S   ADMINISTRATION    AND   THE   THREE    SHORT 
PARLIAMENTS.     1675— 1 68 1 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  Charles  II.,  1 660-1 685— Rejection  of  the  Non-Resistance 
Bill,  1675 — Marriage  of  William  and  Mary,  Nov.  15,  1677 — The 
Peace  of  Nymwegen,  July  31,  1678 — The  Popish  Plot,  1678 — Dissolu- 
tion OF  THE  Cavalier  Parliament,  Jan.  24,  1679 — The  First  Short 
Parliament,  March  6-May  27,  1679 — The  Second  Short  Parlia- 
ment, Oct.  21,  1680-jAN.  18,  1681 — The  Third  Short  Parliament, 
March  2i-March  28,  i68i 

CHARLES'S  effort  to  govern  in  his  own  way  having  ended 
in  failure,  and,  in  what  he  thought  to  be  of  more  conse- 
quence, discomfort  to  himself,  he  discovered  that  he  would 
lead  an  easier  life  if  he  were  on  good  terms  with  his  Parliament 
than  if  he  quarreled  with  it.  He  gave  his  confidence  to  Osborne, 
whom  he  had  recently  created  Earl  of  Danby.  Danby  revived  the 
domestic  policy  of  Clarendon  by  maintaining,  in  accordance  with 
the  majority  of  the  Cavalier  Parliament,  the  supremacy  of  the 
Church  of  England  over  Catholics  and  Dissenters,  and,  equally  in 
accordance  with  the  majority  of  that  Parliament,  opposed  Louis 
abroad. 

The  decision  of  Charles  to  support  Danby  in  carrying  out  a 
definite  policy  completed  the  formation  of  separate  parliamentary 
parties.  I'hcse  had,  indeed,  existed  in  the  Long  Parliament  under 
various  names,  and  had  reappeared  after  the  Restoration;  but  in 
the  Cavalier  Parliament  the  minority  in  favor  of  toleration  had, 
at  first,  been  exceedingly  small,  and,  though  it  had  grown  larger  in 
the  days  of  tlie  Cabal,  it  had  been  distracted  by  distrust  of  Charles 
when  he  appeared  as  a  patron  oi  toleration.  The  situation  was  now 
clear  and  the  leaders  distinctly  known.  On  the  one  side  was  Danby 
and  "  Xo  toleration,"  on  the  other  side  was  Shaftesbury  and  "  Tol- 
eration for  IJisscntcrs  only."  Neither  side  shrank  from  base  means 
of  acquiring  strength.  The  ministers  who  formed  the  Cabal  are 
said  to  have  been  the  first  who  bribed  members  of  the  House  of 

402 


DANDY'S     ADMINISTRATION  403 

1675-1677 

Commons,  but  it  was  Danby  who  reduced  bribery  to  a  system 
which  was  afterwards  extended  by  his  successors.  Shaftesbury's 
followers,  on  the  other  hand,  were  quite  ready  to  enter  into  the 
pay  of  Louis,  if  he  would  help  them  to  overthrow  Danby  and 
would  strengthen  them  against  the  king. 

When  Parliament  met  in  April,  1675,  Danby  produced  a  bill 
which  was  intended  to  secure  his  hold  on  the  House  of  Commons, 
whatever  might  be  the  opinion  prevailing  in  the  country.  No 
one  was  to  be  allowed  to  hold  office  or  to  sit  in  Parliament  unless 
he  would  swear  that  he  believed  resistance  to  the  Crown  to  be  in 
all  cases  illegal,  and  that  he  would  never  endeavor  to  alter  the 
government  in  Church  or  state.  If  the  bill  had  passed,  the 
future  liberty  of  Parliament  would  have  been  fettered,  and  few,  if 
any,  who  did  not  approve  of  the  existing  Church  system  could  have 
entered  Parliament.  The  bill  passed  the  Lords,  but  while  it  was 
still  under  discussion  in  the  Commons  Shaftesbury  stirred  up  so 
bitter  a  quarrel  between  the  Houses  that  Charles  prorogued  Par- 
liament before  the  bill  could  be  converted  into  law. 

Parliament,  in  its  distrust  of  the  king,  refused  him  supplies, 
upon  which  Charles  prorogued  it  for  fifteen  months.  Louis,  whq 
feared  lest  Parliament  should  drive  Charles  into  joining  the  alliance 
against  him,  was  so  pleased  to  see  its  sittings  interrupted  for  so 
long  a  time  that  he  granted  to  Charles  a  pension  of  100,000/.  a  year, 
to  make  him  independent  of  his  subjects.  The  result  was  that 
while  Charles  allowed  Uanby  to  have  his  own  way  in  domestic 
affairs,  he  refused  to  allow  him  to  detach  England  from  the  French 
alliance.  It  was  not,  however,  merely  his  personal  interests  which 
drew  him  to  Louis,  as  he  took  a  real  interest  in  the  prosperity  of 
English  trade,  and  was  unable  to  get  over  his  jealousy  of  the  Dutcli. 
In  November,  1676,  he  obtained  from  Louis  a  treaty  Ijv  which  the 
French  renounced  a  claim  made  by  them  to  seize  Dutch  goods 
conveyed  in  English  ships,  hoping  by  this  to  gain  tlic  good  will 
of  Parliament  at  its  next  meeting.  lie  could  not  understand  how 
completely  the  alarm  of  his  subjects  lest  their  national  religion  and 
independence  should  be  assailed  by  the  Frencli  had  made  them 
forgetful  of  their  commercial  jealousy  of  the  Dutch. 

On  February  15,  1677,  ParHruncnt  again  met.  Shaftesbury 
and  his  allies  attempted  to  steal  a  march  on  Danby  by  producing 
two  old  statutes  of  Edward  III.  which  directed  that  Parliaments 
should  be  held  every  year,   founding  on  it  an  argument  that  the 


404  ENGLAND 

1677 

existing  Parliament,  not  having  met  for  a  year,  had  legally  ceased 
to  exist.  The  House  of  Lords  sent  Shaftesbury  and  three  other 
peers  to  the  Tower  for  their  pains,  and  the  Commons  contemptu- 
ously rejected  a  similar  argument  put  forward  in  their  own  House. 
Danby  found  himself  triumphant.  The  Commons  granted  600,- 
000/.  for  increasing  the  navy.  Danby  then  carried  a  bill  through 
the  House  of  Lords  for  securing  the  Protestant  religion  in  the 
event  of  a  Catholic — James  being,  of  course,  intended — coming  to 
the  throne,  though  the  bill  did  not  pass  the  Commons,  apparently 
from  a  feeling  that  its  provisions  were  insufficient.  The  eyes  of 
Englishmen  were,  however,  principally  fixed  on  the  continent. 
In  the  preceding  year  the  French  had  gained  two  great  naval  vic- 
tories, in  one  of  which  De  Ruyter  had  been  slain,  and  in  the  spring 
of  1677  Louis  carried  one  place  after  another  in  the  Spanish 
Netherlands.  Both  Houses  now  asked  Charles  to  join  the  alliance 
against  France,  whereupon  Charles  indignantly  prorogued  Parlia- 
ment. When  he  was  urged  by  the  Dutch  ambassador  to  act 
upon  the  wishes  of  the  Houses  he  threw  his  handkerchief  into 
the  air,  with  the  accompanying  words :  "  I  care  just  that  for 
Parliament." 

Louis  paid  to  Charles  1,600,000/.  for  the  prorogation  which 
rid  France  for  a  time  from  the  danger  of  a  war  with  England. 
Charles,  however,  shrank  from  a  renewal  of  the  struggle  with  his 
Parliament  on  its  next  meeting,  and,  though  he  was  resolved  not  to 
go  to  war  with  France  if  he  could  help  it,  he  was  ready  to  help  in 
bringing  about  a  general  peace  which  would  relieve  him  from  all 
further  invitation  to  join  the  allies.  Lie  accordingly  welcomed 
Danby's  suggestion  that  the  plan  for  a  marriage  between  the  Prince 
of  Orange  and  James's  daughter  Alary  should  be  again  taken  up, 
especially  as  he  hoped  that  it  would  break  down  the  good  under- 
standing which  existed  between  the  prince  and  Shaftesbury,  and 
would  smooth  away  the  hostility  of  his  subjects  to  his  brother's 
right  of  succession.  William,  knowing  tliat  the  feeling  of  English- 
men of  both  parties  was  in  his  favor,  visited  his  uncles,  and  his 
marriage  with  Alary  took  place  on  X()veml)er  15.  1677.  The 
marriage,  which  was  to  prove  oi  incalculable  importance  in  the 
future,  was  of  great  significance  even  at  the  time,  as  it  marked  the 
end  of  the  hostile  feeling  against  the  Dutch  which  for  so  many 
years  had  been  the  dominant  note  of  English  foreign  politics. 

Though    Danby   had   brought    Cliarlcs    round    to    support    his 


D  A  N  B  Y  '  S     ADMINISTRATION  405 

1677-1678 

foreign  as  well  as  his  domestic  policy,  his  success  was  more  apparent 
than  real.  The  fact  was  that  his  foreign  and  domestic  policies  were 
inconsistent  with  one  another.  In  the  long  run  it  would  be  found 
impossible  to  contend  against  the  French  king  and  the  English 
Catholics  supported  by  him,  without  calling  in  the  aid  of  those  Prot- 
estant Dissenters  who  were  most  hostile  to  Louis.  Englishmen 
attached  to  the  Church  were  being  led  by  their  growing  distrust 
of  France  to  a  tenderer  feeling  towards  Dissenters,  and  the  spread 
of  this  feeling  made  in  favor  of  Shaftesbury,  who  favored  tolera- 
tion, and  not  in  favor  of  Danby,  who  opposed  it.  For  the  present, 
however,  Danby  could  count  on  the  Parliamentary  majority  which 
agreed  with  him,  and  neither  he  nor  the  king  wished  to  risk  a  dis- 
solution. 

When  Parliament  met  in  February.  1678,  Charles  appeared 
full  of  determination.  He  declared  that,  unless  Louis  agreed 
to  make  peace  with  the  Dutch  on  reasonable  terms,  he  would  go  to 
war  with  France.  The  Commons  at  once  resolved  to  grant  him 
1.000,000/.,  and  to  support  an  army  of  30,000  men  and  a  fleet  of 
90  ships.  Before  this  resolution  was  embodied  in  an  act  without 
which  Charles  could  not  touch  the  money,  the  followers  of  Shaftes- 
bury took  alarm.  They  believed — and,  as  is  now  known,  not  with- 
out reason — that  Charles  intended  to  use  the  troops  to  make  him- 
self absolute.  They  not  only  pressed  him  to  disband  what  troops 
he  had,  but  they  entered  into  communication  with  Louis's  am- 
bassador, in  the  hope  that  he  would  support  them  in  forcing 
Charles  to  dismiss  his  troops  and  to  dissolve  Parliament,  some  of 
them  even  accepting  from  him  gifts  of  money.  Charles,  on  his 
part,  vacillated,  doubting  which  was  the  best  policy  for  him  to 
adopt.  At  one  time  he  was  eager  to  assist  the  Dutch,  and  sent 
troops  to  their  succor  in  the  liope  that  a  victorious  nrmy  might 
afterwards  be  useful  to  him  in  England.  At  rmnilicr  time  he  made 
overtures  to  Louis  with  the  object  oF  sccnring  liis  support.  In 
the  end,  on  July  31,  Louis  and  the  Dutch  made  pcice  at  Xym- 
wegen  without  consulting  Charles  at  all.  L(»nis  p;alncd  Franche 
Comte  and  a  large  number  of  fortresses  on  his  northern  frontier, 
which  liad  formerly  belonged  to  Spain,  'lliougli  he  had  failed  to 
destroy  the  Dutch  Republic,  he  had  sliown  himself  superior  in 
war  to  a  great  continental  coalition,  and  had  made  France  the 
predominant  power  in  Europe. 

The  part  played  by  the  king  left  the  ?3nglish  people  gravelv 


406  ENGLAND 

1678-1679 

dissatisfied  with  him.  They  feared  lest  he  should  seek  to  over- 
whelm their  liberties  by  military  force  and  should  bring  in  French 
regiments  to  support  his  own  troops.  Their  suspicions  were 
heightened  by  the  knowledge  that,  if  Charles  died,  his  brother,  an 
uncompromising  Roman  Catholic,  would  succeed  him.  In  August, 
1678,  a  villain  appeared  to  profit  by  this  prevalent  distrust.  Titus 
Gates,  a  liar  from  his  youth  up,  who  had  tried  various  religions 
and  had  recently  professed  himself  a  Catholic,  announced  the 
existence  of  a  great  "  Popish  plot."  Charles,  he  said,  was  to  be 
murdered,  and  James  set  upon  the  throne  as  the  agent  of  the 
Jesuits.  A  French  army  was  to  land  to  support  him,  and  Prot- 
estantism was  to  be  absolutely  suppressed.  It  was  true  that  many 
Catholics  were  anxious  to  see  Jam^es  on  the  throne  and  had  ex- 
pressed contempt  at  Charles's  conduct  in  refusing  to  declare  him- 
self one  of  themselves,  but  the  rest  of  Oates's  story  was  absolutely 
false. 

Oates's  depositions  were  taken  before  a  Middlesex  magistrate. 
Sir  Edmond  Barry  Godfrey.  Not  long  afterwards  Godfrey  was 
found  murdered  in  the  fields  near  Primrose  Hill.  All  London  was 
wild  with  excitement.  It  was  wildly  believed  that  "  the  Papists  " 
had  murdered  him  to  punish  him  for  listening  to  Gates.  It  was 
also  held  to  be  an  undoubted  truth  that  "  the  Papists  "  were  about 
to  set  fire  to  London,  and  to  murder  all  good  Protestants.  When 
Parliament  met  on  Gctober  21,  Shaftesbury,  who  had  been  liberated 
early  in  the  year,  unscrupulously  encouraged  belief  in  the  supposed 
plot.  A  new  Test  Act  was  passed  by  which  Catholics  were  ex- 
cluded from  both  Houses,  though  the  Duke  of  York  was  exempted 
by  name  from  its  operation. 

The  mark  at  which  Shaftesbury  aimed  was  the  overthrow  of 
Danby.  Danby  liad  always,  as  far  as  his  own  opinion  went,  been 
a  warm  antagonist  of  France,  but  a  minister  was  still,  in  those  days, 
in  reality  the  servant  of  the  king,  and  was  bound  to  carry  out  his 
master's  orders,  even  when  they  were  against  liis  own  conviction. 
Danby  had,  therefore,  at  the  time  when  the  Peace  of  Nymwegen 
was  under  discussion,  asked  Louis  for  a  considerable  payment  to 
Charles.  Subsequently  this  letter  was  brought  before  the  House 
of  Commons.  The  House  at  once  impeached  Danby,  under  the 
false  impression  that  he  had  been  really  subservient  to  France  all 
the  W'hile.  Charles  liad  become  attached  to  Danby,  and  knew  that, 
if  the  proceedings  against  him  were  carried  on,  matters  would  come 


DANBY'S     ADMINISTRATION  407 

1679 

to  light  which  he  had  every  reason  to  conceal.  To  save  himself 
and  his  minister,  on  January  24,  1679,  he  dissolved  the  Cavalier 
Parliament,  which  had  now  sat  for  more  than  seventeen  years. 

When  the  elections  to  a  new  Parliament — the  first  of  three 
short  Parliaments — were  completed,  Charles  found  that,  with  the 
exception  of  at  most  thirty  members,  the  opposition  had  gained 
every  seat.  Bowing  to  the  storm,  he  sent  his  brother  to  Brussels, 
and  expressed  his  readiness  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
Protestants  of  the  continent.  When,  however.  Parliament  met, 
on  March  6,  1679.  it  was  found  that  both  Houses  were  more  anxious 
about  the  fate  of  Protestantism  at  home  than  about  that  of  Prot- 
estantism abroad.  The  Commons  renewed  the  impeachment  of 
Danby,  but  in  the  end  proceedings  against  Danby  were  dropped 
on  his  being  deprived  of  office  and  committed  to  the  Tower.  By 
the  advice  of  Sir  William  Temple,  Charles  tried  a  new  experiment 
in  government.  A  new  Privy  Council  was  appointed  of  thirty 
members,  fifteen  being  ministers  of  the  Crown  and  fifteen  influential 
lords  and  commoners,  by  the  advice  of  which  tlie  king  was  always 
to  be  guided.  Shaftesbury  was  appointed  President  of  this  Council, 
but  it  was  soon  found  to  be  too  large  a  body  to  manage  affairs 
which  required  secrecy,  and  a  small  committee  was  therefore  formed 
out  of  it  for  the  consideration  of  all  important  business. 

Charles,  now  that  he  experienced  the  strength  of  the  opposi- 
tion, was  prepared  to  give  way  on  every  point  except  one — the 
maintenance  of  his  brother's  right  to  succession,  which  the  new 
House  of  Commons  was  prepared  to  attack.  He  accordingly  of- 
fered to  place  the  strongest  restrictions  upon  the  power  of  a  Cath- 
olic king.  To  the  House  of  Commons,  on  the  other  hand,  all  re- 
strictions appeared  insufficient.  The  members  believed  seriously 
that  no  law  would  be  able  to  bind  a  "  Popisli  '"  king.  They  thought 
that  if  he  was  determined — and  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  he 
would  be  detennined — to  overtln-ow  the  I'rolcstant  religion,  he 
would  be  able  to  do  so.  An  exclusion  bill  was  brought  in,  ex- 
cluding the  Duke  of  York  from  the  tlironc.  It  was  read  twice, 
but  not  passed,  as  Charles  first  prorogued,  and  then,  on  May  27, 
dissolved  Parliament.  The  only  act  of  inii)ortance  produced  in 
this  parliament  was  the  Haljeas  Corpus  Act,  wliicli  finally  put  an 
end  to  sundry  methods  by  wliich  the  Crown  had  evaded  the  rule 
requiring  the  issue  of  writs  u\  habeas  corpus,  by  which  prisoners 
secured  their  rieht  to  be  tried  or  liberated. 


408  ENGLAND 

1679 

New  elections  were  held,  with  the  result  that  a  House  of 
Commons  was  chosen  even  more  bitterly  hostile  to  the  Court 
than  its  predecessor.  Shaftesbury  was  now  at  the  height  of  his 
glory.  The  continual  trials  and  executions  of  the  Catholics  for 
participation  in  the  supposed  "  Popish  plot  "  kept  the  excitement  in 
favor  of  the  exclusion  bill  at  a  fever  heat.  Shaftesbury's  position 
was  very  similar  to  Pym's  in  164 1.  He  had  on  his  side  the  funda- 
mental principle  that  a  nation  cannot  safely  be  governed  by  a  ruler 
whose  ideas  on  the  most  important  questions  of  the  day  are  directly 
opposed  to  those  of  his  subjects,  and  he  was  right,  as  the  result 
showed,  in  holding  that,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  a  Catholic  king 
could  not  satisfactorily  govern  a  Protestant  people.  After  Danby's 
fall,  the  king  became  the  real  head  of  the  party  opposed  to  Shaftes- 
bury. His  ability  had  always  been  great,  but  hitherto  he  had 
alienated  those  who  were  disposed  to  be  his  friends  by  attempting 
to  establish  an  absolute  government  with  the  help  of  the  king  of 
France  and  of  an  army  dependent  on  himself.  He  now  set  himself 
to  overthrow  Shaftesbury  by  appealing  to  a  popular  sentiment  which 
was  quite  as  strong,  and  might  be  stronger,  than  the  dislike 
of  a  Catholic  successor;  that  is  to  say,  to  the  horror  with  which 
anything  which  threatened  a  new  civil  war  filled  the  hearts  of  his 
subjects. 

Shaftesbury  had  already  allowed  it  to  be  known  that  he  in- 
tended, if  he  carried  the  Exclusion  Bill,  to  propose  that  the  future 
king  should  be  the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  the  eldest  of  Charles's 
illegitimate  sons.  Charles  stood  faithfully  by  his  brother,  and, 
though  his  constancy  made  little  impression  as  yet,  he  had 
on  his  side  a  man  whose  judgment  might  usually  be  taken  as 
an  indication  of  the  ultimate  decision  of  public  opinion.  That 
man  was  Georg^e  Savile.  Earl,  and  afterwards  Marquis,  of  Hali- 
fax. He  had  been  one  of  the  bitterest  enemies  of  Danby,  but 
he  devoted  himself  to  no  party.  Pie  called  himself  a  Trimmer, 
as  if  his  business  was  to  trim  the  boat,  and  to  throw  himself  against 
each  party  in  turn  as  it  grew  violent  in  consequence  of  success.  He 
now  supported  the  king  against  Shaftesbury,  on  the  ground  that  it 
was  uncertain  whether  James  would  survive  his  brother,  and  that, 
if  he  did,  he  was  not  likely  to  survive  him  long;  whereas,  the  suc- 
cession of  the  Duke  of  Monmouth  would  not  only  exclude  from  the 
throne  the  Catholic  James,  but  also  his  daughters,  who  were  both 
Protestants.     As  ]\Ionmouth  had  no  real  hereditarv  right,  there  was 


D  A  N  B  Y  '  S     A  D  IVI  I  N  I  S  T  R  A  1  I  O  N  409 

1677-1679 

every  likelihood  that,  even  if  he  ascended  the  throne,  his  claim 
would  be  opposed  by  partisans  of  James's  eldest  daughter,  the 
Princess  of  Orange,  and  that  a  civil  war  would  ensue. 

The  fear  of  civil  war  already  frightened  some,  and  would  in 
time  frighten  more,  into  the  acceptance  of  a  doctrine  which  seems 
very  absurd  now — the  doctrine  of  divine  indefeasible  hereditary 
right — that  is  to  say,  that  the  succession  as  it  was  established  by 
English  law  was  established  by  divine  appointment,  so  that,  though 
indeed  subjects  might  refuse  to  obey  the  king,  if  he  ordered  them 
to  commit  sin,  it  was  their  duty  to  bear  uncomplainingly  any  pun- 
ishment that  he  might  impose  on  them,  however  tyrannical  he 
might  be.  For  the  present,  however,  such  ideas  had  little  hold  on 
the  new  Parliament,  and  Charles  prorogued  it  to  give  time  for  them 
to  grow. 

Events  were  in  the  meantime  passing  in  Scotland  which  helped 
to  impress  upon  those  who  were  easily  frightened  the  idea  that  the 
only  security  against  rebellion  lay  in  a  general  submission  to  estab- 
lished institutions  in  Church  and  state.  The  Covenanters  in  the 
west  had  held  out  and  even  overcome  some  of  the  king's  officers,  but 
on  June  22  Monmouth,  who  had  been  sent  at  the  head  of  an  army 
against  them,  defeated  them  at  Bothwell  Bridge,  near  Hamilton, 
and  entirely  suppressed  tlie  rebellion.  IMany  of  the  prisoners 
were  executed  after  being  tortured  to  extract  from  them  informa- 
tion against  their  accomplices,  and  this  cruelty  was  exercised  under 
the  orders  of  the  Duke  of  York,  who  had  been  sent  to  Scotland  as 
Lord  High  Commissioner. 

Encouraged  by  his  success  in  Scotland,  Charles  dismissed 
Shaftesbury  from  the  presidency  of  the  Council  and  got  rid  of  his 
principal  supporters.  Temple's  reformed  Council  came  thereby  to 
an  end.  When  Monmouth  returned  from  Scotland  his  father  re- 
fused to  see  him  and  sent  liini  awav  fnun  London.  In  the  be- 
ginning of  1680  Shaftesbury's  party  sent  up  numerous  petitions  to 
ask  Charles  to  allow  Parliament  to  meet,  and  his  opponents  sent  up 
petitions  expressing  abhorrence  at  such  an  attempt  to  force  the 
king's  will.  For  a  time  the  two  parties  were  kni^wn  as  Petitioners 
and  Abhorrers,  names  which  were  soon  replaced  by  those  of  Whigs 
and  Tories.  These  celebrated  names  were  at  first  merely  nicknames. 
The  courtiers  called  the  Petitioners  Whigs — an  abbreviation  of 
Whigamore,  the  name  by  which  the  peasants  of  the  west  of  Scot- 
land   were    familiarly  known,  from  the  cry  of  "  Whiggam  "  with 


410  ENGLAND 

1680-1681 

which  they  were  accustomed  to  encourage  their  horses.  The  name 
Whig  therefore  imphed  that  the  petitioners  were  no  better  than 
Covenanting  rebels.  The  Petitioners,  on  the  other  hand,  called 
their  opponents  Tories — the  name  given  to  brigands  in  Ireland,  im- 
plying that  they  were  no  better  than  Popish  thieves. 

Each  party  did  all  that  could  be  done  to  court  popularity. 
Aionmouth  made  a  triumphant  progress  in  the  west  of  England. 
On  the  other  hand,  James,  on  his  return  from  Scotland,  had  a  good 
reception  even  in  London,  the  headquarters  of  his  opponents.  On 
June  26,  1680,  Shaftesbury  appeared  at  Westminster  and  indicted 
James  as  a  recusant.  At  last,  on  October  21,  the  second  short 
Parliament  met.  The  Exclusion  Bill  was  rapidly  passed  through 
the  Commons.  In  the  Lords,  Halifax  carried  the  House  with  him 
by  an  eloquent  and  closely-reasoned  speech,  in  which  the  claims  of 
the  Princess  of  Orange  were  dwelt  on  as  superior  to  those  of  Mon- 
mouth, and  the  bill  was,  in  consequence,  rejected.  Charles  thought 
he  saw  an  indication  that  the  tide  of  opinion  was  turning  in  his 
favor,  and  on  January  18.  1681,  dissolved  Parliament. 

Charles  summoned  a  new  Parliament  to  meet  at  Oxford, 
where  it  would  not  be  exposed  to  any  violent  interruption  by 
Shaftesbury's  "  brisk  boys  '' — as  his  noisy  London  supporters  were 
called — who  might,  it  was  feared,  repeat  the  exploits  of  the  city 
mob  in  1641.  The  new  House  of  Commons  was  again  pre- 
dominantly Whig,  and  it  was  thought  by  the  W^higs  that  Oxford 
had  been  selected  as  the  place  of  meeting  because  the  university  was 
eminently  Tory,  with  the  deliberate  intention  of  overpowering  them 
by  force.  Their  alarm  increased  when  they  learned  that  the  king 
was  bringing  his  guards  with  him.  Accordingly  the  Whigs  armed 
themselves  and  their  servants  in  self-defense,  and  in  this  guise  rode 
into  Oxford.  Parliament  was  opened  on  March  21,  1681,  and 
Charles  then  offered  to  assent  to  any  scheme  for  stripping  his 
brother  of  royal  authority,  if  only  he  were  recognized  as  king. 
Shaftesbury  replied  that  the  only  way  of  ending  the  dispute  was  to 
declare  ]\Ionmouth  heir  to  the  Crown.  As  the  Commons  supported 
Shafteslmry,  Charles,  on  IMarch  28,  dissolved  his  third  Short  Parlia- 
ment. So  much  was  he  afraid  that  the  Whig  members  and  their 
servants  might  lay  violent  hands  on  him  that  he  drove  in  one 
coach  to  Christchurch  Hall,  where  tlie  House  of  Lords  was  sitting, 
and  sent  his  robes  by  another  in  order  that  it  might  not  be  guessed 
that  a  dissolution  was  intended.     He  soon  found  that  he  could  now 


DAN  BY' S     ADMINISTRATION  411 

1681 

count  on  popular  support  in  almost  every  part  of  England.  The 
mass  of  people  judge  more  by  what  they  see  than  by  what  they 
hear.  The  pistols  in  the  hands  of  the  Whig  members  when  they 
rode  into  Oxford  had  driven  into  men's  heads  the  belief  that  they 
intended  to  gain  their  ends  by  civil  war,  and,  much  as  the  nation 
disliked  the  idea  of  having  a  "  Popish  "  king,  it  disliked  the  idea  of 
civil  war  still  more,  and  rallied  round  the  king. 


Chapter    XL 

THE   LAST   YEARS    OF   CHARLES    H.     1681— 1685 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  Charles  II.,  A.D.  1660-1685 — Tory  Reaction,  1681 — Flight 
OF  Shaftesbury,  1682 — Forfeiture  of  the  Charter  of  the  City  of 
London,  1683 — ^The  Rye  House  Plot,  1683 — Executions  of  Russell 
AND  Sidney,  1683 — Death  of  Charles  II.,  Feb.  6,  1685 

THE  Tory  reaction  which  followed  made  itself  especially 
felt  in  the  law  courts.  Judges  and  juries  who  had  com- 
bined to  send  to  death  innocent  Catholics,  upon  the  testi- 
mony of  forsworn  informers,  now  combined  to  send  to  death  ardent 
Whigs,  upon  the  testimony  of  informers,  equally  base.  In  the  City 
of  London,  however,  it  was  still  impossible  to  secure  a  verdict 
against  a  Whig.  Juries  were  everywhere  nominated  by  the  sheriff 
of  the  county,  and  sheriffs  were,  in  political  cases,  ready  to  compose 
a  jury  of  political  partisans.  Li  every  part  of  England  except 
Middlesex,  the  sheriffs  were  named  by  the  king,  and  were,  there- 
fore, Tories.  The  City  of  London,  which  was  strongly  Whig,  had 
the  privilege  of  electing  sheriffs  for  London  and  Middlesex,  and 
these  sheriffs  took  care  that  Middlesex  juries  should  be  composed 
of  Whigs.  Shaftesbury  was  accused  of  high  treason,  but  before  he 
could  be  tried  the  Grand  Jury  of  Middlesex  had  to  find  a  true  bill 
against  him — that  is  to  say,  to  declare  that  there  was  sufficient 
evidence  against  him  to  call  for  a  trial.  On  November  24,  1681, 
the  Grand  Jury,  composed  of  his  own  political  partisans,  threw  out 
the  bill,  and  he  was  at  once  set  at  liberty. 

Shaftesbury's  course  was  nearly  run.  Before  long,  on  May 
2^],  1682,  his  most  conspicuous  enemy,  the  Duke  of  York,  returned 
from  Scotland.  The  first  thing  on  which,  after  James's  return,  the 
king's  ministers  set  their  heart,  was  to  strike  a  blow  at  Shaftesbury. 
As  he  lived  in  his  house  in  Aldersgate  Street  and  took  care  never  to 
leave  the  City,  it  was  impossible  to  bring  him  to  trial  as  long  as 
the  sheriffs  of  London  and  Middlesex  were  Whigs.  The  Lord 
Mayor,  Moore,  was  gained  by  the  Court,  and  by  various  unscrupu- 

4.12 


CHARLES     II  413 

1682-1683 

lous  contrivances  he  secured  the  appointment  of  two  Tory  sheriffs, 
and,  even  before  the  end  of  1682,  of  a  Tory  Lord  ^Liyor  as  his  own 
successor.  There  would  no  longer  be  any  difficulty  in  filling  the 
Middlesex  jury  box  with  Tories. 

Shaftesbury  had  for  some  time  been  keenly  alive  to  the  danger 
impending  over  him.  He  had  wild  followers  in  the  City  ready  to 
follow  him  in  acts  of  violence,  and  he  had  proposed  to  Russell  and 
Monmouth  that  the  king's  guards  at  Whitehall  should  be  attacked, 
and  the  king  compelled  to  do  his  bidding.  Russell  and  Monmouth 
recoiled  from  an  act  of  violence  which  would  certainly  end  in 
bloodshed.  Shaftesbury  still  hoped  to  effect  his  end  by  the  aid  of 
his  less  scrupulous  supporters ;  but  time  slipped  away,  and  on  Octo- 
ber 19  he  fled  to  Holland,  where  he  died  on  January  22,  1683.  With 
all  his  faults,  he  had  led  the  way  on  that  path  in  which  the  English 
nation  was,  before  long,  to  walk,  as  he  had  latterly  striven  for  a 
combination  of  Parliamentary  supremacy  with  toleration  for  Dis- 
senters and  without  toleration  for  Catholics.  His  personal  failure 
was  due  to  the  disquietude  caused  by  his  turbulence  in  the  minds  of 
that  large  part  of  the  community  which  regards  orderly  govern- 
ment as  a  matter  of  primary  necessity. 

The  difficulty  which  Charles  had  experienced  in  bending  tlie 
City  to  his  will  made  him  anxious  to  provide  against  similar  resist- 
ance in  the  future.  Taking  care  to  effect  his  objects  under,  at 
least,  the  form  of  law,  he  enforced  on  the  electors  in  the  City,  who 
were  called  in  December  to  choose  the  Common  Council,  the  oath 
of  supremacy  and  the  proof  required  by  the  Corporation  Act  of 
having  received  the  Sacrament  in  the  Cluirch.  The  result  was  that 
a  Tory  majority  was  returned  on  the  Common  Council.  Follow- 
ing up  this  blow  in  1683,  he  called  on  the  City  to  show  cause,  by 
a  writ  known  as  Quo  Warranto,  before  the  King's  Bench,  why 
its  charter  should  not  be  forfeited,  in  consequence  of  its  having 
imposed  irregular  tolls  and  having  attacked  the  king's  authority  in 
a  petition  exhibited  in  1680.  Tlie  King's  Bench  decided  against 
the  City,  and  the  king  then  offered  to  restore  the  charter  on  certain 
conditions,  of  which  the  principal  was  that  he  was  to  have  a  veto 
on  the  election  of  its  principal  officers.  At  first  the  City  accepted 
his  terms,  but,  before  the  end  of  the  year,  it  drew  back,  and  the 
king  then  named  the  Lord  ALayor  and  other  officers  directly,  pay- 
ing no  further  regard  to  the  municipal  self-government  under  which 
the  City  had,  for  many  centuries,  conducted  its  own  aft'airs. 


414  ENGLAND 

1683-1684 

A  large  number  of  other  corporate  towns  were  treated  as  Lon- 
don had  been  treated.  By  a  plentiful  use  of  writs  of  Quo  War- 
ranto, the  judges  on  circuit  obtained  the  surrender  of  their  charters, 
after  which  the  king  issued  new  ones  in  which  Tories  alone  were 
named  as  members  of  the  corporations.  The  object  of  these  pro- 
ceedings was  to  make  sure  of  a  Tory  Parliament  when  the  time 
came  for  fresh  elections.  In  a  large  number  of  boroughs  the  cor- 
porations chose  the  members,  and  in  such  cases  wherever  the  cor- 
poration had  been  remodeled,  there  would  be  a  safe  Tory  seat.  At 
the  same  time  the  laws  against  the  Dissenters  were  strictly  executed, 
and  the  prisons  filled  with  their  ministers. 

Some  of  Shaftesbury's  more  violent  followers  formed  a  plot 
to  attack  the  king  and  his  brother  at  the  Rye  House.  The  plot 
failed,  as  Charles  passed  the  Rye  House  some  days  earlier  than  was 
expected,  and  several  of  the  conspirators  were  taken  and  executed. 

The  discovery  of  the  Rye  House  Plot  brought  to  light  a 
dangerous  combination  among  the  Parliamentary  Whigs,  in 
which  Monmouth,  Russell,  Essex,  Lord  Howard  of  Escrick,  and 
other  notable  persons  were  implicated.  They  had,  indeed,  kept 
themselves  free  from  any  intention  to  offer  personal  violence  to  the 
king,  but  they  had  attempted  to  form  an  association  strong  enough 
to  compel  him  to  summon  another  Parliament,  though  apparently 
without  coming  to  a  definite  conclusion  as  to  the  way  in  which  they 
were  to  use  compulsion.  In  their  own  eyes  their  project  was  no 
more  than  constitutional  agitation.  In  the  eyes  of  the  king  and  of 
the  Crown  lawyers  it  was  a  preparation  for  rebellion.  Essex  com- 
mitted suicide  in  prison,  while  Ploward  of  Escrick  turned  informer 
against  his  friends. 

Russell  was  accordingly  put  on  trial  as  a  traitor.  In  those 
days  no  one  on  his  trial  for  treason  was  allowed  to  be  defended  by 
a  lawyer,  as  far  as  the  facts  of  the  case  were  concerned,  but  no 
objection  was  taken  to  his  having  someone  near  him  to  take  notes 
of  the  evidence  and  to  assist  his  memory.  "  Your  friends,"  wrote 
his  wife  to  him  sliortly  before  the  trial,  "  Ijelieving  I  can  do  you 
some  service  at  your  trial,  I  am  extremely  willing  to  try.  My  reso- 
lution will  hold  out,  pray  let  yours."  Her  offer  was  accepted,  and 
she  gave  her  husband  all  the  help  that  it  was  possible  to  give. 
The  jury,  however,  brought  in  a  verdict  of  guilty,  and  sentence  of 
death  followed.  In  prison  Russell  was  visited  by  two  ministers, 
Tillotson    and    Burnet.     No    clergymen    in    England    were    more 


CHARLES     II  415 

1683-1684 

liberal-minded  that  these  two,  yet  they  urged  the  prisoner  to  ac- 
knowledge that  resistance  to  the  king  was  in  all  cases  unlawful. 
Russell  maintained  that,  in  extreme  cases,  subjects  might  resist. 
Here  lay  the  root  of  the  political  animosity  between  Whig  and  Tory. 
Whether  an  extreme  case  had  occurred  was  a  matter  of  opinion. 
"  As  for  the  share  I  had  in  the  prosecution  of  the  Popish  Plot," 
Russell  declared  on  the  scaffold,  "  I  take  God  to  witness  that  I 
proceeded  in  it  in  the  sincerity  of  my  heart,  being  then  really  con- 
vinced, as  I  am  still,  that  there  w^as  a  conspiracy  against  the  king, 
the  nation,  and  the  Protestant  religion."  It  was  because  the  nation 
at  large  no  longer  held  this  to  be  true  that  the  Tories  were  in  power. 

Russell's  trial  was  followed  by  that  of  Algernon  Sidney. 
Though  the  real  charge  against  him  was  that  of  having  conspired 
against  the  king,  only  one,  and  that  a  not  very  credible,  witness 
could  be  produced  as  evidence  of  this ;  and  the  prosecuting  lawyers 
then  brought  forward  a  treatise,  w-ritten  in  his  own  hand,  but 
neither  printed  nor  circulated  in  manuscript,  in  which  he  had  advo- 
cated the  right  of  subjects  to  depose  their  king.  This  was  held  to 
be  equivalent  to  having  a  second  witness  against  him,  and  Sidney 
was  condemned  and  executed.  He  was  a  theoretical  Republican, 
and  it  was  hard  to  bring  up  against  him  a  writing  which  he  had 
never  published.  Other  less  important  Whigs  were  also  put  to 
death.  Monmouth  owed  his  pardon  to  his  father's  tenderness,  but, 
as  he  still  continued  to  bear  himself  as  the  head  of  a  party,  he  was 
sent  into  honorable  exile  in  Holland. 

In  the  spring  of  1684  three  years  had  passed  without  a  Par- 
liament, although  the  statute  repealing  tlie  Triennial  Act  had  de- 
clared that  Parliament  ought  to  be  summoned  every  three  years. 
So  sure  was  Charles  of  his  ground  that  he  liberated  Danby  without 
causing  a  murmur  of  complaint.  At  Court  there  were  two  parties, 
one  led  by  Halifax,  which  urged  that,  1)y  summoning  a  Parliament 
now,  Charles  would  not  only  comply  with  the  law.  but  would  have 
a  Parliament  as  loyal  as  the  Cavalier  Parliament  had  been;  the 
other,  led  by  Lawrence  Hyde,  the  second  son  of  Clarendon,  who 
had  recently  been  created  h^arl  of  Rix^hester.  Rochester,  who  was 
the  highest  of  Tories,  pointed  out  that  the  law  prescribed  no  means 
by  which  tlie  king  could  be  compelled  to  call  a  I'arliament  if  he  did 
not  wish  to  do  so,  and  that,  after  ;ill,  the  Cavalier  I'arliament,  loyal 
as  it  was  at  first,  had  made  itself  very  disagreeable  to  the  king 
during  the   latter   years   of    its   existence.     All    through    the   year 


416  ENGLAND 

1660-1685 

Charles  hesitated  and  left  the  question  undecided.  The  king  of 
France,  who  was  renewing  his  aggressions  on  the  continent  under 
the  guise  of  legal  claims,  was  ready  to  do  all  he  could  to  prevent 
the  meeting  of  an  English  Parliament,  which  would,  in  all  prob- 
ability, declare  against  him,  and  by  sending  money  to  Charles  from 
time  to  time  he  saved  him  from  the  necessity  of  asking  his  sub- 
jects for  support. 

On  February  2,  1685,  before  anything  had  been  decided, 
Charles  was  struck  down  by  an  apoplectic  stroke.  It  was  soon 
known  that  he  was  dying.  Bancroft,  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, spoke  plainly  to  him:  "  It  is  time,"  he  said,  "to  speak  out; 
for,  sir,  you  are  about  to  appear  before  a  Judge  who  is  no  respecter 
of  persons."  The  king  took  no  notice,  and,  after  a  while,  the  Duke 
of  York  came  to  his  bedside  and  asked  his  brother  whether  he 
wished  to  be  reconciled  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  "  Yes,"  murmured 
the  dying  man,  "with  all  my  heart!"  James  sent  for  a  priest, 
directing  the  bishops  and  the  courtiers  to  leave  the  room.  Charles 
was  duly  reconciled,  receiving  absolution  and  the  sacraments  of 
the  Roman  Church.  He  lingered  for  some  days,  and  begged  par- 
don of  those  around  him.  He  had  been,  he  said,  an  unconscion- 
able time  in  dying,  but  he  hoped  they  would  excuse  it.  On  Feb- 
ruary 6  he  died. 

The  twenty-five  years  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  were  years 
of  substantial  constitutional  progress.  Charles  did  not,  indeed, 
acknowledge  that  Parliament  had  that  right  of  directing  the  choice 
of  his  ministers  which  the  Long  Parliament  had  upheld  against  his 
father  in  the  Grand  Remonstrance ;  but  though  he  took  care  that 
his  ministers  should  be  responsible  to  himself  and  not  to  Parliament, 
he  had  also  taken  care,  on  the  whole,  to  adapt  the  selection  of  his 
ministers  to  the  changing  temper  of  Parliament  and  the  nation. 
Clarendon,  the  Cabal,  and  Danby  had  all  been  allowed  to  disappear 
from  office  when  Parliament  turned  against  them.  The  forma- 
tion of  Parliamentary  parties,  again,  was  itself  a  condition  of  Par- 
liamentary strength.  The  Cavalier  Parliament  had  been  weakened 
in  its  later  years  by  the  uncertainty  of  its  aims.  At  one  time  the 
king's  reliance  upon  France  and  his  tendency  to  rest  his  government 
on  armed  force  provoked  a  majority  to  vote  against  him.  At  an- 
other time  some  concession  made  by  him  to  their  wishes  brought 
round  a  maj(,>rity  to  his  side.  In  the  latter  years  of  Charles's  reign 
this  uncertainty  was  at  an  end.     Charles  had  thrown  his  depend- 


CHARLES     II  417 

1660-1685 

ence  on  France  and  the  army  into  the  background,  and  in  a  struggle 
the  successful  issue  of  which  would  bring  no  personal  advantage 
to  himself,  had  taken  his  stand  on  the  intelligible  principle  of  de- 
fending his  brother's  succession.  He  had  consequently  rallied 
round  the  throne  all  who  thought  the  maintenance  of  order  to  be 
of  supreme  importance,  while  all  who  suspected  that  the  order 
which  Charles  maintained  was  hurtful  and  oppressive  combined 
against  him.  This  sharp  division  of  parties  ultimately  strength- 
ened the  power  of  Parliament.  The  intemperance  of  Charles's 
adversaries  had  indeed  given  him  the  upper  hand  for  the  time,  but, 
if  ever  the  day  came  when  a  king  made  himself  unpopular,  a  Par- 
liament opposed  to  him  would  be  all  the  stronger  if  its  majority 
were  of  one  mind  in  supporting  definite  principles  under  definite 
leaders.  Charles  II.,  in  short,  did  not  live  to  see  the  establishment 
of  Parliamentary  government,  but  he  unwittingly  prepared  the 
way  for  it. 

The  horror  of  a  renewal  of  civil  war,  which  was  partly  the 
result  of  sad  experience,  was  also  the  result  of  the  growth  of  the 
general  well-being  of  the  community.  The  population  of  England 
now  exceeded  5,000,000.  Rents  were  rising,  and  commerce  was 
rapidly  on  the  increase.  Fresh  colonies — among  theni  Penn- 
sylvania and  Carolina — were  founded  in  America.  In  England 
itself  the  growth  of  London  was  an  index  to  the  general  prosperity. 
In  those  days  the  City  was  the  home  of  the  merchants,  who  did  not 
then  leave  the  place  where  their  business  was  done  to  spend  the 
evening  and  night  in  the  suburbs.  Living  side  by  side,  they  clung 
to  one  another,  and  their  civic  ardor  created  a  strength  which 
weighed  heavily  in  the  balance  of  parties.  The  opposition  of  the 
City  to  Charles  I.  had  given  tlie  victory  to  Parliament  in  the  civil 
war,  and  its  dislike  of  military  government  had  done  much  to 
bring  about  the  Restoration.  The  favor  of  tlie  City  had  been  the 
chief  support  of  Shaftesbury,  and  it  was  only  by  overthrowing  its 
municipal  institutions  that  Charles  II.  had  succeeded  in  crippling 
its  power  to  injure  him.  In  the  meantime  a  new  forest  of  houses 
was  springing  up  on  sites  between  Lincoln's  Inn  and  what  is  now 
known  as  Soho  Square,  and  round  St.  James's  Church.  The  Court 
and  the  frequent  meetings  of  Parliament  attracted  to  London  many 
families  which,  a  generation  earlier,  would  have  lived  entirely  in  the 
country. 

Nothing  has  made  a  greater  change  in  the  material  habits  of 


418  ENGLAND 

1600-1700 

Europeans  than  the  introduction  of  warm  beverages.  Chocolate 
first  made  its  way  into  England  in  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth, 
but  it  was  for  some  time  regarded  merely  as  a  medicine,  not  to  be 
taken  by  the  prudent  except  under  a  physician's  orders,  though 
those  interested  in  its  sale  declared  that  it  was  suitable  for  all,  and 
would  cure  every  possible  complaint.  Chocolate  was  soon  followed 
by  coffee,  and  coffee  soon  became  fashionable,  not  as  a  medicine, 
but  as  a  pleasant  substitute  for  beer  and  wine.  The  introduction 
of  tea  was  somewhat  later.  It  was  in  the  reign  of  Charles  11.  that 
coffee-houses  arose  in  London,  and  became  places  of  resort,  answer- 
ing the  purposes  of  the  modern  clubs.  They  soon  acquired  political 
importance,  matters  of  state  being  often  discussed  in  them,  and  the 
opinion  of  their  frequenters  carrying  weight  with  those  who  were 
directly  concerned  with  Government.  The  gathering  of  men  of 
intellectual  prominence  to  London  was  a  marked  feature  of  the 
time,  and  except  at  the  universities,  there  was  scarcely  a  preacher 
or  a  theological  writer  of  note  who  was  not  to  be  found  either  in 
the  episcopate  or  at  the  head  of  a  London  parish. 

The  arrangements  for  cleanliness  did  not  keep  pace  in  London 
with  the  increased  magnificence  of  the  dwellings.  Filthy  and  dis- 
colored streams  poured  along  the  gutters,  and  carts  and  carriages 
splashed  mud  and  worse  than  mud  over  the  passengers  on  foot. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Charles  IL  the  streets  were  left 
in  darkness,  and  robbers  made  an  easy  prey  of  those  who  ventured 
out  after  dark.  Young  noblemen  and  gentlemen  when  drunk  took 
pleasure  in  knocking  down  men  and  insulting  women.  Something 
was,  however,  done  before  the  end  of  the  reign  to  mitigate  the 
dangers  arising  from  darkness.  One  man  obtained  a  patent  for 
lighting  London,  and  it  was  thought  a  great  thing  that  he  placed  a 
lantern  in  front  of  one  door  in  every  ten  in  winter  only,  between  six 
and  midnight. 

The  art  of  the  time,  so  far  as  painting  was  concerned,  was 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  foreigners.  Van  Dyck,  a  Fleming,  from 
Antwerp,  had  left  to  the  world  numerous  representations  of  Charles 
L  and  Henrietta  Maria,  of  Strafford  and  Laud,  and  of  the  ladies  and 
gentlemen  who  tlu-ongcd  tlie  Court.  Charles  IT.  again  called  in  the 
services  of  a  foreigner,  whose  real  name  w;is  Van  der  Goes,  but  who 
called  himself  Leiy.  Lely  painted  Court  beauties  and  Court  gentle- 
men, lie  had  far  less  power  than  Van  Dyck  of  presenting  on 
canvas  the  mind  which  lies  bcliind  the  features,  and  in  manv  cases 


y-    ,'!. 


CHARLESII  419 

1600-1700 

those  who  sat  to  him  had  minds  less  worthy  of  being  presented 
than  those  with  which  Van  Dyck  had  to  do. 

In  architecture  alone  English  hands  were  found  to  do  the  work 
required;  but  the  style  in  which  they  built  was  not  English,  but 
Italian.  The  rows  of  pillars  and  round  arches,  with  the  meaning- 
less decorations  which  bespoke  an  age  preferring  sumptuousness 
to  beauty,  superseded  the  quaint  Elizabethan  and  early  Jacobean 
houses,  which  seemed  built  for  comfort  rather  than  for  display. 
In  the  reign  of  James  L,  Inigo  Jones  planned  the  great  banqueting 
hall  at  Whitehall  and  so  contemptuous  was  he  of  the  great  architec- 
ture of  the  Middle  Ages,  that  he  fitted  on  an  Italian  portico  to  the 
west  front  of  the  old  St,  Paul's.  This  style  of  building  culminated 
in  the  work  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren.  The  fire  of  London  gave 
him  an  opportunity  which  he  did  not  throw  away.  His  greatest 
achievement,  the  new  St.  Paul's,  was,  when  Charles  II.  died,  only 
slowly  rising  from  the  ground,  and  it  remained  uncompleted  till 
long  after  Charles  II.  had  been  laid  in  the  grave. 

The  foundation  of  the  Royal  Society  had  borne  ample  fruit. 
Halley  and  Flamsteed  were  the  astronomers  of  the  time  till  their 
fame  was  eclipsed  by  that  of  Isaac  Newton,  who  before  the  end  of 
the  reign  of  Charles  II.  was  already  meditating  on  the  views  con- 
tained in  his  "  Principia,"  in  v/hich  the  law  of  gravitation  was  set 
forth,  though  that  work  was  not  written  till  after  the  death  of  that 
king. 

Difficulties  of  communication  served  both  to  encourage  to^-n 
life  and  to  hinder  the  increase  of  manufactures  at  any  considerable 
distance  from  the  sea.  The  roads  were  left  to  each  parish  to  repair, 
and  the  parishes  usually  did  as  little  as  possible.  In  many  places 
a  mere  quagmire  took  the  place  of  the  road.  Young  and  active 
men,  and  somictimes  ladies,  traveled  on  horseback,  and  goods  of 
no  great  weight  were  transmitted  on  packhorses.  The  family 
coach,  in  which  those  who  were  too  dignified  or  too  weak  to  ride 
made  their  way  from  one  part  of  the  country  to  another,  was 
dragged  by  six  horses,  and  often  sank  so  deeply  in  the  mud  as  only 
to  be  extricated  by  the  loan  of  additional  plow  horses  from  a  neigh- 
boring farm,  while  heavy  goods  were  conveyed  in  hinibering 
wagons,  still  more  difficult  to  move  even  at  a  moderate  speed.  For 
passengers  who  could  not  afford  to  keep  a  coach  the  carrier's 
wagon  served  as  a  slow  conveyance:  but  before  the  end  of  the 
reign  of  Charles  II.  there  had  been  introduced  a  vehicle  known  as 


420  ENGLAND 

1600-1700 

The  Flying  Coach,  which  managed  to  perform  a  journey  at  the 
rate  of  fifty  miles  a  day  in  summer  and  thirty  in  winter,  in  districts 
in  which  roads  were  exceptionably  good. 

These  difficulties  of  communication  greatly  affected  the  less 
wealthy  of  the  country  gentry  and  the  country  clergy.  A  country 
gentleman  of  large  fortune,  indeed,  would  occasionally  visit  London 
and  appear  as  a  visitor  at  the  house  of  some  relative  or  friend  to 
whom  he  was  specially  attached.  The  movements,  however,  even 
of  this  class  were  much  restricted,  while  men  of  moderate  estate 
seldom  moved  at  all.  The  refinements  which  at  present  adorn 
country  life  were  not  then  to  be  found.  Books  were  few,  and  the 
man  of  comparatively  slender  means  found  sufficient  occupation  in 
the  management  of  his  land  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  field  sports. 
His  ideas  on  politics  were  crude,  and,  because  they  were  crude,  were 
pertinaciously  held.  The  country  clergyman  was  relatively  poorer 
than  the  country  squire;  and  had  few  means  of  cultivating  his  mind 
or  of  elevating  the  religion  of  his  parishioners.  The  ladies  of  the 
houses  of  even  the  richest  of  the  landed  gentry  were  scarcely  edu- 
cated at  all,  and,  though  there  were  bright  exceptions,  anyone 
familiar  with  the  correspondence  of  the  seventeenth  century  knows 
that,  if  he  comes  across  a  letter  particularly  illegible  and  uninterest- 
ing, there  is  a  strong  probability  that  the  writer  was  a  woman. 

A  common  life  passed  in  the  country  under  much  the  same 
conditions  naturally  drew  together  the  squire  and  the  rector  or 
vicar  of  his  parish.  A  still  stronger  bond  united  them  for  the  most 
part  in  a  common  Toryism.  They  had  both  suffered  from  the  same 
oppression :  the  squire,  or  his  predecessor,  had  been  heavily  fined 
by  a  Puritan  Parliament  or  a  Puritan  Lord  Protector,  while  the 
incumbent  or  his  predecessor  had  been  expelled  from  his  parsonage 
and  deprived  of  his  livelihood  by  the  same  authority.  They  there- 
fore naturally  combined  in  thinking  that  the  first  axiom  in  politics 
was  to  keep  Dissenters  down,  lest  they  should  do  again  what  men 
like-minded  with  themselves  had  done  before.  Unless  some  other 
fear,  stronger  still,  presented  itself  to  them,  they  would  endure 
almost  anything  from  the  king  rather  than  risk  the  return  to  power 
of  the  Dissenters  or  of  the  Whigs,  the  friends  of  the  Dissenters. 


Chapter    XLI 

JAMES    11.     1685— 1689 

LEADING    DATES 

Accession  of  James  II.,  A.D.  Feb.  6,  1685— Meeting  of  Parliament, 
May  19,  1685 — Battle  of  Sedgemoor,  July  6,  1685 — Prorogation  of 
Parliament,  Nov.  20,  1685 — The  Judges  Allow  the  King's  Dispens- 
ing Power,  June  21,  1686 — First  Declaration  of  Indulgence,  April 
4,  1687 — Second  Declaration  of  Indulgence,  April  22,  1688 — Birth 
OF  the  Son  of  James  II.,  June  10,  1688 — Acquittal  of  the  Seven 
Bishops,  June  30,  1688 — Landing  of  William  of  Orange,  Nov.  s, 
i688— The  Crown  Accepted  by  William  and  Mary,  Feb.  13,  1689 

THE  character  of  the  new  king-,  James  II.,  resembled  that 
of  his  father.  He  had  the  same  unalterable  belief  that 
whatever  he  wished  to  do  was  absolutely  right ;  the  same 
incapacity  for  entering  into  the  feelings  or  motives  of  his  opponents, 
and  even  more  than  his  father's  inability  to  see  faults  in  those  who 
took  his  side.  He  was  bent  on  procuring  religious  liberty  for  the 
Catholics,  and  at  first  imagined  it  possible  to  do  this  with  the  help 
of  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  Church  of  England.  In  his  first 
speech  to  the  Privy  Council  he  announced  his  intention  of  preserv- 
ing the  established  government  in  Church  and  state.  He  had  mass, 
indeed,  celebrated  with  open  doors  in  his  chapel  at  Whitehall,  and 
he  continued  to  levy  taxes  which  had  been  granted  to  his  brother 
for  life  only;  yet,  as  he  issued  writs  for  a  Parliament,  these  things 
did  not  count  much  against  him.  Unless,  indeed,  he  was  to  set 
the  law  and  constitution  at  defiance  he  could  do  no  otherwise  than 
summon  Parliament,  as  out  of  1,400,000/.  which  formed  the  reve- 
nues of  the  Crown,  900,000/.  lapsed  on  Charles's  death.  James, 
however,  secured  himself  against  all  eventualities  by  procuring  from 
Louis  a  promise  of  financial  aid  in  case  of  Parliament's  proving 
restive.  Before  Parliament  met,  the  king's  inclinations  were  mani- 
fested by  sentences  pronounced  by  judges  eager  to  gain  his  favor. 
On  the  one  hand,  Titus  Gates  was  subjected  to  a  flogging  so  severe 
that  it  would  have  killed  anyone  less  hardy  than  himself.  On  the 
other  hand,   Richard  Baxter,   the  most  learned  and  moderate  of 

421 


422  ENGLAND 

1685 

Dissenters,  was  sent  to  prison  after  being  scolded  and  insulted  by- 
Jeffreys,  who,  at  the  end  of  the  late  reign,  had.  through  James's 
influence,  been  made  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench. 

Parliament  met  on  May  19.  The  House  of  Commons  was 
Tory  by  an  enormous  majority,  partly  because  the  remodeled  cor- 
porations returned  Tory  members,  but  still  more  because  the  feeling 
of  the  country  ran  strongly  in  James's  favor.  The  Commons 
granted  to  him  the  full  revenue  which  had  been  enjoyed  by  his 
brother,  and  refused  to  listen  to  a  few  of  its  members  who  raised 
objections  to  some  things  which  had  been  recently  done.  The 
House  had  not  been  long  in  session  when  it  heard  of  two  invasions, 
the  one  in  Scotland  and  the  other  in  England. 

In  Scotland  the  upper  classes  were  animated  by  a  savage 
resolve  to  keep  no  terms  with  the  Covenanters,  whose  fanatical  vio- 
lence alarmed  them.  The  Scottish  Parliament,  soon  after  the  ac- 
cession of  James,  passed  a  law  punishing  with  death  anyone  attend- 
ing a  conventicle.  Argyle,  the  polished  leader  who  had  escaped  to 
Holland  during  the  last  troubles,  returned  with  a  small  expedition, 
but  soon  after  landing  was  captured  and  carried  to  Edinburgh, 
where  he  was  executed  on  June  30. 

In  the  meanwhile  Monmouth,  the  champion  of  the  Dissenters 
and  extreme  Protestants,  had,  on  June  11,  landed  at  Lyme.  So 
popular  was  he  in  the  West  of  England  that  the  peasants  and  towns- 
men of  the  western  counties  flocked  to  join  him.  Parliament  passed 
against  him  an  Act  of  Attainder,  condemning  him  to  death  with- 
out further  trial,  and  the  king  marched  in  person  against  him  at  the 
head  of  a  disciplined  force.  Monmouth  declared  himself  to  be  the 
legitimate  king,  and,  his  name  being  James,  he  was  popularly 
known  among  his  followers  as  King  i\Ionmouth,  in  order  to  pre- 
vent confusion.  Monmouth  was  soldier  enough  to  know  that,  with 
his  raw  recruits,  his  only  chance  lay  in  surprising  the  enemy.  The 
king's  army  lay  on  Sedgemoor.  and  Monmouth,  in  the  early  morn- 
ing of  July  6,  attempted  to  fall  on  the  enemy  unawares.  Broad 
ditches  filled  with  water  checked  his  course,  and  the  sun  was  up 
before  he  reached  his  goal.  It  was  inevitable  that  he  should  be 
beaten;  the  only  wonder  was  that  his  untrained  men  fought  so 
long  as  they  did.  Monmouth  himself  fled  to  the  New  Forest, 
where  he  was  captured  and  brought  to  London.  James  admitted 
him  to  his  presence,  but  refused  to  pardon  him.  On  July  15  he 
was  executeri  as  an  attainted  traitor  without  further  trial. 


J  A  M  E  s   1 1  ns 

1685 

Large  numbers  of  Monmouth's  followers  were  hanged  by  the 
pursuing  soldiers  without  form  of  law.  Many  were  thrust  into 
prison  to  await  their  trial.  Jeffreys,  the  most  insolent  of  the 
judges,  was  sent  to  hold,  in  the  western  counties,  what  will  always 
be  known  as  the  Bloody  Assizes.  It  is  true  that  the  law  which  he 
had  to  administer  was  cruel,  but  Jeffreys  gained  peculiar  obloquy 
by  delighting  in  its  cruelty,  and  by  sneering  at  its  unhappy  victims. 
At  Winchester  he  condemned  to  death  an  old  lady,  Alice  Lisle, 
who  was  guilty  of  hiding  in  her  house  two  fugitives  from  ven- 
geance. At  Dorchester  74  persons  were  hanged.  In  Somerset- 
shire no  less  than  233  were  put  to  death.  Jeffreys  overwhelmed 
his  victinjs  with  scornful  mockery.  Someone  tried  to  move  his 
compassion  in  favor  of  one  of  the  accused.  "  My  lord,"  he  said, 
"  this  poor  creature  is  on  the  parish."  "  Do  not  trouble  your- 
selves," was  the  only  answer  given,  "  I  will  ease  the  parish  of  the 
burden,"  and  he  ordered  the  man  to  be  hanged  at  once.  The  whole 
number  of  those  who  perished  in  the  Bloody  Assizes  was  320, 
while  841  were  transported  to  the  West  Indies  to  work  as  slaves 
under  a  broiling  sun.  James  welcomed  Jeffreys  on  his  return, 
and  made  him  Lord  Chancellor  as  a  reward  for  his  achievements. 

James's  success  made  him  believe  that  he  could  overpower  any 
opposition.  He  had  already  increased  his  army  and  had  appointed 
officers  who  had  refused  to  take  the  test.  On  his  return  to  London 
he  resolved  to  ask  Parliament  to  repeal  the  Test  Act,  and  dismissed 
Halifax  for  refusing  to  support  his  proposal.  It  would  probably 
have  been  difficult  for  him  to  obtain  the  repeal  even  of  the  Recusancy 
Laws  which  punished  Catholics  for  acting  on  their  religious  belief. 
It  was  not  only  hopeless,  but  rightly  hopeless,  for  him  to  ask  for  a 
repeal  of  the  Test  Act,  which,  as  long  as  a  Catholic  king  was  on  the 
throne,  stood  in  the  way  of  his  filling  all  posts  in  the  army  as  well  as 
in  the  state  with  men  who  would  be  ready  to  assist  him  in  designs 
against  the  religion  and  liberties  of  Englishmen.  If  anything  could 
increase  the  dislike  of  the  nation  to  the  repeal  of  the  Test  Act,  it  was 
the  fact  that,  in  that  very  year,  Louis  had  revoked  the  Edict  of 
Nantes  issued  by  his  ancestor,  Henry  IV.,  to  protect  the  French 
Protestants,  and  had  handed  them  over  to  a  cruel  persecution. 
It  might  be  fairly  argued  that  what  Lonis  had  done,  James,  if  he 
got  the  power,  might  be  expected  to  do  hereafter. 

When  the  Houses,  which  had  adjourned  when  the  king  went 
into  the  west,  met  again  on  November  9,  James  informed  them  not 


424  ENGLAND 

1686 

only  that  he  had  appointed  officers  disqualified  by  law,  but  that  he 
was  determined  not  to  part  with  them.  The  House  of  Commons, 
the  most  loyal  House  that  had  ever  been  chosen,  remonstrated  with 
him,  and  there  were  signs  that  the  Lords  intended  tt  support  the 
remonstrance.     On  November  20  James  prorogued  Parliament. 

Like  his  father,  James  liked  to  think  that,  when  h  broke  the 
laws,  he  was  acting  legally,  and  he  remembered  that  the  Crown 
had,  in  former  days,  exercised  a  power  of  dispensing  with  the 
execution  of  the  laws.  This  power  had,  indeed,  been  questioned 
by  the  Parliament  in  1673,  but  there  was  no  statute  or  legal  judg- 
ment declaring  it  to  be  forbidden  by  law.  James  now  wanted  to 
get  a  decision  from  the  judges  that  he  possessed  the  dispensing 
power,  and  when  he  found  that  four  of  the  judges  disagreed  with 
him,  he  replaced  them  by  four  judges  who  would  decide  in  his 
favor.  Having  thus  packed  the  Bench,  he  procured  the  bringing 
of  a  collusive  action  against  Sir  Edward  Hales,  who,  having  been 
appointed  an  officer  in  the  army,  had,  as  a  Catholic,  refused  to  take 
the  test.  Hales  produced  a  dispensation  from  the  king,  and,  on 
June  21,  1686,  the  judges  decided  that  such  dispensations  freed 
those  who  received  them  from  the  penalties  imposed  by  any  laws 
whatever. 

James,  in  virtue  of  his  dispensing  power,  had  already  author- 
ized some  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England,  who  had  turned 
Roman  Catholics,  to  retain  their  benefices.  Obadiah  Walker,  the 
Master  of  University  College,  Oxford,  became  a  Roman  Catholic, 
set  up  a  press  for  the  printing  of  Roman  Catholic  tracts,  and  had 
mass  celebrated  openly  in  the  college.  Yet  he  was  allowed  to 
retain  his  post.  Then  the  king  appointed  Massey,  an  avowed 
Roman  Catholic,  to  the  Deanery  of  Christchurch,  and  Parker,  a 
secret  Roman  Catholic,  to  the  Bishopric  of  Oxford.  Naturally  the 
clergy  who  retained  the  principles  of  the  Church  of  England 
preached  sermons  warning  their  hearers  against  the  errors  of  the 
Church  of  Rome.  James  ordered  them  to  be  silent,  and  directed 
Compton,  Bishop  of  London,  to  suspend  Sharp,  the  Dean  of  Nor- 
wich, for  preaching  against  the  Papal  doctrines.  As  Compton 
refused  to  obey,  James,  on  July  11,  constituted  an  Ecclesiastical 
Commission  Court,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Jeffreys.  It  is  true 
that  the  Court  of  High  Commission  had  been  abolished  by  a  statute 
of  the  Long  Parliament,  but  James  argued  that  his  father's  court, 
having  power  to  punish  the  laity  as  well  as  the  clergy,  could  be 


J  A  M  E  S     1 1  425 

1686-1687 

abolished  by  Act  of  Parliament,  whereas,  a  king  being  supreme 
governor  of  the  Church,  might  provide  for  the  punishment  of  the 
clergy  alone,  in  any  way  that  he  thought  fit,  without  taking  ac- 
count of  Acts  of  Parliament.  The  first  act  of  the  new  court  was 
to  suspend  Compton  for  his  refusal  to  suspend  Sharp.  James  there- 
fore had  it  in  his  power  to  stop  the  mouths  of  all  religious  teachers 
in  the  realm. 

In  Scotland  James  insisted  on  a  Parliamentary  repeal  of  all 
laws  imposing  penalties  on  Roman  Catholics.  The  Scottish  Par- 
liament, subservient  as  it  had  been  to  Charles  II.,  having  refused  to 
comply  with  this  demand,  James  dispensed  with  all  these  laws  by 
his  own  authority,  thereby  making  Scottish  Episcopalians  almost 
as  sullen  as  Scottish  Covenanters.  In  Ireland  James  had  on  his 
side  the  whole  Catholic  Celtic  population,  and  sent  over  as  Lord 
Deputy  the  Earl  of  Tyrconnel,  known  as  Lying  Dick  Talbot,  but 
a  Roman  Catholic,  who  would  carry  out  the  king's  will  in  Ireland 
without  remorse. 

To  make  way  for  Tyrconnel,  the  former  lord-lieutenant, 
Clarendon,  the  eldest  son  of  the  late  Chancellor,  was  recalled  from 
Ireland,  his  fall  being  preceded  by  that  of  his  youngest  brother, 
who,  although  devoted  to  the  maintenance  of  the  royal  power,  re- 
fused to  change  his  religion. 

The  dismissal  of  Rochester  was  the  strongest  possible  evidence 
that  James's  own  spirit  was  intolerant.  Yet  he  was  driven,  by  the 
course  which  he  had  taken,  into  the  adoption  of  the  principle  of 
toleration.  At  first  he  had  hoped  to  obtain  favors  for  the  Roman 
Catholics  with  the  good  will  of  the  Church  of  England.  He  now 
knew  that  this  was  impossible,  and  he  therefore  resolved  to  make 
friends  of  the  Dissenters  by  pronouncing  for  a  general  toleration. 
He  first  had  private  interviews  with  the  leading  men  in  both  Houses, 
in  the  hope  that  they  would,  if  Parliament  were  reassembled,  assist 
in  the  repeal  of  all  penal  laws  bearing  on  religion.  These  closet- 
ings  proving  ineffectual,  he  issued,  by  his  own  authority,  on  April 
4,  1687,  a  Declaration  of  Indulgence,  suspending  all  laws  against 
Roman  Catholics  and  Dissenters  alike,  and  giving  permission  to 
both  to  worship  publicly.  The  result  of  the  Declaration  was  not 
all  that  James  desired.  Many  of  the  Dissenters,  indeed,  accepted 
their  freedom  joyfully.  ]\Iost  of  them,  however,  dreaded  a  gift 
which  seemed  only  intended  to  elevate  the  Roman  Catholics,  and 
opened  their  ears  to  the  pleadings  of  the  Churchmen,  who  now  as- 


426  ENGLAND 

1687 

sured  their  old  enemies  that  if  they  would  have  a  Httle  patience 
they  should,  in  the  next  Parliament,  have  a  toleration  secured  by 
law.  This,  argued  the  Churchmen,  would  be  of  far  more  use  to 
them  than  one  granted  by  the  king,  which  would  avail  them  noth- 
ing whenever  the  king  died  and  was  succeeded  by  his  Protestant 
daughter,  the  Princess  of  Orange. 

Scarcely  was  the  Declaration  issued  when  James  showed  how 
little  he  cared  for  law  or  custom.  There  was  a  vacancy  in  the 
Presidentship  of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  and  James  commanded 
the  Fellows  to  choose  one  Farmer,  a  man  of  bad  character,  and  a 
Roman  Catholic.  On  April  15  the  Fellows,  as  they  had  the  un- 
doubted right  to  do,  chose  Hough.  In  June  they  were  summoned 
before  the  Ecclesiastical  Commission,  which  declared  Hough's 
election  to  be  void,  and  ordered  them  to  choose  Parker,  who,  though 
at  heart  a  Roman  Catholic,  was  nominally  the  Protestant  Bishop  of 
Oxford.  They  answered  simply  that,  as  Hough  had  been  law- 
fully elected,  they  had  no  right  to  choose  another  President 
in  his  lifetime.  Jeffreys  bullied  them  in  vain.  James  insisted  on 
their  accepting  Parker,  and  on  acknowledging  the  legality  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Commission.  All  but  two,  hav- 
ing refused  to  submit,  were  turned  out  of  the  College  and  left  to 
beg  their  bread.  When  the  Commissioners  attempted  to  install 
Parker  in  his  office,  not  a  blacksmith  in  Oxford  would  consent  to 
break  open  the  lock  of  the  President's  lodgings.  The  servants  of 
the  Commissioners  were  at  last  employed  to  force  the  door,  and  it 
was  in  this  way  that  Parker  took  possession  of  the  residence  to 
which  Hough  alone  had  a  legal  claim.  The  expelled  Fellows  were 
not  left  to  starve,  as  there  was  scarcelv  a  gentleman  in  England 
who  would  not  have  been  proud  to  receive  one  of  them  into  his 
house. 

James  was  anxious  to  obtain  Parliamentary  sanction  for  his 
Declaration  of  Indulgence.  He  dissolved  the  existing  Parliament, 
hoping  to  find  a  new  one  more  to  liis  taste.  As  he  had  packed  the 
Bench  of  Judges  in  1686,  he  tried  to  pack  a  Parliament  in  1687. 
A  board  of  regulators  was  appointed,  with  Jeft'reys  at  its  head, 
to  remodel  the  corporations  once  more,  appointing  Roman  Catholics 
and  Dissenters  to  sit  in  them.  James  expected  that  these  new 
members  would  elect  tolerationists  to  tlie  next  House  of  Com- 
mons. So  strong,  however,  was  public  opinion  against  the  king 
that  even  the  new  members  chosen  expressly  to  vote  for  the  king's 


J  A  M  E  S     1 1  427 

1688 

nominees  could  not  be  relied  on.     The  design  of  calling  a  new 
Parliament  was  therefore  abandoned  for  the  time. 

On  April  22,  1688,  James  issued  a  second  Declaration  of 
Indulgence,  which  he  ordered  to  be  read  in  all  the  churches.  Most 
of  the  clergy  objecting  to  read  it,  seven  bishops  signed  a  petition 
asking  that  the  clergy  might  be  excused.  Six  of  these  bishops — 
Sancroft,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  was  the  seventh, 
having  been  forbidden  to  appear  before  the  king — presented  the 
petition  to  James  at  Whitehall.  James  was  startled  when  it  was 
placed  in  his  hands  and  called  it  rebellion.  In  vain  the  bishops 
protested  that  they  hated  the  very  sound  of  rebellion.  He  grew 
more  angry  and  told  them,  as  he  sent  them  away,  that  he  would 
keep  their  petition,  with  the  evident  intention  of  taking  legal  pro- 
ceedings against  them..  "  God,"  he  said,  as  he  dismissed  them, 
"  has  given  me  the  dispensing  power,  and  I  will  maintain  it.  I  tell 
you  there  are  still  seven  thousand  of  your  Church  who  have  not 
bowed  the  knee  to  Baal." 

When  the  day  came  for  the  reading  of  the  Declaration  scarcely 
a  clergyman  obeyed  the  king's  order.  In  one  of  tlie  London 
churches  Samuel  Wesley,  father  of  the  John  Wesley  who  was,  by 
his  preaching,  to  move  the  hearts  of  the  next  generation,  preached 
a  sermon  on  the  text,  *'  Be  it  known  unto  thee,  O  king,  that  we 
will  not  serve  thy  gods,  nor  worship  the  golden  image  which  thou 
hast  set  up."  In  Westminster  Abbey,  when  the  officiating  minister. 
Bishop  Sprat,  a  courtly  prelate,  began  to  read  the  Declaration,  the 
whole  congregation  rose  in  a  body  and  streamed  out  of  the  church. 

James  ordered  that  the  seven  bishops  should  be  tried,  on  the 
plea  that  their  petition  was  a  seditious  libel.  The  trial  took  place 
in  Westminster  Hall  on  June  29.  The  first  difficulty  of  the  prose- 
cution was  to  show  that  the  so-called  libel  had  been  published — that 
is  to  say,  had  been  shown  to  anyone — as  no  one  was  present  besides 
the  bishops  when  James  received  it,  and  the  king  could  not  be  put 
into  the  witness-box.  At  last  sufficient  evidence  was  tendered  by 
tlie  Earl  of  Sunderland — a  minister  who,  unlike  Rocliester,  had 
changed  his  religion  to  keep  his  place — to  convince  the  court  that 
the  petition  had  been  delivered  to  James.  The  lawyers  on  both 
sides  then  addressed  the  jury  on  the  question  whether  tlie  petition 
was  really  a  libel.  The  jury  retired  to  deliberate,  and  at  first  nine 
of  them  were  for  the  bishops  and  three  for  the  king.  Two  of  the 
latter  gave  way,  but  the  other,  a  certain  Arnold,  who  was  the  king's 


428  ENGLAND 

1688 

brewer,  held  out.  "  Whatever  I  do,"  he  said,  "  I  am  sure  to  be 
half  ruined.  If  I  say  Not  Guilty  I  shall  brew  no  more  for  the  king, 
and  if  I  say  Guilty  I  shall  brew  no  more  for  anybody  else."  He 
decided  that  the  king's  custom  was  the  best  worth  keeping.  To 
a  gentleman  named  Austen  who  proposed  to  argue  with  him  he 
replied  that  his  mind  was  already  made  up.  "  If  you  come  to 
that,"  replied  Austen,  "  look  at  me.  I  am  the  largest  and  strongest 
of  this  twelve;  and  before  I  find  such  a  petition  a  libel,  here  I 
will  stay  till  I  am  no  bigger  than  a  tobacco  pipe."  The  jury  were 
locked  up  through  the  night,  and  when  the  morning  of  the  30th 
came  Arnold  had  given  way.  A  verdict  of  Not  Guilty  was  given 
in.  The  crowds  in  Westminster  Hall  and  in  the  streets  of  London 
burst  out  into  shouts  of  joy.  At  Hounslow,  where  James  was  re- 
viewing the  regiments  on  which  he  trusted  to  break  down  all 
popular  resistance,  the  soldiers  shouted  like  the  rest.  James  asked 
what  it  all  meant.  "  Nothing,"  he  was  told ;  "  the  soldiers  are  glad 
that  the  bishops  are  acquitted."  "  Do  you  call  that  nothing?"  he 
answered.     ''  So  much  the  worse  for  them." 

The  acquittal  of  the  bishops  would,  but  for  one  circumstance, 
have  strengthened  the  nation  in  its  resolution  patiently  to  wait  till 
James's  death  placed  his  daughter  on  the  throne.  On  June  10, 
however,  a  son  had  been  born  to  James,  and  that  fact  changed  the 
whole  situation.  The  boy  would  be  educated  in  his  father's  re- 
ligion, and  England  was  threatened  with  a  Roman  Catholic  dynasty 
in  which  each  successive  ruler  would,  from  his  childhood,  be 
brought  up  in  the  belief  that  he  might  break  through  all  legal  re- 
straints whenever  he  could  have  the  approval  of  judges  appointed 
by  himself  and  liable  to  dismissal  whenever  he  pleased.  At  first 
the  general  dislike  of  tliis  disagreeable  fact  took  the  shape  of  in- 
credulity, and  it  was  almost  universally  believed,  without  a  shadov,- 
of  foundation,  that  the  boy  was  a  supposititious  child  procured  from 
some  poor  mother  and  brought  in  a  warming-pan  into  the  queen's 
chamber,  ^^'hetller  he  were  supposititious  or  not,  there  was  no 
doubt  that  he  would  be  treated  as  James's  heir.  Tories  were  as 
much  concerned  as  Whigs  at  the  prospect  before  them.  The  doc- 
trine of  non-resistance  was  forgotten,  and  on  June  30.  the  day  of 
the  bishops'  acquittal,  seven  important  personages,  some  being 
Whigs  and  some  Tories,  invited  the  Prince  of  Orange  to  land  with 
an  armed  force  to  defend  the  liberties  of  England. 

William  v/ould  probably  not  have  accepted  the  invitation  if 


J  A  M  E  S     1 1  429 

1688 

the  constitutional  rights  of  Englishmen  had  alone  been  at  stake; 
but  he  had  made  it  the  object  of  his  life  to  struggle  against  Louis, 
and  he  knew  that  war  was  on  the  point  of  breaking  out  between 
Louis  and  an  alliance  in  which  almost  every  European  prince  took 
part  excepting  James.  He  accepted  the  invitation  that  he  might 
bring  England  into  that  alliance;  and  made  preparations,  which 
could  not  be  hidden  from  James.  James  made  concessions, 
abolished  the  Ecclesiastical  Commission,  gave  back  the  charters  of 
the  City  of  London  and  the  other  corporations,  and  restored  the 
Fellows  of  Magdalen,  Anxious  as  William  was  to  come,  he  was 
delayed  for  some  time.  The  army  of  Louis  was  on  the  southern 
frontier  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  and  William  could  not  stir 
as  long  as  an  invasion  of  his  Spanish  allies  was  threatened.  Louis, 
however,  offered  James  the  assistance  of  his  fleet  to  repel  the  ex- 
pected Dutch  expedition.  James  replied  that  he  was  quite  able 
to  take  care  of  himself.  Louis  lost  his  temper,  withdrew  his  army 
from  the  frontier  of  the  Netherlands,  and  sent  it  to  begin  the  war 
with  the  allies  by  burning  and  ravaging  the  Palatinate.  William 
put  to  sea,  intending  to  land  in  Torbay.  On  the  morning  of 
November  5  it  was  found  that  the  fleet  had  passed  the  haven  for 
which  it  was  bound ;  and  as  the  wind  was  blowing  it  strongly  on, 
there  seemed  no  possibility  of  returning.  William  believed  that 
nothing  but  failure  was  before  him.  "  You  may  go  to  prayers, 
doctor,"  he  said  to  Burnet,  an  English  clergyman  who  accom- 
panied him ;  "  all  is  over."  In  a  moment  the  wind  changed  and 
bore  the  fleet  back  into  Torbay,  and  William  was  enabled  to 
land  safely  at  Brixham.  Both  he  and  Burnet  were  convinced  that 
God  had  Himself  guided  them  thus  far  in  safety  for  the  deliverance 
of  His  people. 

William  marched  upon  London,  and  after  a  while  the  gentry 
of  the  counties  through  which  he  passed  poured  in  to  support  him. 
The  north  and  the  midlands  rose  under  the  Earls  of  Devonshire 
and  Danby  and  other  lords.  Whig  and  Tory.  The  doctrine  of  non- 
resistance  was  thrown  to  the  winds.  James  set  out  with  his  troops 
to  combat  William.  He  reached  Salisbury,  but  the  officers  of  his 
own  army  and  his  courtiers  deserted  him.  Among  those  who 
fled  to  William  was  Lord  Churchill,  afterwards  known  as  the  Duke 
of  Marlborough  and  the  greatest  soldier  of  the  age.  He  had  re- 
ceived many  favors  from  James  which  he  now  repaid  by  inciting 
all  those  whom  he  could  influence  to  abandon  their  king.     Among 


430  ENGLAND 

1688-1689 

these  was  James's  younger  daughter  Anne,  over  whom  Churchill's 
wife  exercised  a  most  powerful  influence,  and  who  now,  together 
with  her  husband,  Prince  George  of  Denmark,  fled  to  William. 
James,  left  almost  alone,  made  his  way  back  to  London,  which  he 
reached  on  November  27.  On  the  30th  he  ordered  the  preparation 
of  writs  for  the  election  of  a  Parliament,  and  proposed  an  accommo- 
dation with  William,  who  by  that  time  had  reached  Hungerford. 
It  was  agreed  that  both  armies  should  remain  at  a  distance  of  forty 
miles  from  London  in  order  to  enable  the  new  Parliament  to  meet 
in  safety.  James  was,  in  reality,  determined  not  to  submit.  On 
December  10  he  sent  his  wife  and  son  to  France.  On  the  nth  he 
attempted  to  follow  them,  burning  the  writs  and  dropping  the  great 
seal  into  the  Thames,  in  the  hope  that  everything  might  fall  into 
confusion  for  want  of  the  symbol  of  legitimate  authority.  There 
were  riots  in  London,  and  the  Roman  Catholic  chapels  were  sacked 
and  destroyed.  There  was  a  general  call  to  William  to  hasten  his 
march.  On  the  12th,  however,  James  was  stopped  near  Sheerness 
by  some  fishermen  and  brought  back  to  London.  William  had  no 
mind  to  have  a  second  royal  martyr  on  his  hands,  and  did  every- 
thing to  frighten  James  into  another  flight.  On  December  18 
James  left  London  and  William  arrived  at  Whitehall.  On  Decem- 
ber 23,  with  William's  connivance,  James  embarked  for  France. 

Among  the  crowd  which  welcomed  William  was  Sergeant 
Maynard,  an  old  man  of  ninety.  "  You  must,"  said  William  to 
him,  "  have  survived  all  the  lawyers  of  your  standing."  "  Yes, 
sir,"  replied  Maynard,  "  and,  but  for  your  Highness,  I  should  have 
survived  the  laws  too."  He  expressed  the  general  sense  of  almost 
every  Englishman.  How  to  return  to  a  legal  system  with  the  least 
possible  disturbance  was  the  problem  to  be  faced.  William  con- 
sulted the  House  of  Lords  and  an  assembly  compfjsed  of  all  persons 
who  had  sat  in  any  of  Charles's  Parliaments,  together  with  special 
representatives  of  the  City.  Alembers  of  James's  own  Parliament 
were  not  summoned,  on  the  plea  that  the  return  to  it  of  members 
chosen  by  the  remodeled  corporations  made  it  no  true  Parliament. 
The  body  iluis  consulted  advised  William  to  call  a  Convention, 
whicli  would  be  a  I^r.rliament  in  everything  except  that  there  was 
no  king  to  summon  it. 

On  January  22,  1689,  the  Convention  met.  The  House  of 
Commons  conlaincd  a  majcjrity  of  Whigs,  while  the  Tories  were  in 
a  niaj(jrit\-  in  llic  Lords.     On  the  28th  tlie  Commons  resolved  that 


J  A  M  E  S     1 1  431 

1689 

"  King  James  II.,  having  endeavored  to  subvert  the  constitution 
of  the  kingdom  by  breaking  the  original  contract  between  king  and 
people,  and  by  the  advice  of  Jesuits  and  other  v^icked  persons 
having  violated  the  fundamental  laws  and  having  withdrawn  him- 
self out  of  the  kingdom,  had  abdicated  the  government,  and  that 
the  throne  had  thereby  become  vacant."  This  lumbering  resolution 
was  unanimously  adopted.  The  Whigs  were  pleased  with  the 
clause  which  made  the  vacancy  of  the  throne  depend  on  James's 
misgovernment,  and  the  Tories  were  pleased  with  the  clause  which 
made  it  depend  on  his  so-called  voluntary  abdication.  The  Tories 
in  the  Lords  proposed  that  James  should  remain  nominally  king, 
but  that  the  country  should  be  governed  by  a  regent.  Danby,  how- 
ever, and  a  small  knot  of  Tories  supported  the  Whigs,  and  the 
proposal  was  rejected.  Danby  had,  indeed,  a  plan  of  his  own. 
James,  he  held,  had  really  abdicated,  and  the  crown  had  therefore 
passed  to  the  next  heir.  That  heir  was  not,  according  to  him,  the 
supposititious  infant,  but  the  eldest  daughter  of  James,  Mary,  Prin- 
cess of  Orange,  who  was  now  in  her  own  right  queen  of  England. 
It  was  an  ingenious  theory,  but  two  circumstances  were  against  its 
being  carried  into  practice.  In  the  first  place,  jNIary  scolded  Danby 
for  daring  to  set  her  above  her  husband.  In  the  second  place 
William  made  it  known  that  he  would  neither  be  regent  nor 
administer  the  government  under  his  wife.  Danby  therefore  with- 
drew his  motion,  and  on  February  6  the  Lords  voted,  as  the  Com- 
mons had  voted  before,  that  James  had  abdicated  and  the  throne 
was  vacant. 

A  Declaration  of  Rights  was  prepared  condemning  the  dis- 
pensing power  as  lately  exercised  and  the  other  extravagant  actions 
of  James  II.,  while  both  Houses  concurred  in  offering  the  crown  to 
William  and  Mary  as  joint  sovereigns.  As  long  as  William  lived 
he  was  to  administer  the  government,  Mary  only  attaining  to  actual 
power  in  the  event  of  her  surviving  her  husband.  After  the  death 
of  both,  the  crown  was  to  go  first  to  any  children  which  might  be 
born  to  tliem,  then  to  Anne  and  her  children,  and,  lastly,  to  any 
children  of  William  by  a  second  wife  in  case  of  his  surviving  Alary 
and  marrying  again.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  William  had  no  children 
by  Mary,  who  died  about  eight  years  before  him,  and  he  never 
married  again.  On  h'ebruary  13  William  and  Mary  accepted  the 
crown  on  the  conditions  offered  to  them. 

The  main  characteristic  of  the  revolution   thus  effected   was 


432 


ENGLAND 


1641-1689 


that  it  established  the  supremacy  of  Parliament  by  setting  up  a  king 
and  queen  who  owed  their  position  to  a  Parliamentary  vote.  This 
political  revolution  succeeded,  while  the  Puritan  Revolution  of 
1641  failed,  because,  in  1641,  the  political  aim  of  setting  the 
Parliament  above  the  king  was  complicated  by  an  ecclesiastical  dis- 
pute which  had  split  Parliament  and  the  nation  into  two  hostile 
parties.  In  1689  there  was  practically  neither  a  political  nor  an 
ecclesiastical  dispute.  Tories  and  Whigs  combined  to  support  the 
change,  and  Churchmen  and  Dissenters  made  common  cause 
against  the  small  Roman  Catholic  minority  which  had  only  been 
dangerous  because  it  had  the  Crown  at  its  back,  and  because  the 
Crown  had  been  supported  by  Louis  and  his  armies.    A  revolution 


c  H  A<^ 


THE  SOUTH  OF  ENGLAND 

14  8  5       -     16  8  9  


thus  effected  was,  no  doubt,  far  less  complete  than  that  which  had 
been  aimed  at  by  the  more  advanced  assailants  of  the  throne  of 
Charles  L  It  did  not  aim  at  changing  more  than  a  small  part  of 
the  political  constitution  of  the  country,  nor  at  changing  any  part 
whatever  of  the  social  institutions.  Consequently  it  did  not  rouse 
the  antagonism  which  had  been  fatal  even  to  the  best  conceived 
plans  of  the  Commonwealth  and  Protectorate.  It  is  much  to  be 
regretted  that  the  moral  tone  of  the  men  who  brought  about  the 
revolution  of  1689  was  lower  than  that  which  had  brought  about 
the  revolution  of  1641.  That  this  was  the  case,  however,  was 
mainly  the  fault  of  the  unwise  attempt  of  the  Puritans  to  enforce 
morality  by  law.  The  individual  liberty  which  was  encouraged  by 
the  later  revolution  would  in  due  time  work  for  morality  as  well 
as  for  political  improvement. 


PART  VIII 

THE  RISE  OF  CABINET  GOVERNMENTt 

1689—1745 


Chapter  XLII 

WILLIAM    III.    AND    MARY   IL 
WILLIAM    III.    1689— 1702.     MARY    IL    1689— 1694 

LEADING    DATES 

The  Mutiny  Act  and  the  Toleration  Act,  1689 — Battle  of  Killie- 
CRANKiE,  July  27,  1689 — Relief  of  Londonderry,  July  30,  1689 — 
Battle  of  the  Boyne,  July  i,  1690 — Surrender  of  Limerick,  Oct.  3, 
1691 — Massacre  of  Glexcoe,  Feb.  13,  1692 — Battle  of  La  Hogue,  May 
19,  1692 — The  Formation  of  the  Whig  Junto,  1693-1694 — The 
Triennial  Act,  1694 — Death  of  Mary,  Dec.  28,  1694 

IT  was  unlikely  that  William  would  long  be  popular.  He  was 
cold  and  reserved,  and  he  manifestly  cared  more  for  the  strug- 
gle on  the  continent  than  for  the  strife  which  never  ceased 
between  English  parties.  Yet  he  was  sagacious  enough  to  know 
that  it  was  only  by  managing  English  affairs  with  firmness  and  wis- 
dom that  he  could  hope  to  carry  England  with  him  in  his  conflict 
with  France;  and  he  did  his  work  so  well  that,  though  few  of  his 
new  subjects  loved  him,  most  of  them  learned  to  respect  him.  As 
he  owed  his  crown  to  the  support  of  both  parties,  he  chose  his  first 
ministers  from  both.  In  March  his  throne  was  exposed  to  some 
danger. 

The  army  was  dissatisfied  in  consequence  of  the  shabby  part 
which  it  had  played  when  called  on  to  defend  James  II.,  and 
one  regiment  mutinied.  Only  the  Dutch  troops  could  be  trusted, 
and  it  was  by  them  that  the  mutiny  was  suppressed.  The  punish- 
ment of  mutinous  soldiers  by  courts-martial  had  been  forbidden  by 
the  Petition  of  Right.  Parliament  now  passed  a  Mutiny  Act, 
which  authorized  the  maintenance  of  discipline  by  such  courts  for 
six  months  only.  The  ^^.ct  has  been  since  renewed  from  year  to 
year,  and  as,  if  it  dropped,  the  king  would  have  no  lawful  means 
of  maintaining  discipline.  Parliament  tluis  maintains  control  over 
the  army. 

Still  more  important  was  the  Toleration  Act,  whicli  gave  to 
Dissenters  the  legal  right  to  worship  publicly,  on  complying  with 

435 


436  ENGLAND 

1689-1692 

certain  formalities.  From  this  toleration  Unitarians  and  Roman 
Catholics  were  excluded.  The  great  mass  of  Protestant  Dissenters 
were  well  satisfied,  and  the  chief  cause  of  religious  strife  was  thus 
removed.  An  attempt  made  to  carry  a  Comprehension  Bill,  which 
was  intended  to  attract  Dissenters  to  the  Church  by  altering  the 
Prayer  Book,  ended  in  complete  failure.  All  holders  of  office  in 
Church  and  state  were  required  to  take  the  oaths  of  supremacy  and 
allegiance  to  the  new  sovereigns.  About  400  of  the  clergy  with 
Archbishop  Bancroft  and  six  other  bishops  refused  to  swear.  Their 
offices  were  conferred  on  others,  and  they,  holding  that  they  and 
those  who  continued  to  acknowledge  them  were  the  true  Church, 
founded  a  body  which,  under  the  name  of  Nonjurors,  continued  to 
exist  for  more  than  a  century. 

The  Toleration  Act  itself  was  in  the  main  the  fruit  of  the 
change  which  had  taken  place  in  the  political  circumstances  of  the 
nation  since  the  Restoration.  Men  had  had  reason  to  be  afraid  of 
Roman  Catholics,  and  were  no  longer  afraid  of  Dissenters.  Along- 
side of  this  political  change,  however,  had  grown  up  a  change  of 
opinion  among  the  thinking  men  who  had  especial  influence  in 
the  Whig  party.  In  1689  the  philosopher  Locke  published  his 
*"'  Letters  on  Toleration."  A  Church,  according  to  Locke,  was  "  a 
voluntary  society  of  men  joining  themselves  together  of  their  own 
accord,  in  order  to  the  public  worshipping  of  God  in  such  manner 
as  they  shall  judge  acceptable  to  Him  and  effectual  to  the  salvation 
of  their  souls."  On  such  voluntary  associations  the  state  had  no 
right  to  impose  penalties. 

In  Scotland  and  Ireland  William  had  to  fight  for  his  crown. 
In  Scotland,  before  the  Parliament  met,  the  Episcopal  clergy  were 
"  rabbled,"  that  is  to  say,  were  driven  from  their  parishes  with  insult 
and  ill-usage  by  angry  crowds.  Parliament  then  declared  James 
to  have  forfeited  the  crown  and  gave  it  to  William  and  ^^lary.  It 
also  declared  Presbyterianism  to  be  the  religion  of  the  country. 

To  many  of  the  nobles  the  establishment  of  a  clergy  which 
owed  them  no  respect  was  distasteful,  and  some  drew  their  swords 
for  James,  in  the  battle  of  Killiecrankie  they  defeated  decisively 
WilHam's  Lowlanders.  The  Highlanders  were  poor,  and  in  169 1 
a  distribution  of  15,000/.  among  the  chiefs  of  the  clans  brought 
tliem  one  by  one  to  submission.  December  31  was  announced  as 
the  last  (lay  on  whicli  the  oaths  acknowledging  William  would  be 
accepted.     One  of  tlie  MacDonakls  failed  to  appear  in  time  and 


WILLIAM     AND     MARY  437 

1689-1692 

the  Master  of  Stair,  William's  chief  minister,  took  the  occasion  to 
show  the  Highlanders  that  the  government  could  punish  as  well  as 
reward,  and  massacred  most  of  the  clan  at  Glencoe,  February  13, 
1692.  When  the  tale  was  told  at  Edinburgh  the  Scottish  Parlia- 
ment broke  out  into  indignation,  and  William  had  to  dismiss  the 
Master  of  Stair  from  office.  It  was  the  first  time  that  the  Lowland 
Scotch  had  shown  compassion  for  Highlanders.  Hitherto  they  had 
always  treated  them  as  a  wild  and  savage  race  of  plunderers  for 
whom  there  was  no  mercy. 

In  Ireland  William  had  to  deal  with  something  like  national 
resistance.  To  the  native  Irish  James  was  still  the  lawful  king, 
whose  title  was  unaffected  by  anything  that  an  English  Parliament 
could  do.  The  northern  Protestants,  chased  from  their  homes  with 
outrage,  took  refuge  in  Enniskillen  and  Londonderry,  and  after  a 
long  siege  in  which  the  defenders  made  a  heroic  resistance,  London- 
derry was  saved  and  James  and  his  Irish  army  marched  away. 
The  Irish  Parliament  now  met  and  passed  an  act  annulling  all  the 
English  confiscations  since  1641. 

Once  more  England  and  Ireland  were  brought  into  direct  antag- 
onism. Not  only  did  Protestant  Englishmen  sympathize  deeply 
with  the  wrongs  of  their  countrymen  in  Ireland,  while  they  were 
unable  to  perceive  that  the  Irish  had  suffered  any  wrongs  at  all, 
but  they  could  not  fail  to  see  that  if  James  established  himself  in 
Ireland  he  would  next  attempt,  with  French  help,  to  establish  him- 
self in  England.  As  it  had  been  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  so  it  was  now. 
Either  England  must  conquer  Ireland,  or  Ireland  would  be  used  by 
a  foreign  nation  to  conquer  England.  Accordingly,  in  August, 
Schomberg — who  had  been  a  French  marshal,  but,  being  a  Protes- 
tant, had  resigned  his  high  position  after  the  Revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes  rather  than  renounce  his  faith — was  sent  by  Wil- 
liam with  an  English  army  to  Carrickfergus.  The  weather  was 
bad,  and  the  arrangements  of  the  commissariat  were  worse,  so  that 
disease  broke  out  among  the  soldiers,  and  nothing  serious  was  done 
during  the  remainder  of  the  year. 

In  England  the  Convention  Parliament  had  passed  a  Bill  of 
Rights,  embodying  the  demands  of  the  former  Declaration  of 
Rights.  Since  then  it  had  grown  intractable.  The  Whig  m.a- 
jority  had  forgotten  the  services  rendered  by  the  Tories  against 
James,  and,  treating  them  as  enemies,  was  eager  to  take 
vengeance  on  them.     When,  therefore,  a  Bill  of  Indemnity  was 


438  ENGLAND 

1690-1691 

brought  in,  the  Whigs  excepted  from  it  so  many  of  the  Tor>'  leaders 
on  the  ground  that  they  had  supported  the  harsh  acts  of  the  last 
two  kings,  that  William,  who  cared  for  neither  party,  suddenly 
prorogued  Parliament  and  then  dissolved  it. 

A  new  Parliament,  in  which  the  majority  was  Tor}%  met  on 
March  20,  1690,  and  by  confining  to  four  years  their  grant  of  nearly 
half  the  revenue  of  the  Crown,  put  a  check  upon  any  attempt  of  a 
future  king  to  make  himself  absolute.  Subsequently  the  grant 
became  annual ;  after  which  no  king  could  avoid  summoning  Parlia- 
ment every  year,  as  he  could  not  make  himself  financially  independ- 
ent of  the  House  of  Commons.  The  supremacy  of  Parliament 
was  thus,  as  far  as  law  could  do  it,  practically  secured.  Finally,  an 
Act  of  Grace  ^  gave  an  indemnity  to  all  excepting  a  few  persons,  • 
to  whom  no  harm  was  intended  as  long  as  they  abstained  from 
attacking  the  Government. 

On  July  I.  1690,  \\'illiam  defeated  James  at  the  battle  of 
the  Boyne.  William  entered  Dublin  in  triumph,  and,  marching  on 
through  the  country,  on  August  8  laid  siege  to  Limerick.  Although 
unsuccessful  this  year,  it  was  captured  the  next  under  terms  allowing 
all  officers  and  soldiers  who  wished  to  go  to  France.  To  the  Irish 
Catholics  were  granted  such  privileges  in  the  exercise  of  their 
religion  as  they  had  enjoyed  in  the  reign  of  Charles  IL,  when  there 
had  been  a  connivance  at  the*  exercise  of  the  Roman  Catholic  wor- 
ship so  long  as  it  was  not  obtrusive.  The  Irish  Parliament,  how- 
ever, representing  now  the  English  colony  alone,  called  for  persecu- 
ting measures,  and  William  had  to  govern  Ireland,  if  he  was  to 
govern  Ireland  at  all,  in  accordance  with  its  wishes.  Limerick 
became  desei-vedly  known  among  the  Irish  as  "  the  City  of  the 
violated  treaty."' 

In  the  meantime,  while  William  was  distracted  by  foes  in  his 
own  kingdom,  Louis  had  been  doing  his  best  to  get  the  better  of 
his  enemies.  In  16S9  the  allies  were  able  to  make  head  against 
him  without  any  decisive  result.  In  1690  Louis  sent  his  best 
Adm;ra].  Tourville,  to  sweep  the  Channel  and  invade  England 
while  William  was  away  in  Ireland.  Off  Beachy  Head  Tourville 
was  met  Ijy  ^  combined  English  and  Dutch  fleet.  In  the  battle 
which  followed,  liie  English  Admiral,  Herbert,  who  had  lately  been 

^  An  Act  of  Grace  was  similar  to  an  Act  of  Indemnity,  except  that  it 
ongmated  \v:th  ihc  k:ng.  and  could  only  be  accepted  or  reiected,  not  amended 
by  the  Houses. 


WILLIAM     AND     MARY  439 

1691-1692 

created  Lord  Torrington,  kept,  probably  through  mere  mismanage- 
ment, his  own  ships  out  of  harm's  way,  while  he  allowed  his  Dutch 
allies  to  expose  themselves  to  danger.  Under  these  circumstances 
Tourville  gained  the  victory,  while  in  the  Netherlands  the  French 
Marshal,  Luxembourg,  defeated  the  allied  armies  at  Fleurus. 
Though  William  had  been  for  some  time  unpopular  in  England  as 
a  foreigner,  yet  the  nation  now  rallied  round  him  as  the  enemy  of 
the  French. 

Churchill,  who  had  been  created  Earl  of  Marlborough  by  Wil- 
liam, had  won  distinction  as  a  soldier  both  in  Ireland  and  in  the 
Netherlands.  Both  as  an  Englishman  and  as  a  soldier  he  was 
offended  at  the  favor  shown  to  foreigners  by  William.  Dutch- 
men and  Frenchmen  were  promoted  over  the  heads  of  English 
officers.  Dutchmen  filled  the  most  lucrative  posts  at  court,  and 
were  raised  to  the  English  peerage.  It  was,  perhaps,  natural  that 
William  should  advance  those  whom  he  knew  best  and  trusted  most, 
but  in  so  doing  he  alienated  a  great  number  of  Englishmen.  Men 
high  in  office  doubted  whether  a  government  thus  constituted  could 
last,  and,  partly  because  they  were  personally  disgusted,  partly 
because  they  wished  to  make  themselves  safe  in  any  event,  entered 
into  communication  with  James,  and  promised  to  support  his  claims, 
a  promise  which  they  intended  to  keep  or  break  as  might  be  most 
convenient  to  themselves.  Marlborough  went  further  than  any. 
In  1691  he  offered  to  move  an  address  in  the  House  of  Lords,  ask- 
ing William  to  dismiss  the  foreigners,  assuring  James  that,  if  Wil- 
ham  refused,  the  army  and  navy  would  expel  him  from  England; 
and  he  also  induced  the  Princess  Anne  to  put  herself  in  opposition 
to  her  sister,  the  queen.  On  this  William  deprived  Marlborough 
of  all  his  offices. 

Among  those  who  had  offered  their  services  to  James  was 
Admiral  Russell,  a  brother  of  the  Lord  Russell  who  had  been 
beheaded.  He  was  an  ill-tempered  man,  and  being  dissatisfied 
in  consequence  of  some  real  or  fancied  slight,  told  a  Jacobite 
agent  that  he  was  willing  to  help  James  to  regain  the  throne. 
Yet  his  offer  was  not  without  limitation.  "  Do  not  think,''  he 
added,  "  that  I  will  let  the  French  triumph  over  us  in  our  own  sea. 
Understand  this,  that  if  I  meet  them  I  fight  them;  ay,  though  His 
Majesty  himself  should  be  on  board."  Russell  kept  his  word  as 
far  as  the  fighting  was  concerned.  When  in  1692  a  French  fleet 
and  army  were  made  ready  for  the  invasion  of  England,  he  met 


440  ENGLAND 

1692-1693 

the  fleet  near  the  Bay  of  La  Hogue  and  utterly  defeated  it.  The 
mastery  of  the  sea  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Enghsh.  No 
further  attempt  was  made  by  the  French  in  this  war  to  invade 
England,  for  Louis  was  intent  upon  victories  on  land  where  he 
still  had  the  superiority.  In  1692  his  army  took  Namur,  and 
defeated  the  allies  at  Steinkirk,  with  William  at  their  head. 
In  1693  the  French  won  another  victory  at  Neerwinden  (or 
Landen). 

After  both  these  defeats,  William  had,  in  his  usual  fashion,  so 
rallied  his  defeated  troops  that  the  French  gained  little  by  their 
victories.  In  the  end  success  would  come  to  the  side  which  had 
most  endurance.  ]\Ioney  was  as  much  needed  as  men,  and,  in  1692, 
Parliament  decided  on  borrowing  1,000,000/.  for  the  support  of 
the  war.  Kings  and  Parliament  had  often  borrowed  money  before, 
but  in  the  long  run  they  had  failed  either  to  pay  interest  or  to  repay 
the  principal,  and  this  loan  is  understood  to  be  the  beginning  of  the 
National  Debt,  because  it  was  the  first  on  which  interest  was 
steadily  paid.  The  last  piece  of  gold,  the  French  king  had  said, 
would  carry  the  day,  and  England  with  her  commerce  was  likely  to 
provide  more  gold  than  France,  where  trade  was  throttled  by  the 
constant  interference  of  the  Government,  and  deprived  of  the  pro- 
tection of  an  efficient  navv. 

On  his  return  after  his  defeat  at  Neerwinden,  William  found 
everything  in  disorder.  The  House  of  Commons  was  out  of  tem- 
per in  consequence  of  the  military  failure,  and  still  more  because  of 
the  corruption  prevailing  among  the  king's  ministers,  and  the 
disorder  of  the  administration.  The  system  of  drawing  ministers 
from  both  parties  had  led  to  quarrels,  and  the  House  of  Commons 
was  at  least  as  inefiicient  as  the  Government.  There  was  no 
assured  majority  in  it.  If.  as  often  happened,  fifty  or  a  hundred 
\\  higs  went  off  one  day  to  amuse  themselves  at  tennis,  or  to  see 
a  new  play  or  a  cock-fight,  the  Tories  carried  everything  before 
them.  If.  fjn  another  day.  fifty  or  a  liundred  Tories  chose  to 
disport  themselves  in  the  same  manner,  the  Wliigs  could  undo  all 
that  harl  been  dene  by  tlieir  rivals.  There  was.  in  those  times,  no 
fear  of  the  constituencies  before  the  eyes  of  a  member  of  Parlia- 
ment. No  division-li.-ts  were  printed  and  no  speeches  reported. 
*'  Nobody.  '  said  an  active  politician,  "  can  know  one  day  what  a 
House  of  Commons  will  do  the  next." 

Acting  up' in  the  advice  of  Sunderland,  who,  though  in  lames's 


WILLIAM     AND     MARY  441 

1693-1694 

reign  he  had  changed  his  rehgion  to  retain  his  place,  was  a  shrewd 
observer  of  mankind,  Wilham  provided  a  remedy  for  these  dis- 
orders. Before  the  end  of  1694  he  discharged  his  Tory  ministers 
and  filled  their  posts  with  Whigs,  who  had  now  the  sole  possession 
of  office. 

The  four  leading  Whigs,  who  were  consulted  on  all 
important  matters  and  who  were  popularly  known  as  the  Junto, 
were  Lord  Somers,  the  Lord  Keeper,  a  statesmanlike  and  large- 
minded  lawyer;  Admiral  Russell,  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty; 
Charles  Montague,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  an  acute 
and  able  financier;  and  Thomas  Wharton,  afterwards  Lord  Whar- 
ton, Comptroller  of  the  Household,  a  man  of  the  worst  character 
but  an  excellent  electioneering  agent,  versed  in  all  the  arts  which 
win  adherents  to  a  political  party.  What  William  hoped  from  this 
change  of  system  was  that,  by  having  ministers  who  were  of  one 
mind,  he  would  be  able  to  have  a  House  of  Commons  of  one  mind. 
Whig  members  would  think  it  worth  while  to  attend  the  House 
steadily,  at  personal  inconvenience  to  themselves,  not  only  because 
they  wished  to  keep  their  own  friends  in  office,  but  because  those 
friends,  as  long  as  they  remained  in  office,  would  dispose  of  plenty 
of  well-paid  posts  and  rewards  of  various  kinds,  and  were  more 
likely  to  give  them  to  men  who  voted  steadily  for  them  than  to 
those  who  did  not. 

Nothing  was  further  from  William's  thoughts  than  the  intro- 
duction of  a  new  kind  of  government.  The  ministers  were  still 
his  ministers,  and  what  he  expected  of  them  was  that  they  would 
carry  on  the  war  more  efficiently.  Nevertheless,  the  formation  of 
the  Junto  was  a  great  step  in  advance  in  the  direction  of  the  modern 
Cabinet  system,  because  it  recognized  frankly  what  Charles  11.  had 
occasionally  recognized  tacitly,  that  the  growth  of  the  power  of 
the  House  of  Commons  was  so  great  that  the  king  could  not 
govern  satisfactorily  unless  the  views  of  his  ministers  accorded  with 
those  of  a  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons.  It  is  evident  now 
that  this  admission  would  ultimately  lead  to  government,  not  by 
the  king,  but  by  a  Cabinet  supporting  itself  on  an  organized  party 
in  the  House  of  Commons;  but  ideas  grow  slowly,  and  there  would 
be  much  opposition  to  overcome  before  such  a  system  could  take 
root  with  general  approbation. 

The  increased  strength  of  W^illiam's  government  was  not  long 
in  showing  itself.     In  1694  the  Bank  of  luigland  was  founded,  at 


442  ENGLAND 

1694 

the  suggestion  of  William  Paterson,  a  Scotchman  who,  through  the 
influence  of  Montague,  had  become  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  The  growing  wealth  of  the  country  made  it  necessary 
that  a  place  should  be  found  in  which  money  might  be  more  safely 
deposited  than  with  the  goldsmiths,  and  the  new  Bank,  having 
received  deposits  of  money,  made  a  loan  to  the  Crown  on  the 
security  of  a  Parliamentary  promise  that  interest  should  be  paid  till 
the  capital  was  returned.  The  Government  was  thereby  put  in 
possession  of  sufficient  resources  to  enable  it  to  carry  on  the  war 
successfully.  This  would  not  have  happened  unless  moneyed  men 
had  been  confident  in  the  stability  of  William's  government  and  of 
Parliamentary  institutions. 

Useful  as  the  concentration  of  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Whig 
Junto  was,  it  raised  alarm  lest  the  ministers  should  become  too 
strong.  The  system  of  winning  votes  in  Parliament  by  corruption 
was  on  the  increase,  especially  giving  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Commons  a  place  revocable  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Crown,  and  it  now 
seemed  possible  that  the  Whig  Junto  being  all  of  the  same  party 
might  keep  itself  permanently  in  office  by  the  votes  which  it  pur- 
chased. 

Independent  members,  indeed,  had  from  time  to  time  in- 
troduced a  Place  Bill,  making  it  illegal  for  any  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons  to  hold  not  merely  small  offices  unconnected 
with  politics,  but  even  the  great  ministerial  posts,  such  as  those  of 
a  Secretary  of  State  or  a  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer;  but  the 
influence  of  the  ministers  had  been  too  strong  for  them,  and  they 
were  no  more  successful  in  1694  than  they  had  been  in  former 
years. 

Another  grievance  was  actually  removed  in  1694.  As  the 
law  then  stood  a  king  who  had  a  Parliament  to  his  mind  might 
retain  it  to  his  death,  even  if  the  feelings  of  the  nation  had  under- 
gone a  complete  cliange,  as  had  been  the  case  in  the  course  of  the 
seventeen  and  a  half  years  during  w^hich  Charles  H.  retained  the 
Cavalier  Parliament.  By  the  Triennial  Act  of  1694  it  was  enacted 
that  no  l\-uiiamcnt  should  last  longer  than  three  years.  It  was, 
therefore,  ([uitc  dift'crent  from  the  Triennial  Act  of  1641,  which 
enacted  that  ;i  Parliament  should  be  summoned  at  least  once  in 
tiiree  years. 

Scarcely  was  tb.c  Triennial  Act  passed  when  Queen  ]\Iary  was 
attacked  by  the  smallpox,  and  in  those  days,  when  vaccination  had 


WILLIAM    AND    MARY  443 

1694 

not  yet  been  discovered,  the  ravages  caused  by  the  smallpox  were 
enormous'.  The  physicians  soon  assured  William  that  there  was  no 
hope.  He  was  stern  and  self-contained  in  the  presence  of  most 
men,  but  was  warmly  affectionate  to  the  few  whom  he  really  loved. 
His  grief  was  now  heart  rending.  The  queen  died,  but  she  left 
a  memorial  behind  her  in  Greenwich  Hospital,  started  as  a  palace 
by  Charles  XL,  and  left  as  a  place  of  refuge  for  sailors  disabled  in 
the  service  of  their  country. 


Chapter  XLIII 

WILLIAM     III.     {alone).      1694— 1 702 

LEADING    DATES 

William  III.,  A.D.  1689-1702— The  LiBERTi'  of  the  Press,  1695 — 
The  Assassination-  Plot,  1696 — Treaty  of  Rvswick,  1697 — The  First 
Partition  Treaty,  1698 — The  Second  Partition  Treats',  1700 — Death 
OF  Charles  II.  of  Spain,  Nov.  i,  1700 — The  Act  of  Settlement, 
1701 — Death  of  James  II.,  Sept.  6,  1701 — The  Grand  Alliance,  Sept. 
7,  1701 — De.\th  of  William  III.,  March  8,  1702 

EVER  since  the  Restoration,  except  for  a  short  interval, 
there  had  been  a  series  of  Hcensing  acts,  authorizing  the 
Crown  to  appoint  a  hcenser.  without  whose  leave  no  book  or 
newspaper  could  be  published.  In  1695  the  House  of  Commons  re- 
fused to  renew  the  Act,  and  the  press  suddenly  became  free.  The 
House  does  not  seem  to  have  had  anv  idea  of  the  importance  of  this 
step,  and  established  the  liberty  of  the  press  simply  because  the  licens- 
ers had  given  a  good  deal  of  annoyance.  Yet  wdiat  they  did  would 
hardly  have  been  done  twenty  years  before.  The  Toleration  Act, 
allowing  men  to  v^-orship  as  they  pleased,  and  to  preach  as  they 
pleased,  had  bnaight  about  a  state  of  mind  that  was  certain,  before 
long,  to  lead  to  the  permission  to  men  to  print  what  they  pleased. 

The  campaign  of  1695,  in  the  Netherlands,  was  marked  by 
\\  illiam's  first  success.  His  financial  resources  were  now  far 
greater  than  those  of  Louis,  and  lie  took  Xamur,  though  a  French 
army  was  in  the  field  to  relieve  it.  The  French  had  never  lost  a 
battle  or  a  f<  irtified  tnwn  during  fifty-two  years,  but  at  last  their 
career  of  victory  was  checked. 

At  home  Cliarlcs  Montague,  with  the  assistance  of  Sir  Isaac 
Xewton,  the  great  mathematician  and  astronomer,  succeeded  in  re- 
storing the  currency.  Coins,  up  to  that  time,  had  been  usually 
struck  witli  smi'.itj-i  edges,  and  rogues  had  been  in  the  habit  of  clip- 
ping oft'  thin  ;]akcs  of  gold  or  silver  as  they  passed  through  their 
hands.  1  h.c  result  was  that  sixpences  or  shillings  were  seldom 
worth  their  full  value.  There  were  constant  quarrels  over  every 
payment.     New  coins  were  now  issued  with  milled  edges,  so  that 

4-44 


WILLIAM    III  445 

1695-1697 

it  would  be  impossible  for  anyone  to  clip  them  without  being  de- 
tected. The  act  authorizing  the  re-coinage  was  followed  by 
another,  allowing  persons  accused  of  treason  to  have  lawyers  to 
plead  for  them  in  court;  a  permission  which,  up  to  this  time,  had 
been  refused. 

In  spite  of  the  success  of  William's  government,  there  were  in 
existence  grave  causes  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  state  of  affairs. 
Corruption  reigned  among  those  whose  influence  was  worth  sell- 
ing. What  was  worse  still,  English  ministers  had,  almost  from  the 
beginning  of  William's  reign,  endeavored  to  make  their  position 
sure  in  the  event  of  a  counter-revolution,  by  professing  allegiance  to 
James  while  they  remained  in  the  service  of  William.  No  wonder 
William  trusted  his  Dutch  servants  as  he  trusted  no  English  ones, 
and  that  he  sought  to  reward  them  by  grants  which,  according  to 
precedents  set  by  earlier  kings,  he  held  himself  entitled  to  make  out 
of  the  property  of  the  Crown.  Bentinck,  to  whom  he  was  especially 
attached,  he  had  made  Earl  of  Portland;  but  when,  in  1696,  he  pro- 
posed to  give  him  a  large  estate  in  Wales,  the  Commons  remon- 
strated and  Portland  declined  the  gift. 

From  the  unpopularity  which  attached  itself  to  William  in 
consequence  of  these  proceedings  the  Jacobites  conceived  new  hopes. 
Louis  offered  to  send  soldiers  to  their  help  if  they  would  first  rise 
in  insurrection.  The  plot  was,  however,  betrayed,  and  some  of  the 
plotters  were  executed.  The  discovery  of  this  design  to  assassinate 
William  made  him  once  more  popular.  In  imitation  of  what  had 
been  done  when  Elizabeth's  life  was  in  danger,  the  greater  part  of 
the  Lords  and  Commons  bound  themselves  by  an  association  to  de- 
fend William's  government.  They,  on  the  other  hand,  offered  to 
rise  if  Louis  would  first  send  soldiers.  About  forty  Jacobites  agreed 
in  thinking  that  the  shortest  way  out  of  the  difficulty  v/as  to  mur- 
der William,  and  to  support  the  succession  of  the  Princess  Anne 
in  the  event  of  his  death.  The  form  of  this  association  was  cir- 
culated in  the  country,  and  signed  by  thousands. 

Since  the  taking  of  Namur  there  had  been  no  more  fighting. 
In  1697  a  general  peace  was  signed  at  Ryswick.  Louis  gave  up  all 
the  conquests  which  he  had  made  in  tlie  war,  and  acknowledged 
William  as  king.  William  had,  for  the  first  time,  the  satisfaction 
of  bringing  to  a  close  a  war  from  which  liis  great  antagonist  had 
gained  no  advantage.  France  was  impoverished  and  J^^ngland  was 
prosperous.     As  Louis  had  said,  the  last  gold  piece  had  won.     Wil- 


446  ENGLAND 

1698-1699 

Ham  returned  thanks  for  the  peace  in  the  new  St.  Paul's  built  by 
Sir  Christopher  Wren  in  place  of  the  old  cathedral  destroyed  in  the 
great  fire. 

Scarcely  was  the  war  at  an  end  when  a  controversy  broke  out 
between  William  and  the  House  of  Commons.  William  knew  that 
the  larger  the  armed  force  which  England  could  maintain  the  more 
chance  there  was  that  Louis  would  keep  the  peace  which  he  had 
been  forced  to  sign.  The  Commons,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
anxious  to  diminish  the  expenditure,  and  were  specially  jealous 
of  the  existence  of  a  large  standing  army  which  might  be  used,  as 
it  had  been  used  by  Cromwell,  to  establish  an  absolute  government. 
Many  Whigs  deserted  the  ministers  and  joined  the  Tories  on  this 
point.  In  January,  1698,  the  army  was  reduced  to  10,000  men.  In 
December  it  was  reduced  to  7,000.  In  March,  1699,  William  was 
compelled  to  dismiss  his  Dutch  guards.  His  irritation  was  so  great 
that  it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  he  was  held  back  from 
abdicating  the  throne. 

In  the  meanwhile  William  was  engaged  in  a  delicate  negotia- 
tion. It  was  well  known  that,  whenever  Charles  II.  of  Spain  died, 
Louis  XIV.  and  Austria  would  be  arrayed  against  each  other  for 
the  succession.  The  first  secret  partition  treaty  which  William 
signed  with  Louis  was  upset  by  the  death  of  the  prince  they  had 
selected  for  the  throne.  This  enormously  increased  the  difficulty  of 
satisfying  both  France  and  Austria,  especially  as  it  was  just  at  this 
time  that  Parliament  reduced  William's  army  to  7,000  men,  thus 
leading  Louis  to  suppose  that  he  might  defy  England  with  impunity. 

In  home  affairs,  too,  William  was  in  considerable  difficulty. 
When  he  had  brought  together  the  Whig  Junto  he  had  done  so 
because  he  found  it  convenient,  not  because  he  thought  of  binding 
himself  never  to  keep  ministers  in  office  unless  they  were  supported 
by  a  majority  in  the  Plouse  of  Commons.  The  modern  doctrine 
that  for  ministers  to  remain  in  office  after  a  serious  defeat  in  the 
House  of  Commons  is  injurious  both  to  themselves  and  to  the  pub- 
He  service  had  not  yet  been  heard  of,  and  this  lesson,  like  so  many 
others,  had  to  1)e  learned  by  experience.  Again  and  again  in  the 
deljates  on  the  reduction  of  the  army  the  ministers  had  been  out- 
voted. The  House  also  found  fault  with  the  administration  of  the 
Adnnralty  by  Russell,  who  in  1697  had  been  created  Earl  of  Or- 
tord,  and  appointed  a  commission,  in  defiance  of  the  ministers, 
to    take    into   considcralion    certain    extensive    grants    of    forfeited 


WILLIAM    III  447 

1698-1700 

estates  in  Ireland  which  had  been  made  by  William  to  his  favorites. 
Though  William  failed  to  perceive  the  impossibility  of  governing 
satisfactorily  with  ministers  who  had  against  them  a  joint  majority 
composed  of  Tories  and  discontented  Whigs,  those  who  were  per- 
sonally affected  by  its  attacks  readily  perceived  the  danger  into  which 
they  were  running.  In  the  course  of  1699  Orford  and  Montague 
resigned  their  offices.  William  fell  back  upon  his  original  system 
of  combining  Whigs  and  Tories.  The  Whigs,  however,  still  pre- 
ponderated, especially  as  Somers,  the  wisest  statesman  of  the  day, 
remained  Lord  Chancellor. 

After  the  reduction  of  Ireland,  large  tracts  of  land  had  fallen 
to  the  Crown,  and  William  had  made  grants  out  of  them  to  persons 
whom  he  favored,  especially  to  persons  of  foreign  origin.  In  1700, 
however,  the  Commons  proposed  to  annul  all  William's  Irish  grants. 
Besides  this  the  House  proposed  to  grant  away  some  of  the  estates 
to  favorites  of  their  own,  and  declared  land  forfeited  which  in  law 
had  never  been  forfeited  at  all.  To  coerce  the  Lords  they  tacked 
their  bill  about  Irish  forfeitures  to  their  grant  of  supplies  for  the 
year.  As  the  Peers  were  not  allowed  to  alter  a  money  bill,  they 
must  accept  or  reject  the  whole.  William  foresaw  that,  in  the 
heated  temper  of  the  Commons,  they  would  throw  the  whole  gov- 
ernment into  confusion  rather  than  give  way,  and  at  his  instance 
the  Lords  succumbed.  The  victory  of  the  Commons  brought  into 
evidence  their  power  of  beating  down  the  resistance  both  of  the 
king  and  of  the  House  of  Lords,  but  it  was  a  victory  marred  by  the 
intemperateness  of  their  conduct,  and  by  the  injustice  of  some  of  the 
provisions  for  which  they  contended.  Fierce  attacks  had  also  been 
made  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  Somers,  and  William  ordered 
Somers  to  resign.  The  principle  that  ministers  with  whom  the 
House  of  Commons  is  dissatisfied  cannot  remain  in  office  was  thus 
established. 

It  was  not  in  England  only  that  William  met  with  resistance. 
A  trading  expedition  to  Darien  was  proposed  to  the  Scotch,  and 
was  unsuccessful,  for  man}-  died  of  disease,  while  the  few  who  re- 
mained alive  had  been  expelled  by  the  Spaniards.  All  Scotland 
threw  the  blame  of  the  disaster  on  William,  because  he  had  not 
embroiled  England  in  war  with  Spain  to  defend  these  unauthorized 
intruders  on  her  domain. 

In  the  spring  of  1700,  wliile  llie  vvcakness  and  unpopularity 
of  William   were  being  published   to   the   world,   he  concluded   a 


448  ENGLAND 

1700-1701 

second  partition  treaty  with  Louis,  dividing  the  Spanish  dominions 
between  Spain  and  Austria. 

Two  deaths,  which  occurred  in  1700,  affected  the  poHtics  of 
England  and  Europe  for  some  time  to  come.  Anne  had  had  sev- 
eral children,  all  of  whom  died  young,  the  last  of  them,  the  Duke 
of  Gloucester,  dying  on  July  29  in  this  year.  The  question  of  the 
succession  to  the  throne  after  Anne's  death  was  thus  thrown  open. 
Charles  IL  of  Spain  died  on  November  i.  Louis  had  long  been  in- 
triguing for  his  inheritance,  and  his  intrigues  had  been  successful. 
Charles,  before  he  died,  left  by  will  the  whole  of  his  dominions  to 
Louis's  grandson,  Philip,  hereafter  to  be  known  as  Philip  V.,  king 
of  Spain.  Louis  accepted  the  inheritance,  and  threw  to  the  winds 
the  Partition  Treaty  which  he  had  made  with  William. 

It  seemed  as  if  the  chief  work  of  William's  life  had  been  un- 
done, and  that  France  would  domineer  over  Europe  unchecked. 
In  England  there  was  but  little  desire  to  engage  in  a  new  war,  and, 
before  the  end  of  1700  \\'illiam  was  obliged  to  appoint  a  Tory 
ministry.  There  was  a  Tory  majority  in  the  new  Parliament 
which  met  on  February  6,  1701.  The  great  majority  of  the  Tories 
had  by  this  time  thrown  off  their  belief  in  the  indefeasible  divine 
right  of  kings,  and  acknowledged  William  without  difficulty.  Their 
chief  political  ideas  were  the  maintenance  of  peace  abroad  and  the 
preeminence  of  the  Church  of  England  at  home,  though  they — ■ 
more  or  less  thoroughly — accepted  the  Toleration  Act.  Their  main 
supporters  were  the  country  gentlemen  and  the  country  clergy, 
while  the  Whigs,  who  supported  William  in  his  desire  for  a  war 
with  France,  and  who  took  under  their  patronage  the  Dissenters, 
were  upheld  by  the  great  landowners,  and  by  the  commercial  class 
in  the  towns. 

The  first  work  of  the  Tory  Parliament  was  the  Act  of  Settle- 
ment. By  this  act  tlie  succession  was  settled,  after  Anne's  death, 
on  Sophia,  Electress  of  Hanover,  and  her  descendants.  She  was 
the  granddaughter  of  James  I.  The  principle  on  which  the  selec- 
tion rested  was  that  she  was  the  nearest  Protestant  heir,  all  the 
living  descendants  of  Charles  L,  except  William  and  Anne,  being 
Roman  Catholics. 

The  View  tliat  the  nation  had  a  right  to  fix  the  succession  was 
now  accepted  ])y  the  Tories  as  fully  as  by  the  Whigs ;  but  the  Tories, 
seeing  that  William  was  inclined  to  trust  th.eir  opponents  more  than 
themselves,  now  Avent  bevond  the  AMiigs  in  their  desire  to  restrict 


WILLIAM    III  M9 

.1701 

the  powers  of  the  Crown.  By  the  Tory  Act  of  Settlement  the  fu- 
ture Hanoverian  sovereign  was  (i)  to  join  in  the  Communion  of 
the  Church  of  England;  (2)  not  to  declare  war  without  consent  of 
Parliament  on  behalf  of  territories  possessed  by  him  on  the  con- 
tinent, and  (3)  not  to  leave  the  three  kingdoms  without  consent  of 
Parliament — an  article  which  was  repealed  in  the  first  year  of  George 
I.  A  stipulation  (4)  that  no  pardon  under  the  great  seal  was  to  be 
pleadable  in  bar  of  impeachment  was  intended  to  prevent  William 
or  his  successors  from  protecting  ministers  against  Parliament,  as 
Charles  IL  had  attempted  to  do  in  Danby's  case.  A  further  stipu- 
lation was  ( 5 )  that  after  Anne's  death  no  man,  unless  born  in  Eng- 
land or  of  English  parents  abroad,  should  sit  in  the  Privy  Council 
or  in  Parliament,  or  hold  office  or  lands  granted  him  by  the  Crown. 
These  five  articles  all  sprang  from  jealousy  of  a  foreign  sovereign. 
A  sixth,  enacting  (6)  that  the  judges  should,  henceforward,  hold 
their  places  as  long  as  they  behaved  well,  but  might  be  removed  on 
an  address  from  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  was  an  improvement 
in  the  constitution,  irrespective  of  all  personal  considerations.  It 
has  prevented,  ever  since,  the  repetition  of  the  scandal  caused  by 
James  II.  when  he  changed  some  of  the  judges  for  the  purpose  of 
getting  a  judgment  in  his  own  favor. 

There  were  two  other  articles  in  the  act,  of  whicli  one  (7) 
declared  that,  under  the  future  Hanoverian  sovereign,  all  matters 
proper  to  the  Privy  Council  should  be  transacted  there,  and  that  all 
resolutions  taken  in  it  should  be  signed  by  those  councilors  who 
assented  to  them;  while  the  other  (8)  embodied  the  provisions  of 
the  rejected  Place  Bill,  to  the  effect  that  no  one  holding  a  place  or 
pension  from  the  Crown  should  sit  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
Both  these  articles  were  directed,  not  so  much  against  the  Crown 
as  against  the  growing  power  of  the  ministers.  At  this  time,  indeed, 
the  prevailing  wish  of  the  country  squires  who  made  up  the  bulk  of 
the  Tory  party  was  to  make  the  House  of  Commons  efi:"ectively,  as 
well  as  in  name,  predominant;  and  tlicy  therefore  watched  with 
alarm  the  growth  of  the  power  of  the  Cabinet,  as  the  informal  meet- 
ings of  the  ministers  who  directed  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom  were 
now  called.  As  the  Cabinet,  unlike  the  old  Privy  Council,  kept  no 
record  of  its  proceedings,  the  Tories  were  alarmed  lest  its  members 
should  escape  responsibility,  and  should  also,  by  oft'ering  places  and 
pensions  to  their  supporters  in  the  House,  contrive  to  secure  a 
majority  in  it,  e\'en  v/hen  they  had  the  greater  number  of  inde- 


450  ENGLAND  ^^^^ 

pendent  members  against  them.  The  article  relating  to  the  Privy 
Council  was,  however,  repealed  early  in  the  next  reign. ^  as  it  was 
found  that  no  one  was  willing  to  give  advice  if  he  was  liable  to  be 
called  in  question  and  punished  for  giving  it.  so  that  the  system  of 
holding  private  Cabinet  meetings  where  advice  could  be  given 
without  fear  of  consequences  was  not  long  interrupted.  The  ar- 
ticle for  excluding  placemen  and  pensioners,  on  the  other  hand, 
merely  overshot  the  mark,  and  in  the  next  reign  it  was  so  modified 
that  only  holders  of  new  places  created  subsequently  to  1705  were 
excluded  from  the  House,  as  well  as  persons  who  held  pensions 
revocable  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Crown ;  while  all  members  accept- 
ing old  places  were  to  vacate  their  seats,  and  to  appeal  for  reelection 
to- a  constituency  if  they  thought  fit  to  do  so.  Subsequent  legisla- 
tion went  farther  and  disqualified  persons  holding  many  of  the  old 
places  from  sitting  in  Parliament,  with  the  general  result  that, 
while  the  holders  of  pensions  and  smaller  places  are  now  excluded 
from  the  House  of  Commons,  the  important  ministers  of  the  Crown 
are  allowed  to  sit  there,  thereby  keeping  up  that  close  connection 
between  ministers  and  Parliament  which  is  so  efficacious  in  pro- 
moting a  good  understanding  between  them. 

In  foreign  policy  the  Tories  blamed  A\'illiam  and  the  Whigs 
for  concluding  the  Partition  Treaties.  France  and  Spain,  they  held, 
would  still  be  mutually  jealous  of  one  another,  even  though  Louis 
sat  on  the  throne  of  France  and  his  grandson  on  the  throne  of  Spain, 
whereas  the  territors'  which,  according  to  the  second  treaty,  would 
have  been  actually  annexed  to  France,  would  have  given  to  Louis 
exorbitant  influence  in  Europe.  Accordingly  they  impeached  the 
leading  Whigs,  Somers.  Portland.  Orford,  and  ^lontague,  who 
were,  howe^'er,  supported  by  the  Flouse  of  Lords.  If  only  Louis 
had  behaved  with  ordinary  prudence,  the  peace  policy  of  the  Tories 
would  have  carried  the  day.  He  seemed,  however,  resolved  to  show 
tliat  he  meant  to  dispose  of  the  whole  of  the  forces  of  both  mon- 
archies. There  was  a  line  of  fortified  towns,  known  as  tlie  Barrier 
i^n-tresscs.  raiscil  on  the  sijuth.ern  frontier  of  the  Spanish  Xether- 
lands,  to  defend  th.cm  against  France,  at  a  time  when  France  and 
Spain  were  h(_)Stilc.  Early  in  1701  Louis  got  possession  of  every 
one  of  these  f^ 'rtresses  in  a  single  night,  turned  out  the  Dutcli.  and 
replaced  them  by  iM-c.ich  soldiers.  For  all  military  purposes  the 
Spanish  Xethcrlrinds  might  as  well  have  been  under  the  immediate 
grjvernment  cf  Luuis. 


WILLIAM    III  451 

1701-1702 

To  the  Dutch  the  possibihty  of  a  French  army  advancing  with- 
out hindrance  to  their  frontier  was  extremely  alarming;  while  in 
England  there  had  always  been  a  strong  feeling  against  the  occupa- 
tion by  the  French  of  the  coast  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Thames. 
Louis's  interference  in  the  Netherlands  therefore  did  something  to 
rouse  a  warlike  spirit  in  England. 

William  saw  that  tlie  feeling  of  the  country  would  soon  be 
on  the  side  of  war.  Having  obtained  the  consent,  even  of  the  Tory 
House  of  Commons,  to  defensive  measures,  he  raised  new  troops 
and  sent  10,000  men  to  protect  the  Dutch  against  any  attack  which 
Louis  might  make  against  them.  At  the  head  of  this  force  he 
placed  Marlborough,  whom  he  had  again  taken  into  favor.  In 
September  he  advanced  a  step  farther.  Both  William  and  the 
Dutch  would  have  been  glad  of  a  compromise  with  Louis,  but 
Louis  would  not  hear  of  it,  and  on  September  7  William  signed 
the  Grand  Alliance,  as  it  was  called,  between  England,  Austria,  and 
the  Dutch  Republic;  of  which  the  objects  were  to  restore  to  the 
Dutch  the  control  of  the  Barrier  Fortresses,  to  secure  to  the  Em- 
peror Leopold  the  Italian  possessions  of  Spain,  and  to  provide  that 
the  Crowns  of  France  and  Spain  should  never  be  united. 

The  day  before  this  treaty  was  signed  James  II.  died  in  France. 
Louis  at  once  acknowledged  as  king  his  son,  the  child  who  had  been 
held  in  England  to  be  supposititious,  and  who  was  afterwards  known 
as  the  Pretender  by  his  enemies,  and  as  James  III.  by  his  friends. 
At  once  all  England  burst  into  a  storm  of  indignation  against  Louis, 
for  having  dared  to  acknowledge  as  king  of  England  a  boy  whose 
title  had  been  rejected  by  the  English  Parliament  and  nation.  Wil- 
liam seized  the  opportunity  and  dissolved  the  Tory  Parliament.  A 
new  Parliam.ent  was  returned  with  a  small  Whig  majority.  It 
p:isscd  an  act  ordering  ail  persons  holding  office  to  take  an  oath  of 
abjuration  of  the  Pretender's  title,  and  raised  the  army  to  forty 
thcjusand  men,  granting  at  the  same  time  a  considerable  sum  for  the 
navy. 

Early  in  1702  William  was  looking  forward  to  taking  the 
command  in  the  war  which  was  beginning.  On  h'ebruary  20  his 
horse  stumbled  over  a  mole-hill  in  Hampton  Park.  He  fell  and 
broke  liis  collarbone.  He  lingered  for  som.e  days,  and,  on  March 
8,  lie  died.  His  work,  if  not  accomplished,  was  at  least  in  a  fair 
way  of  being  accomplislied.  His  main  object  in  life  had  been  to 
prevent  Louis  frc.m  tioniineering  in  lun-opc,  while  the  maintenance 


452  ENGLAND 

1701-1702 

of  the  constitutional  liberties  of  England  had  been  with  him  only 
a  secondan.-  object.  That  he  succeeded  in  \vhat  he  undertook  against 
Louis  v.-as  owing,  primarily,  to  the  self-sufficiency  and  obstinacy, 
first  of  Louis  himself  and  then  of  James  IL  :  but  all  the  blunders 
of  his  adversaries  would  have  availed  him  little  if  he  had  not  him- 
self been  possessed  of  invincible  patience  and  of  the  tact  which  per- 
ceives the  line  v.-hich  divides  the  practicable  from  the  impracticable. 
That  he  was  a  Continental  statesman  with  Continental  aims  stood 
in  the  way  of  his  popularity  in  England.  His  merit  was  that,  being 
aware  how  necessary  English  support  was  to  him  on  the  Continent, 
he  recognized  that  his  only  h:.pe  of  securing  the  help  of  England 
lay  in  persistent  devotion  to  her  domestic  interests  and  her  constitu- 
tional libenies  :  and  that  devotion,  in  spite  of  some  blunders  and  some 
weaknesses,  he  uninterruptedly  gave  to  her  during  the  whole  course 
of  his  reign. 


Chapter    XLIV 

QUEEN   ANNE.     1702— 1 7 14 

LEADING    DATES 
Accession"   0?   Ann'E,   ijaz — Ba.ttlh   of   Blhn'hhiw.    1704 — Batti?   cf 

R.\MILUE3,    1706 UXIOV    WTTH    SCCTLA.VD,    1707 B.\Tr.I:i    C?    .\LW  i.VZA 

A.VD         OCDEN'ARDE,        1708 BATTLE         CF         MALPLAijUET.        17C9 — ThE 

Sache'v'exell  Trial,  171c — Baitles  of  Bristclcx  a.vo  Villa  V:z::<a, 
171a — Dismissal  of  N[AiLacaocGH  axd  CasATio.v  of  Twelve  Pei^s 
17H — TxEAFi-  OF  Uni£c:-iT,  1713 — Death  of  Axne,  1714 

A^^'XE     'vvas    a    2'0':'<i-hearte'i    '.Y'l'man    cr    no    g~e.-i:    i'"' 

/  \       warmlv  attached  t~  the  Church  C't  Ens: 'and.  ar.d  rca  : 

A.      »■     5'.!Dp'?rt  it  in  its  cia:n:i  a:;rairit  t::e  Difien'ie';.      t^;:e  :i 

' ' -^  nref'rrre't  the  Tories  t:  t::e  Wh'^rs.  and  hhed  aii  the  n:::n"i: 

hotindiess  hif'nence  over  t::e  '^neen.   i:nn;i  it  exre  hent  t:    :e' 
himself  a  T<'jr\'.  though  he  had  iit:ie  S'-TncaThv  -//ith  the  ex:: 


Lccn  :n 


.:e 


454  ENGLAND 

1702-1703 

territor}^  This  gave  an  easy  attack  for  the  French,  while  on  the 
other  hand  it  divided  the  forces  of  the  alHes  into  two  parts.  Louis 
was,  moreover,  the  sole  master  of  all  his  armies,  and  could  easily 
secure  obedience  to  his  orders.  ^larlborough  had  the  more  difficult 
task  of  securing  obedience,  not  only  from  the  English  and  Dutch 
armies,  but  from  the  numerous  contingents  sent  by  the  German 
princes,  most  of  whom  now  joined  the  Grand  Alliance.  To  the 
difficult  task  of  guiding  this  heterogeneous  following,  Marlborough 
brought  not  only  a  consummate  military  genius  far  transcending 
that  of  William,  but  a  temper  as  imperturbable  as  William's  own. 

Marlborough's  aim  was  to  break  Louis's  power  in  south  Ger- 
many, but  he  knew  better  than  to  attempt  this  at  once.  He  there- 
fore devoted  the  two  campaigns  of  1702  and  1703  to  freeing  the 
Dutch  from  danger.  In  these  two  vcars  he  took  Kaiserswerth  and 
Bonn,  on  the  Rhine,  and  Roermonde.  Liege  and  Huy  on  the  ^leuse. 
The  roads  by  which  a  French  army  could  approach  the  Dutch  fron- 
tier were  thus  barred  against  attack. 

At  the  close  of  the  campaign  of  1702  ^Marlborough  was  created 
a  duke.  He  spent  the  vrinter  in  England,  where  he  found  Parlia- 
ment bus\-  witli  an  Occasional  Conformity  Bill,  the  object  of  which 
was  to  inflict  penalties  upon  Dissenters  who,  having  received  the  sac- 
rament in  church  in  order  to  qualify  themselves  for  office,  attended 
their  own  chapels  during  the  tenure  of  the  office  thus  obtained.  The 
queen,  the  high  Tories,  and  most  of  the  clergy  were  eager  to  prevent 
such  an  evasion  of  the  Test  Act.  especially  as  the  Dissenters  v^-ho 
occasionally  conformed  were  Whigs  to  a  man.  The  bill  passed  the 
Commons,  where  the  Tories  were  a  majority.  It  failed  to  satisfy 
the  House  of  Lords,  in  which  the  majority  was  A\'hig.  In  the  next 
session,  at  the  end  of  1703,  the  ])ill  again  passed  the  Commons,  but 
was  rejected  by  the  Lords.  Though  ]\Iarlborough  and  Godolphin 
voted  ff;r  it  to  please  the  queen,  they  disliked  the  measure,  as  causing 
ill-will  between  parties  which  they  wished  to  unite  against  the  com- 
mon etiemy. 

In  1702  a'ad  1703.  while  Marlborough  was  fighting  in  the 
Netherlands,  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy,  the  Austrian  commander, 
and  a  general  of  the  highest  order,  had  been  struggling  against  the 
French  in  Italy.  In  1703  he  won  over  the  Duke  of  Savoy  from  his 
alliance  w:th  Lf'iiis,  and  in  the  same  year  Portugal  deserted  France 
and  j(jined  the  allies.  By  the  Methuen  Treaty  nov;  formed,  Eng- 
land attached  Portugal  to  her  by  community  of  interests,  engaging 


JOHN     (  IirKClllLL,    FIRST    DTKE    OF     M  AKI.IlOKl )[ 'C  H 

P'liuln:^    by    Jan    tier    lt\-rn 

Pitti    (;.illcy\,    Florence 


QUEENANNE  455 

1702-1703 

that  the  duty  on  Portuguese  wines  should  be  at  least  one-third  less 
than  that  on  French,  while  Portugal  admitted  English  woolen  goods 
to  her  market.  During  the  first  two  years  of  the  war,  however, 
little  of  military  importance  took  place  in  any  part  of  the  Peninsula. 
By  the  end  of  1703  the  combined  forces  of  the  French  and  Bavari- 
ans had  gained  considerable  successes  in  Germany,  and,  by  the  cap- 
ture of  Augsburg,  Old  Breisach  and  Landau,  had  secured  the  com- 
munications between  France  and  Bavaria. 

Before  Marlborough  could  assail  Louis's  position  in  Germany, 
he  had  to  make  sure  of  his  own  position  at  home.  The  High 
Tories  weakened  him  not  only  by  alienating  the  Dissenters,  but  by 
their  lukewarmness  about  the  war.  Their  leaders,  the  Earls  of 
Rochester  and  Nottingham,  held  that  the  war  ought  to  be  mainly 
carried  on  at  sea  and  to  be  purely  defensive  on  land,  and  had  no 
sympathy  with  Marlborough  in  his  design  of  destroying  the  pre- 
dominance of  Louis  in  Europe.  Early  in  1703  Marlborough  found 
an  (Opportunity  of  getting  rid  of  Rochester.  In  the  spring  of  1704 
he  came  into  collision  with  Nottingham.  Nottingham  was  dis- 
missed, and  the  vacant  places  were  filled  by  Harley  and  St.  John. 
Both  of  the  new  ministers  called  themselves  moderate  Tories.  Har- 
ley was  an  influential  member  of  Parliament,  with  a  talent  for  in- 
trigue and  a  love  of  middle  courses.  St.  John,  profligate  in  his 
life,  was  the  most  brilliant  orator  and  the  ablest  and  most  unscrupu- 
lous politician  of  the  day.  A  few  Whigs,  of  no  great  note,  also 
received  places.  It  was  Marlborough's  policy  to  secure  the  support 
of  a  body  of  ministers  who  would  avoid  irritating  anyone,  and  would 
thus  help  him  in  his  military  designs.  An  attempt  made  by  the 
High  Tories  in  the  Commons  to  force  the  Lords  to  accept  the  Occa- 
sional Conformity  Bill,  by  tacking  it  to  a  bill  for  a  land  tax,  was 
defeated  with  the  help  of  Harley  and  St.  John. 

The  campaign  of  1704  was  likely  to  be  a  critical  one.  The 
French  and  Bavarians  intended  to  pusli  on  to  Vienna  and  to  compel 
the  Emperor  to  separate  himself  from  his  allies.  Marlborough  antici- 
pated them  l)y  marching  to  the  Upper  Danube,  and  eft'ected  a  junc- 
tion with  the  Austrian  commander,  I'rincc  luigcne,  and  then  devas- 
tated Bavaria.  A  French  army  under  Marshal  Tallard  hastened  to 
the  aid  of  the  Elector  of  Bavaria.  ^Marlborough  and  Eugene,  be- 
tween whom  no  jealousies  ever  arose,  turned  round,  and  utterly 
defeated  Tallard  at  Blenheim.  It  was  Marlborough's  genius  which 
had  foreseen  the  surju-ising  results  of  a  victory  on  the  Danube.  His 


456  ENGLAND 

1704-1706 

success  marks  the  end  of  a  period  of  French  mihtary  superiority  in 
Europe.  The  French  had  won  every  battle  in  which  they  had  been 
engaged  since  1643,  when  they  defeated  the  Spaniards  at  Rocroi. 
It  was,  however,  something  more  than  prestige  which  was  lost  by 
France.  The  whole  of  the  territory  of  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  the 
most  important  German  ally  of  Louis,  was  at  the  mercy  of  the  allies, 
and  before  the  end  of  the  year  scarcely  a  vestige  of  French  authority 
was  left  in  Germany.  jMarlborough  received  a  grant  of  the 
manor  of  Woodstock,  on  which  the  huge  and  ungraceful  pile 
which  bears  the  name  of  Blenheim  was  built  for  him  at  the  public 
expense. 

In  1704  the  Archduke  Charles,  assuming  the  name  of  Charles 
III.  of  Spain,  landed  at  Lisbon.  The  Spaniards  regarded  him  as  a 
foreign  intruder,  while  they  cherished  Philip  V.  as  if  he  had  been 
their  native  king.  The  first  foothold  which  Charles  acquired  in 
Spain  was  at  Gibraltar,  which  surrendered  in  August  to  the  English 
admiral,  Sir  George  Rooke.  In  1705  the  French  and  Spaniards 
tried  in  vain  to  retake  the  fortress.  The  most  important  success 
of  the  allies  in  1705  was  the  capture  of  Barcelona — an  achievement 
of  which  the  chief  merit  belongs  to  the  English  commander,  the 
eccentric  Lord  Peterborough,  whose  brilliant  conceptions  were  too 
often  thrown  away  by  his  ignorance  of  that  art  in  which  ]\Iarl- 
boTough  excelled,  the  art  of  courteously  overlooking  the  defects  of 
others. 

At  home  the  High  Tories  raised  the  cry  of  "  The  Church  in 
danger";  but  a  A\'hig  majority  was  returned  to  Parliament,  and 
Marlborough  and  Godolphin  entered  into  friendly  communications 
with  the  \\  hig  leaders.  One  of  the  results  of  the  understanding  ar- 
rived at  was  a  compromise  on  that  article  in  the  Act  of  Settlement 
which  would,  after  the  accession  of  the  House  of  Flanover,  have  ex- 
cluded ministers  as  well  as  other  placemen  from  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. It  was  arranged  in  1706  that  the  holding  of  a  pension  or 
of  an  office  created  after  Octoljer  25.  1705,  should  disqualify, 
while  all  other  dflices  should  Ije  compatible  with  a  seat,  provided  that 
the  holder,  at  tlie  time  of  his  appointment,  presented  himself  for  a 
fresh  election. 

In  May,  171)6,  ]\Tarlborough  won  a  second  great  victory  at 
Ramillies.  and  before  long,  except  that  thev  continued  to  hold  a 
few  isr)]ate(l  fiirircs-cs.  tlie  Frcncli  were  swept  out  of  the  Spanish 
Xethcrlancls   as   they   liad   been   swept   out   of   Germany   in    1704. 


QUEENANNE  457 

1702-1707 

The  French  were  also  driven  out  of  Italy,  but  in  Spain  the  success 
of  the  allies  was  less  unmixed. 

Far  more  important  to  England  than  all  that  was  taking  place 
in  Spain  was  the  conclusion  of  the  union  with  Scotland.  In  1702 
Commissioners  had  met  to  discuss  its  terms.  The  Scots  had  natu- 
rally been  anxious  for  freedom  of  trade  and  equality  of  commercial 
privileges.  As  the  English  were  unwilling  to  grant  this,  the  Scot- 
tish Parliament,  in  1703,  retorted  by  an  Act  of  Security,  providing 
that  the  successor  to  the  Scottish  Crown,  after  the  queen's  death, 
should  not  be  the  same  person  as  the  successor  to  the  Crown  of 
England.  In  1704,  in  consequence  of  the  defiant  attitude  of  Scot- 
land, the  queen  was  forced  to  give  the  royal  assent  to  the  Act  of 
Security.  What  the  Scots  virtually  meant  by  it  was,  that  England 
must  make  her  choice  either  to  accept  Scotland  as  an  equal  partner 
v/ith  full  equality  of  benefits  and  rights,  or  must  have  her  as  an 
alienated  neighbor  with  a  national  sovereign  of  her  own,  capable 
of  renewing  that  ancient  league  with  France  which  had  cost  England 
so  dear  in  earlier  times.  England  retaliated  with  an  enactment  that 
Scotchmen,  coming  to  England,  should  no  longer  enjoy  the  privi- 
leges to  which  they  were  entitled  by  the  decision  of  the  judges  in 
the  case  of  the  Postnati,  until  the  Scottish  Parliament  had  set- 
tled the  succession  in  the  same  way  that  it  was  settled  in  Eng- 
land. Godolphin  and  his  fellow-ministers  were,  however,  too 
wise  to  prolong  this  war  of  threats.  They  gave  way  on  free  trade 
and  commercial  equality,  and  in  1707  the  union  of  the  two  nations 
and  the  two  Parliaments  was  finally  accepted  on  both  sides.  Forty- 
five  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  were  to  be  chosen  by  Scot- 
tish constituencies,  and  the  Scottish  peers  were  to  elect  sixteen  of 
their  own  number  to  sit  in  the  Flouse  of  Eords.  Scotland  main- 
tained her  own  Church,  her  own  law,  and  the  control  of  her  own 
fortresses.  She  remained  a  nation  in  heart,  voluntarily  merging 
her  legislative  authority  in  that  of  the  neighboring  nation. 

It  would  have  been  well  both  for  England  and  Ireland  if  the 
Irish  race  had  been  capable  of  enforcing  its  claims  even  to  a  just 
and  lenient  treatment  by  its  masters.  Unfortunately  the  Irish  popu- 
lation, beaten  in  war,  and  deprived  of  its  natural  leaders  by  tlie  emi- 
gration of  its  most  vigorous  soldiers,  was  subjected  to  the  Parlia- 
ment of  the  British  Protestant  colony.  Penal  laws  were  now  passed 
which  bore  hard  on  the  Catholics.  In  addition,  the  English  Par- 
liament passed  laws  wliich  crushed  Irish  trade. 


458  ENGLAND 

1705-1708 

In  England  power  passed  gradually  into  the  hands  of  Whig 
ministers.  In  1705  the  Whig  Cowper  became  Lord  Chancellor. 
In  1706  the  Earl  of  Sunderland,  Marlborough's  son-in-law,  became 
Secretary  of  State.  The  queen  was  strongly  averse  to  Sunderland's 
promotion,  as  she  looked  on  the  Whigs  as  enemies  of  the  Church, 
and  Sunderland  was  the  most  acrimonious  of  the  Whigs.  More- 
over, Anne  was  growing  weary  of  the  arrogant  temper  of  the  Duch- 
ess of  Marlborough,  and  had  begun  to  transfer  her  confidence  to 
Harley's  cousin,  Abigail  Hill,  who  became  Mrs.  Masham  in  1707, 
a  soft-spoken,  unpretentious  woman,  whose  companionship  was 
calm  and  soothing.  There  was,  however,  a  grave  political  question 
at  issue  as  well  as  a  personal  one.  The  Whigs,  finding  the  Tories 
lukewarm  about  the  war  and  harsh  towards  the  Dissenters,  insisted 
on  the  appointment  of  a  compact  ministry  consisting  of  Whigs  alone. 
The  queen,  on  the  other  hand,  upheld  the  doctrine  that  the  choice 
of  ministers  depended  on  herself,  and  that  it  was  desirable  to  unite 
moderate  men  of  both  parties  in  her  service.  Harley  supported  her 
in  this  view,  and,  being  detected  by  his  colleagues  in  intriguing 
against  them  with  the  help  of  Mrs.  Masham,  was,  together  with 
St.  John,  turned  out  of  office  in  February,  1708.  By  the  end  of  that 
year  the  ministry  became  completely  Whig.  Marlborough  and 
Godolphin  declared  themselves  to  be  Whigs,  Somers  became  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council,  Wharton  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland. 

In  one  respect  the  Whig  ministry  completed  in  1708  resembles 
that  which  served  William  III.  under  the  name  of  the  Whig  Junto 
in  1695.  Both  were  formed  of  men  of  one  political  opinion:  both 
owed  their  influence  to  the  necessity  of  unity  of  action  in  time  of 
war.  There  was.  however,  one  great  difference  between  the  two 
ministries.  The  Whig  ministry  of  William  III.  was  formed  by  the 
sovereign  for  his  own  purposes  ;  whereas  the  Whig  ministry  of  Anne 
was  formed  in  defiance  of  the  sovereign.  The  idea  of  government 
by  a  Cabinet  resting  on  a  party  majority  in  Parliament,  and  forcing 
its  will  on  the  sovereign,  originated  with  the  Tory  ministers  who 
forced  themselves  on  William  III.  towards  the  end  of  his  reign,  but 
it  first  took  definite  shape  in  the  Whig  ministry  of  the  reign  of 
Anne. 

There  had  been  nothing  to  dazzle  the  eyes  of  Englishmen  in  the 
campaign  of  1707.  The  campaign  of  1708  was  of  a  different  char- 
acter. The  Dutch  had  made  themselves  disagreeable  in  the  con- 
quered  Spanish   Xctherkmds,  and  the   French  general,  Vendome, 


Q  U  E  E  N     A  N  N  E  459 

1707-1710 

was  therefore  welcomed  by  the  inhabitants,  and  took  Ghent  and 
Bruges  with  Httle  difficulty.  Marlborough,  however,  met  him  at 
Oudenarde,  utterly  defeated  him,  and,  before  the  end  of  the  year, 
not  only  retook  the  places  which  had  been  lost,  but,  advancing  on 
French  territory,  took  Lille  after  a  prolonged  siege.  In  the  same 
year  General  Stanhope  reduced  Minorca,  an  island  of  importance 
from  the  goodness  of  its  harbor,  Port  Mahon,  which  formed  an 
excellent  basis  for  naval  operations  in  the  Mediterranean. 

In  France  the  peasants  were  starving,  and  Louis,  in  quest  of 
peace,  entered  on  negotiations  at  The  Hague.  The  allies  insisted 
upon  his  abandonment  not  only  of  portions  of  his  own  territory,  but 
upon  the  surrender  by  his  grandson  of  the  whole  of  the  Spanish 
monarchy.  To  all  this  he  agreed  at  first,  but  when  he  found  that  he 
was  to  join  in  expelling  his  grandson  from  Spain,  he  drew  back. 
"  If  I  must  wage  war,"  he  said,  "  I  would  rather  wage  it  against 
my  enemies  than  against  my  children."  Finding  that  nothing  more 
was  to  be  had  by  negotiation,  Louis  put  forth  all  his  strength.  He 
sent  forth  a  fresh  army  ill-clothed  and  half-starved,  but  resolute  to 
do  its  utmost  for  its  country's  sake.  This  army  was,  on  September 
II,  attacked  at  Malplaquet  by  the  combined  forces  of  Marlborough 
and  Eugene.  The  allies  were  again  victorious,  but  they  lost  20,000 
men,  while  only  12,000  fell  on  the  side  of  the  French. 

Before  another  campaign  was  opened  the  Whig  ministry  was 
tottering  to  its  fall.  On  November  5,  1709,  a  certain  Dr.  Sachever- 
ell  preached  in  St.  Paul's  a  sermon  upholding  the  doctrine  of  non- 
resistance,  attacking  the  Dissenters,  reviling  toleration,  and  per- 
sonally abusing  Godolphin.  In  spite  of  Somers's  advice  to  leave 
Sacheverell  alone,  the  Whig  ministers  decided  to  impeach  him. 
What  the  Whigs  wanted  was  an  opportunity  for  solemnly  recording 
their  views  on  the  principles  of  resistance  and  toleration  established 
at  the  Revolution,  and  such  an  opportunity  they  obtained  during  the 
impeachment,  which  occupied  the  first  months  of  17 10.  Dissenters, 
however,  who  were  mainly  drawn  from  the  middle  classes  were  no 
more  liked  by  the  mob  than  they  were  by  the  country  gentlemen, 
and  their  discredit  was  shared  by  their  protectors,  the  Whigs.  When 
the  queen  passed  there  were  shouts  raised  of  "  God  bless  your 
Majesty  and  the  Church.  We  hope  your  Majesty  is  for  Dr.  Sach- 
everell." There  were  riots  in  the  streets,  and  Dissenters'  chapels 
were  sacked  and  burned.  In  the  end  the  Whig  House  of  Lords  pro- 
nounced Sacheverell  guilty,  but  did  not  venture  to  do  more  than 


460  E  N  G  I.  A  N  1) 

1710 

order  his  sermons  to  be  burned  and  himself  prohibited  from  preach- 
ing for  the  next  three  years.  By  this  sentence,  which  was  a  virtual 
defeat  of  the  Whigs  and  a  triumph  of  the  Tories,  Sacheverell  gained 
rather  than  lost  by  his  condemnation.  Wherever  he  went  he  was 
uproariously  welcomed,  and  he  was  consoled  for  his  enforced 
silence  with  a  well-endowed  living. 

Anne  saw  in  this  outburst  a  sign  that  it  would  now  be  easy  for 
her  to  get  rid  of  her  ministers.  She  was  the  better  able  to  make  the 
attempt,  as  there  were,  in  the  spring  of  1710,  fresh  conferences  for 
peace  at  Gertruydenberg,  in  which  it  was  proposed  to  solve  all  dif- 
ficulties by  leaving  to  Philip  some  part  of  the  Spanish  monarchy 
other  than  Spain  itself.  No  general  agreement,  however,  could  be 
obtained,  and  England  seemed  to  be  committed  to  an  interminable 
war.  All  the  blame  of  its  continuance  was  unjustly  thrown  on 
Marlborough.  The  queen  effected  cautiously  the  change  which  she 
was  bent  on  making.  Harley,  who  was  her  chief  adviser,  recom- 
mended her  to  revert  to  the  system  which  had  prevailed  when  he  had 
been  last  in  office,  and  to  form  a  ministry  composed  of  moderate 
Whigs  and  Tories  of  which  tlie  direction  should  fall  to  herself. 

Harley's  plan  of  a  combined  ministry  fell  to  the  ground.  A 
new  House  of  Commons,  elected  in  1710,  being  strongly  Tory, 
resolved  to  secure  jjower,  permanently  if  possible,  for  the  country 
gentry  and  the  country  clergy,  and  to  reduce  to  impotence  the 
wealthy  peers,  with  the  merchants  and  Dissenters  who  formed  the 
strength  of  the  Whigs.  Harley  and  St.  John  were  compelled  by 
their  supporters  to  form  a  purely  Tory  ministry. 

The  Tories  had  no  wish  to  keep  up  the  war  except  so  far  as 
it  would  serve  special  English  interests,  and,  in  the  course  of  1710, 
the  danger  of  being  engaged  in  an  endless  war  in  Spain  appeared 
greater  than  ever,  for  despite  early  successes,  the  end  of  the  summer 
saw  English  defeats  and  all  Spain,  except  Catalonia,  in  the  hands 
of  Philip. 

Even  before  this  bad  news  reached  England,  Harley  and  St. 
Jcjhn,  witliout  troul^ling  themselves  about  the  interests  of  their 
allies,  luul  opened  secret  negotiations  for  peace,  on  the  basis  of 
leaving  S])ain  to  JMiilip,  and  of  accpiiring  l()r  England  separately 
as  many  advantages  as  possible.  '^I'he  ^rory  party  had  never  had 
much  inclination  to  defend  the  interests  of  Europe  as  a  whole, 
and,  at  the  end  of  1710,  it  might  reasonably  be  doubted  whether  the 
interests  of  Europe  as  a  whole  were  to  be  served  by  prolonging  the 


Q  U  E  E  N     A  N  N  E  461 

1710-1711 

Struggle  to  place  the  Archduke  Charles  on  the  throne  of  Spain. 
The  real  objection  against  the  conduct  of  the  new  ministers  was 
not  that  they  opened  negotiations  for  peace,  but  that  they  negotiated 
after  the  fashion  of  conspirators.  Not  only  did  they,  in  171 1,  send 
secret  emissaries  to  treat  privately  with  Louis,  but  when,  in  the 
September  of  that  year,  preliminaries  were  agreed  to  as  a  basis  for 
a  private  understanding  between  England  and  France,  they  actually 
communicated  a  false  copy  of  them  to  the  Dutch.  By  this  time, 
indeed,  there  was  a  fresh  reason  for  making  peace.  The  Emperor 
had  died  in  April  without  leaving  a  son,  and  was  succeeded  in  his 
hereditary  dominions  by  his  brother,  the  Archduke  Charles.  It 
might  fairly  be  argued  that  it  was  at  least  as  dangerous  in  171 1  to 
give  the  whole  of  the  Spanish  dominions  to  the  ruler  of  the  Austrian 
territories,  as  it  had  been  in  1702  to  give  them  to  the  grandson  of 
the  king  of  France. 

In  order  to  defend  their  policy  the  Tory  ministers  had,  on  their 
first  accession  to  power,  looked  about  for  literary  supporters.  In 
the  reign  of  Anne  a  literature  had  arisen  in  prose  and  verse  which 
may  fairly  be  described  as  prosaic.  It  had  nothing  of  the  high 
imagination  which  illuminated  the  pages  of  the  great  Elizabethan 
writers.  It  was  sensible  and  intelligent,  aiming  not  at  rousing  the 
feelings,  but  at  being  plainly  understood.  Addison,  in  his  writings, 
for  instance,  mingled  criticism  with  attractive  arguments  in  favor 
of  a  morality  of  common  sense,  which  he  addressed  to  that  numer- 
ous class  which  shrank  from  the  high  demands  of  Milton.  Addison, 
like  most  other  writers  of  the  day,  was  a  Whig,  the  political  views 
of  the  Whigs  having  at  that  time  a  strong  hold  upon  men  of  intel- 
ligence. Writers  like  Addison  exercised  considerable  influence 
over  the  frequenters  of  the  London  coffee-houses,  where  political 
affairs  were  discussed.  The  support  of  this  class,  usually  spoken 
of  as  ''  the  Town,"  was  at  that  time  more  worth  winning  than  either 
before  or  since.  As  there  were  no  Parliamentary  reports,  and  no 
speeches  on  politics  delivered  in  public,  only  those  who  lived  near 
the  place  in  which  Parliament  met  could  have  any  knowledge  of 
the  details  of  political  action.  They  gained  this  knowledge  from 
the  lips  of  the  actors,  and  were  able,  by  their  personal  conversation, 
to  influence  in  turn  the  conduct  of  the  actors  themselves.  The 
services  oi  a  persuasive  writer  Vvho  had  the  ear  of  ''  the  Tcnvn  "  was 
therefore  coveted  by  every  body  of  ministers. 

The   writer   won   over  by   the   I'ory  ministers   was  Jonathan 


462  ENGLAND 

1710-1711 

Swift  He  was  unequaled  in  satirical  power,  arising  from  a  com- 
bination of  lucid  expression  with  a  habit  of  regarding  the  actions 
of  men  as  springing  from  the  lowest  motives.  He  was  a  clergy- 
man, and  he  wished  to  be  a  bishop.  At  first  he  attached  himself 
to  the  Whigs.  The  Whigs,  however,  were  unwilling,  or  perhaps 
unable,  to  give  him  what  he  wanted,  his  writings  being  of  too 
unclerical  a  nature ;  and  all  that  they  procured  for  him  was  a  living 
in  Ireland,  which  he  seldom  visited.  With  personal  motives  were 
mingled  more  creditable  reasons  for  disliking  the  Whigs.  He  was 
devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  Church  of  England,  not  as  a  fosterer 
of  spiritual  life,  but  as  a  bulwark  against  what  he  regarded  as  the 
extravagance  of  the  Roman  Catholics  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the 
Dissenters  on  the  other.  In  the  beginning  of  the  reign  Anne  had 
made  over  the  tenths  and  first-fruits  of  the  English  clergy,  an- 
nexed to  the  Crown  by  Henry  VIII.,  to  a  body  of  commissioners, 
who  were  to  use  them  for  the  increase  of  the  means  of  the  poorer 
clergy.  Swift  wanted  to  see  this  grant,  usually  known  as  Queen 
Anne's  Bounty,  extended  to  Ireland.  The  Whig  ministers  had 
not  only  refused  this,  but  had  shown  signs  of  intending  to  give  the 
Dissenters  a  share  of  political  power.  Swift  was  afraid  that,  if 
Parliament  and  public  offices  were  thrown  open  to  Dissenters, 
there  would  be  again  a  government  as  fanatical  as  that  which 
popular  imagination  believed  Cromwell's  to  have  been,  and  it  was 
partly  in  consequence  of  this  fear  that  he  deserted  the  Whigs  and 
joined  the  Tories.  His  first  article  in  defense  of  his  new  allies  w^as 
written  in  November,  1710.  A  year  later,  in  November,  171 1, 
shortly  after  the  preliminaries  of  peace  had  been  signed,  appeared 
"  The  Conduct  of  the  Allies."  Every  action  of  the  Dutch  and  of  the 
Austrians  was  traced  to  mean  cupidity,  in  order  that  England 
might  Ije  urged  to  look  upon  the  war  as  a  mere  scramble  for  wealth 
and  ])ower,  in  which  she  was  entitled  to  the  largest  share  of  the 
plunder. 

The  English  ministers,  at  least,  could  not  lay  claim  to  any 
superior  morality.  In  the  spring  of  171 1,  although  engaged  in  a 
secret  neg(jtiation  with  Louis,  which  led  before  the  end  of  the  year 
to  the  signature  of  preliminaries,  they  had  sent  Marlborough  to 
Inlanders  with  loud  {jrofessions  of  intending  to  carry  on  the  war 
vigorously.  lUit  in  this  he  failed,  mainly  for  want  of  proper  sup- 
])ort  from  his  own  G()\-crnment.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Arch- 
<luke,   now   a   candidate   for   the  empire,   justified    Swift's   conten- 


QUEENANNE  463 

1711-1713 

tion  by  recalling  his  own  troops  under  Eugene  to  support  his  per- 
sonal claims,  and  in  October,  171 1,  he  was  chosen  Emperor  as 
Charles  VI. 

When  Parliament  met  on  December  7,  the  Whigs,  who  at  this 
time  had  very  nearly  a  majority  in  the  House  of  Lords,  secured 
one  by  an  unprincipled  coalition  with  Nottingham,  one  of  the 
strictest  of  Tories,  who  was  discontented  because  he  was  excluded 
from  office.  They  agreed  to  vote  for  the  Occasional  Conformity 
Bill,  to  please  him,  and  he  agreed  to  vote  for  a  warlike  policy  on  the 
continent,  to  please  them.  The  Occasional  Conformity  Bill  there- 
fore became  law,  while  the  ministerial  foreign  policy  was  con- 
demned by  the  House  of  Lords.  The  credit  of  that  House  stood 
high,  and,  though  the  ministers  had  the  House  of  Commons  at 
their  back,  most  of  them  thought  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
defy  its  censures.  Harley,  however,  who  was  not  easily  frightened, 
persuaded  the  queen  first  to  dismiss  Marlborough  from  all  his 
offices,  and  then  to  create  twelve  new  Tory  peers.  By  this  means 
the  ministry  secured  a  majority  in  that  House  which  had  alone 
opposed  them.  Apart  from  the  immediate  questions  of  the  day, 
this  creation  of  peers  had  a  wide  constitutional  significance.  Just 
as  the  deposition  of  James  H.  had  made  it  evident  that  if  king  and 
Parliament  pulled  different  ways  it  was  for  the  king  to  give  way, 
so  the  creation  of  peers  in  171 1  made  it  evident  that  if  the  two 
Houses  pulled  different  ways,  it  was  for  the  House  of  Lords  to 
give  way. 

In  1 71 2  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  a  strong  Tory,  was  sent  to 
command  in  the  Netherlands,  but  was  restrained  from  fighting,  in 
consequence  of  an  understanding  with  France.  Tlie  negotiations 
with  France  were  now  pushed  on.  Shabby  as  the  conduct  of  the 
ministers  was,  they  had  now  the  full  confidence  of  the  queen,  who 
in  171 1  made  Harley  Lord  High  Treasurer  and  Earl  of  Oxford, 
and,  in  171 2,  made  St.  John  Viscount  Bolingbroke.  In  July  the 
French  fell  upon  Eugene  and  defeated  him  at  Dcnain,  and  the 
Dutch,  seeing  the  difficulty  of  carrying  on  war  without  English 
support,  agreed  to  make  peace  on  the  terms  proposed  by  England. 
On  March  31,  171 3,  a  treaty  of  peace,  in  which,  for  the  present, 
the  Emperor  declined  to  share,  was  signed  at  Utrecht. 

As  far  as  the  continental  Powers  were  concerned  the  main 
conditions  of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  were  that  Spain  and  the  Indies 
should  remain  under  Philip  V.,  while  Naples,  the  duchy  of  Milan, 


464  ENGLAND 

1713 

and  the  Spanish  Netherlands  were  given  to  Charles  VI.  The 
Dutch  were  to  be  allowed  to  place  garrisons  in  certain  towns  of  the 
so-called  Barrier  on  the  southern  frontier  of  what  had  lately  been 
the  Spanish  Netherlands.  England  obtained  the  largest  share  of 
the  material  advantages  of  the  peace,  while  she  lost  credit  by  her 
ill-faith  in  concealing  her  abandonment  of  her  allies,  and  especially 
in  giving  up  the  Catalans  to  the  vengeance  of  Philip.  In  Europe 
she  was  to  keep  Gibraltar  and  Minorca,  and  obtained  from  France 
a  promise  to  destroy  the  fortifications  of  Dunkirk.  In  America  she 
acquired  territory  round  Hudson's  Bay,  Nova  Scotia,  Newfound- 
land, and  the  French  part  of  St.  Christopher's.  By  an  accompany- 
ing treaty  with  Spain,  called  the  Assiento  Treaty,  she  had  the  sole 
right  of  importing  negro  slaves  into  the  Spanish  colonies  in  Amer- 
ica, a  traffic  which  would  now  be  scouted  as  infamous,  but  which 
was  then  coveted  as  lucrative,  and  she  also  obtained  the  right  of 
sending  yearly  to  Panama  a  ship  of  600  tons  laden  with  goods  for 
the  Spanish  colonists. 

The  general  character  of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  is  of  greater 
historical  importance  than  its  details.  It  marks  the  end  of  a  period 
of  European  history  during  which  there  was  often  some  reality 
and  always  some  pretense  of  combining  together  for  common  pur- 
poses of  general  interest,  and  not  merely  for  the  particular  interests 
of  the  several  states.  Down  to  the  Treaties  of  Westphalia,  in 
1648,  Catholics  had  combined  against  Protestants  and  Protestants 
against  Catholics.  After  that  date  states  which  feared  the  over- 
bearing insolence  of  Louis  XIV.  had  combined  against  France. 
The  Treaty  of  Utrecht  ushered  in  a  period  lasting  almost  to  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  each  state  stood  up  for  its  own 
interests  alone,  when  no  steady  combinations  could  be  formed,  and 
when  greed  for  material  accessions  was  most  conspicuous  because 
no  purpose  of  seeking  the  general  good  existed.  Swift  threw  the 
blame  upon  the  allies,  and  the  Whigs  threw  the  blame  upon  tlie 
Tories.  ^fhe  truth  is  that  states  combine  readily  through  fear, 
and  very  seldom  through  a  desire  for  the  common  good,  and  when 
Louis  XIV.  ceased  to  be  formidable  each  state  thought  exclusively 
of  its  own  interests. 

The  success  of  the  Tory  ministers  seemed  complete.  In 
reality,  the  very  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  revealed  their 
weakness.  In  seeking  to  gain  material  advantages  for  England, 
Oxford  and  Bolingbruke  had  been  forced  to  look  for  them  in  ad- 


QUEENANNE  465 

1711-1713 

vantages  to  trade,  and  in  the  increase  of  colonial  dominion  by 
which  trade  might  be  encouraged.  Thereby  they  strengthened  the 
trading  class,  which  was  the  main  support  of  the  Whigs,  while  the 
landed  gentry,  on  whom  their  own  power  mainly  rested,  received 
no  benefit.  Not  that  the  Tories  could  well  help  doing  what  they 
had  done.  During  the  two  wars  which  had  been  waged  since  the 
fall  of  James  II.  an  immense  change  had  been  taking  place  in  the 
relations  between  England  and  the  other  European  states,  irrespec- 
tive of  the  victories  of  Marlborough  in  the  field.  Both  France 
and  the  States  General  of  the  Dutch  Netherlands  had  been  forced 
to  wage  an  exhausting  war  on  their  land  frontier.  The  conse- 
quence was  that  the  Dutch  were  no  longer  able  to  compete  with  the 
English  at  sea,  and  that  Louis  being,  after  the  battle  of  La  Hogue, 
compelled  to  limit  his  efforts  either  at  sea  or  on  land,  decided  to 
limit  them  at  sea.  The  result  was,  that  though  there  were  no 
important  English  naval  victories  between  the  battle  of  La  Hogue 
and  the  Peace  of  Utrecht,  the  English  navy  at  the  end  of  the  war 
was  vastly  superior  to  the  navies  of  its  only  possible  rivals,  France 
and  the  Dutch  Republic.  England  was  now  the  one  great  sea- 
power  in  Europe,  not  so  much  through  her  own  increasing  strength 
as  through  the  decay  of  the  maritime  vigor  of  other  states. 

The  increase  of  maritime  power  necessarily  leading  to  an 
increase  of  the  influence  of  the  commercial  class,  the  Tory  leaders 
were  filled  with  alarm  about  the  future,  and  tried  to  secure  their 
power  by  legislation  which,  as  they  hoped,  might  arrest  the  changes 
which  seemed  likely  in  the  future,  and  to  strengthen  their  party  by 
artificial  means  against  changes  of  public  opinion,  much  as  the  men 
of  the  Long  Parliament  and  the  Protectorate  had  formerly  tried 
to  do.  In  171 1  the  Occasional  Conformity  Act  had  gone  far  to 
prevent  Dissenters  from  holding  office  or  sitting  in  Parliament,  and 
earlier  in  the  same  year  had  been  passed  a  Property  Qualification 
Act  which  enacted  that  no  one  who  did  not  hold  land  worth  at  least 
200/.  a  year  should  sit  in  the  House  of  Commons,  thus  excluding 
mere  traders,  who  were  for  the  most  part  Whigs.  In  171 3  tlie 
Tories  were  confronted  with  a  further  difficulty.  Anne's  health 
was  failing,  and  the  legal  heir,  the  Electress  Sophia,  and  her  son, 
the  Elector  of  Hanover,  were  both  favorable  to  the  Whigs.  The 
Tories  began  to  talk  of  securing  the  succession  to  the  Pretender, 
the  son  of  James  II.,  by  force  or  fraud.  If  only  he  had  changed 
his  religion   and   had   avowed  himself  a   Protestant,   it   is   almost 


466  ENGLAND 

1713-1714 

certain  that  an  effort,  possibly  successful,  would  have  been  made 
to  place  him  on  the  throne  when  Anne  died.  The  Pretender  was  a 
man  of  little  capacity,  but  he  was  too  honest  to  change  his  religion 
for  worldly  ends,  and  he  flatly  refused  to  do  so.  The  Tories  were 
split  into  hostile  parties  by  his  refusal.  Some,  the  pure  Jacobites, 
clung  to  him  in  spite  of  it;  some  went  over  to  the  Whigs.  The 
bulk  of  them  were  too  bewildered  to  know  what  to  do.  They  were 
aware  that  their  supporters,  the  country  gentry  and  the  country 
clergy,  would  refuse  to  submit  to  a  Roman  Catholic  king,  and  yet 
they  could  not  voluntarily  support  the  claims  of  the  Electress 
Sophia  and  her  son,  whose  succession  they  feared.  To  add  to  the 
distractions  of  the  party  its  leaders,  Oxford  and  Bolingbroke, 
quarreled  with  one  another. 

In  1 714  Swift  suggested  that  the  difficulty  would  be  at  an 
end  if  his  friends  would  accept  the  Hanoverian  succession,  and  at 
the  same  time  so  weaken  the  Whigs  by  repressive  legislation  that 
the  new  Hanoverian  sovereign  would  be  obliged  to  govern  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  will  of  the  Tories.  In  pursuance  of  this  plan 
Bolingbroke  carried  through  Parliament  a  Schism  Act,  by  which 
no  one  was  allowed  to  keep  a  school  without  license  from  the  bishop. 
Oxford,  who  was  always  in  favor  of  a  middle  course,  and  therefore 
disliked  violent  measures  against  the  Dissenters,  was  driven  from 
office,  and  Bolingbroke  then  hoped  to  control  the  Government  for 
some  time  to  come.  Before  a  successor  to  Oxford  was  appointed, 
while  the  ministers  were  without  any  distinct  policy  or  acknowl- 
edged head,  and  while  even  Bolingbroke  himself  had  not  definitely 
made  up  his  mind  as  to  his  future  plans,  the  queen  was  taken  ill. 
Bolingbroke's  enemies,  the  Dukes  of  Somerset  and  Argyle,  made 
their  appearance  unexpectedly  in  the  Council  and  obtained  the  con- 
sent of  the  queen  to  the  appointment  of  the  Duke  of  Shrewsbury  as 
Treasurer.  The  queen  died  on  August  i,  and  the  Elector  of  Plan- 
over,  now  heir  to  the  Crown  by  the  provisions  of  the  Act  of  Settle- 
ment, in  conscfiuence  of  the  recent  death  of  his  mother,  the  Elec- 
tress Sr)])bia,  was  at  once  proclaimed  by  the  title  of  George  I. 

In  art  as  in  politics  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Anne  completes 
a  change  l.ing  in  progress  from  the  ideal  to  the  convenient.  As  in 
affairs  ol  stale  tlie  material  interests  of  the  country  gentleman  and 
of  the  trader  took  the  place  of  the  great  causes  which  called  out 
the  enthusiasm  t^f  Cavalier  and  Roundhead  in  the  Civil  War,  so  in 
art  painting  became  a  mode  of  perpetuating  the  features  of  those 


QUEENANNE  467 

1714 

who  were  rich  enough  to  pay  for  having  their  portraits  taken;  and 
architecture,  which  had  long  forgotten  the  hfe  and  beauty  of  the 
medieval  churches,  was  losing  even  the  stateliness  which  Sir  Chris- 
topher Wren  gave  to  such  buildings  as  the  new  St.  Paul's  and 
Greenwich  Hospital.  On  the  whole,  it  was  the  commonplace  which 
was  gaining  ground,  and  which  ultimately  pervaded  the  domestic 
buildings  raised  during  the  greater  part  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


Chapter    XLV 

ESTABLISHMENT    OF    PARLIAMENTARY    SU- 
PREMACY:  TOWNSHEND,    SUNDERLAND, 
AND   WALPOLE.     17 14— 1737 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  George  I.  A.D.  1714-1727 — Reign  of  George  II.,  A.D. 
1727-1760 — Accession  of  George  I.,  August  1,  1714 — Mar's  Rising, 
1715 — The  Septennial  Act,  1716 — The  South  Sea  Bubble,  1720 — 
Walpole  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  1721 — Accession  of  George 
II.,  June  12,  1727 — The  Excise  Bill,  1733 — Death  of  Queen  Caro- 
line, Nov.  20,  1737 

EFORE  Georg-e  I.  arrived  in  England  a  thorough  change 
was  made  by  his  orders  in  all  the  offices  of  Government. 
With  scarcely  an  exception  all  Tories  were  dismissed  and 
Whigs  appointed  in  their  place.  As  the  new  king  intended  to 
take  a  leading  part  in  the  Government,  he  placed  the  more  important 
offices  in  the  hands  of  men  who  had  hitherto  been  less  prominent 
than  the  great  Whig  leaders  of  Anne's  reign.  The  most  con- 
spicuous of  the  new  ministers  was  Lord  Townshend,  who  became 
Secretary  of  State.  When  the  king  arrived  he  found  that  his  own 
power  was  much  less  than  he  had  expected.  He  could  not  speak 
English,  and  all  communications  between  himself  and  his  ministers 
were  carried  on  in  bad  Latin.  He  therefore  set  the  exarhple,  which 
all  subsequent  sovereigns  have  followed,  of  abstaining  from  attend- 
ing Cabinet  meetings,  where  the  discussion  took  place  in  a  language 
uninlclligibie  to  him.  This  abstention  had  important  constitutional 
results.  The  Cabinet,  which  for  some  time  had  been  growing  inde- 
])cn(lcnt  of  the  sovereign,  became  still  more  independent,  especially 
as  George  knew  no  ntore  of  English  ways  than  he  knew  of  the 
I'.nglish  lani;uage.  and  was  obliged  to  take  most  of  the  advice  of  his 
ministers  on  tru.-,t.  flc  could  not  think  of  replacing  them  by  Tories, 
because  he  lia^l  been  led  to  look  upon  all  Tories  as  Jacobites. 

1  he  W  h:.i;s,  liowex'cr,  needed  the  support  of  Parliament  more 


PARLIAMENTARY     S  U  P  R  i:  :\I  A  C  Y        469 

1714-1716 

than  the  support  of  the  king.  The  great  landowners  who  directed 
their  poHcy  were  wealthy  and  intelligent,  and  therefore  unpopular 
among  the  country  gentry  and  the  country  clergy.  They  aimed 
at  establishing  a  sort  of  aristocratic  republic  with  a  king  nominally 
at  its  head,  in  which  fair  play  should  be  given  to  the  Dissenters,  and 
the  trading  classes  encouraged.  Yet  they  were  clear-sighted  enough 
to  perceive  that  it  w-as  impossible  to  govern  without  the  support  of 
the  House  of  Commons ;  and  it  was  with  the  support  of  the  House 
of  Commons  that  the  Tories  in  the  last  four  years  of  Anne's  reign 
had  maintained  themselves  in  power  by  appealing  to  the  prejudices 
of  the  country  gentry  and  the  country  clergy.  The  Whig  tenure 
of  power  was,  therefore,  not  likely  to  last  long  unless  they  could 
find  some  means  of  crushing  opponents  who  had  been,  and  might 
easily  be  again,  more  popular  than  themselves. 

For  the  moment,  indeed,  the  Whigs  had  the  advantage.  In 
171 5  a  new  Parliament  was  chosen,  and  many  Tories  who  were, 
after  all,  not  really  Jacobites  voted  for  Whig  candidates  in  alarm 
lest  their  own  leaders  should  bring  back  the  Pretender,  whom  they 
distrusted  as  a  Roman  Catholic.  The  Whigs,  therefore,  had  a 
majority  in  the  House  of  Commons,  while  they  had  ahxady 
recovered  the  majority  in  the  House  of  Lords  which  they  had  tem- 
porarily lost  by  the  recent  creation  of  the  Tory  peers.  Li  order 
to  make  their  success  permanent  by  getting  rid  of  the  leaders  of  the 
party  opposed  to  them,  the  Whigs  prepared  to  impeach  Oxford, 
Bolingbroke,  and  Ormond  as  traitors,  on  the  ground  of  the  secret 
agreements  which  they  had  made  with  the  French  during  the 
negotiation  of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht.  Oxford,  with  his  usual  cool- 
ness, stayed  to  face  the  attack,  and  got  off  with  two  years'  imprison- 
ment. Bolingbroke  and  Ormond  lied  to  France,  where  Bolingl^-oke 
entered  the  service  of  the  Pretender  as  Secretary  of  State.  Acts 
of  attainder  were  passed  against  both.  These  high-handed  pro- 
ceedings of  the  \Miigs  nearly  defeated  their  object.  The  German 
king  had  by  this  time  become  unpopular,  and  Jacobitism  increased 
among  the  Tories,  most  of  whom  had  submitted  to  him  at  his  first 
coming.  In  all  parts  of  England  and  Scotland  large  numbers 
made  ready  for  a  rising  against  his  government.  Bolingbroke 
urged  Louis  XIV.  to  support  them.  Louis,  however,  died  with- 
out having  given  his  consent,  and  the  Jacobites  of  Great  Britain 
had  to  dispense  with  foreign  aid. 

Under  these  circumstances  Bolingbroke  urged  delay,  but  the 


470  ENGLAND 

1716 

Pretender — headstrong  and  incompetent — ordered  the  Earl  of  Mar, 
his  chief  supporter  in  Scotland,  to  rise  against  the  Government. 
Argyle,  who  commanded  for  the  government  in  Scotland,  secured 
the  advantage  of  a  victory  at  Sheriffmuir.  On  December  2  the 
Pretender  himself  landed-.  He  was,  however,  so  dull  and  unenter- 
prising that  his  very  followers  despised  him.  and  he  soon  retired  to 
France  when  the  English  took  vigorous  measures,  and  the  rising 
was  then  put  down. 

Successful  as  the  Whigs  had  been  in  the  field,  they  did  not 
venture  to  face  the  elections  to  a  new  Parliament,  which,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  Triennial  Act,  must  be  held  in  the  beginning  of 
1 718.  Accordingly  they  passed  a  Septennial  Act,  by  which 
the  existing  Parliament  prolonged  its  own  duration  for  four  years 
longer  than  was  allowed  by  the  law  as  it  stood  at  the  time  when 
the  House  of  Commons  was  chosen.  This  proceeding  strained  to 
the  uttermost  the  doctrine  that  a  British  Parliament — unlike  Parlia- 
mentary bodies  in  countries  like  the  present  United  States,  in  which 
a  written  constitution  exists — can  make  any  law  it  pleases,  even  if 
it  effects  the  greatest  changes  in  the  institutions  of  the  state. 
Hitherto  the  king  had  acted  as  a  restraint  upon  Parliament  by 
exercising  his  right  of  refusing  the  Royal  assent  to  bills.  This 
prerogative,  however,  which  had  been  exercised  for  the  last  time 
by  Anne  in  1707,  now  dropped  out  of  use,  and  Parliament  thereby 
became  supreme  as  far  as  other  branches  of  the  Government  were 
concerned.  The  question  of  its  relations  to  the  constituencies 
assumed  new  importance;  and  in  1716  at  least  the  Whigs  were  of 
opinion  that  the  duration  of  Parliament  should  be  lengthened  in 
order  to  make  the  House  of  Commons  more  independent  of  them. 
They  were  afraid  lest  the  supremacy  which  had  been  wrested  from 
the  Crown  should  pass  into  the  hands  of  an  ignorant,  ill-informed 
multitude.  Yet  they  were  unable — even  if  they  had  been  willing — 
to  make  the  House  of  Commons  a  permanent  oligarchy.  As  the 
duration  of  Parliament  could  not  be  indefinitely  prolonged  without 
provoking  violent  opposition,  the  Whigs  had  only  gained  a  respite 
during  winch  they  would  have  to  do  their  best  to  make  themselves 
more  acceptable  to  the  nation  than  they  were  when  the  Septennial 
Act  was  passed. 

One  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  fall  of  the  Whigs  in  Anne's 
reign  had  been  their  advocacy  of  war:  now,  however,  they  stood 
forward  as  the  advocates  of  peace.     In  effecting  this  change  of 


PARLIAMENTARY     SUPREMACY        471 

1716-1717 

front  they  were  helped  by  the  disappearance  of  those  of  their  leaders 
who  had  been  foremost  in  the  struggle  with  France.  Somers,  Hali- 
fax, and  Wharton  died  before  the  end  of  1716,  and,  though  Marl- 
borough still  lived,  he  was  incapacitated  by  disease  from  acting  in 
public.  Still  more  helpful  to  the  Whig  party  was  a  change  which 
had  taken  place  in  France.  The  king  of  France  was  now  a  sickly 
child,  Louis  XV.,  the  great-grandson  of  Louis  XIV.  If  he  died 
(as  most  people  expected  him  to  do),  there  would  be  two  competi- 
tors for  the  throne  of  France — the  one,  his  uncle,  Philip  V.  of 
Spain,  the  grandson  of  Louis  XIV.  (who  was,  indeed,  his  nearest 
male  relation,  but  who,  in  accordance  with  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht, 
had  renounced  all  claim  to  the  French  throne),  and  the  other,  the 
Duke  of  Orleans,  who  was  now  Regent  of  France,  and  was  the 
nearest  male  relation  of  Louis  XV.  after  Philip  V.  As  it  was 
believed  that,  in  the  event  of  the  young  king's  death,  Philip  V. 
would  assert  his  claim  in  spite  of  his  renunciation,  it  was  to  the 
interest  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  to  be  on  friendly  terms  with  Eng- 
land; while  it  was  equally  to  the  interest  of  England  to  exclude 
Philip  V.  from  the  French  throne,  in  order  to  prevent  that  union 
between  France  and  Spain  which  the  Whigs  had  striven  to  prevent 
in  the  late  war.  It  therefore  became  possible  for  the  Whigs  to 
pursue  their  aim — the  separation  between  France  and  Spain — by 
that  peaceful  understanding  with  the  French  Government  which 
had  gained  popularity  for  the  Tories  in  the  time  of  Anne.  On 
November  28,  17 16,  an  agreement  was  arrived  at  by  which  the 
Regent  promised  his  support  to  the  Hanoverian  succession  in  Eng- 
land, while  England  promised  to  support  the  exclusion  of  Philip 
V.  from  the  throne  of  France.  A  few  weeks  later  the  Dutch  gave 
their  assent  to  this  arrangement,  and  a  triple  alliance  was  thus 
formed  against  Philip  and  the  Pretender. 

Though  the  Whig  ministers  had  their  own  way  in  most  mat- 
ters, they  found  it  necessary  to  comply  with  the  king  in  some  things. 
He  had  two  ruling  motives — anxiety  to  strengthen  the  electorate 
of  Hanover,  and  hatred  of  his  ov/n  eldest  son  George,  Prince  of 
Wales.  Some  of  the  Whig  ministers,  especially  Townshend  and 
his  brother-in-law.  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  who  was  the  ablest  of  the 
rising  Whigs — had  said  hard  things  of  the  grasping  Hanoverian 
favorites  and  mistresses,  upon  whom  George  squandered  English 
gold.  Then,  too,  the  king,  who  had  quarreled  with  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  believed    (probably  without   foundation)    that  Townshend 


472  ENGLAND 

1718-1719 

had  shown  some  favor  to  the  object  of  his  displeasure,  on  which  he 
took  the  Secretaryship  from  him,  sending  him  to  Ireland  as  Lord- 
Lieutenant  In  1717  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden  formed  an  alliance 
with  Spain — which  was  once  more  growing  in  vigor,  and  even  pro- 
jected an  invasion  of  Scotland  in  the  interests  of  the  Pretender. 
The  scheme  was  discovered  in  England  and  averted.  When  Parlia- 
ment was  asked  to  vote  money  for  a  war  against  Sweden,  Wal- 
pole  spoke  but  coldly  on  behalf  of  the  proposal.  The  king  dismissed 
Townshend,  and  Walpole  resigned.  The  Whig  party  being  thus 
split  in  two,  the  leaders  of  the  ministry  as  reconstituted  were  Sun- 
derland and  Stanhope. 

In  foreign  affairs  in  1718  was  formed  a  Quadruple  Alliance, 
in  which  the  Emperor  joined  Great  Britain.  France,  and  the  Dutch 
Republic  against  Spanish  pretensions,  and  affairs  were  so  arranged 
that  Europe  had  peace  for  twelve  years. 

The  two  sections  of  the  Whigs  were  opposed  to  one  another, 
rather  upon  personal  than  on  political  grounds.  Walpole  was, 
however,  more  cautious  than  Sunderland  or  Stanhope.  Sunder- 
land and  Stanhope,  in  17 19,  obtained  the  repeal  of  the  Occasional 
Conformity  Act  and  of  the  Schism  Act,  which  had  been  the  work 
of  the  triumphant  Tories  in  the  reign  of  Anne;  but  when  they 
sh(nved  signs  of  wishing  to  repeal  the  Test  Act  of  the  reign  of 
Charles  II.,  thereby  not  merely  offering  religious  liberty  to  Dis- 
senters, but  also  proposing  to  qualify  them  for  office,  Walpole  was 
startled,  thinking  that  the  unpopularity  of  such  a  measure  might 
prove  the  ruin  of  the  Whigs.  The  main  subject  of  quarrel  between 
the  rival  statesmen  was,  however,  a  Peerage  Bill  which  Sunderland 
and  Stanhope  laid  before  Parliament.  According  to  this  proposal 
the  king  was  to  be  allowed  to  create  only  six  additional  peerages 
(except  in  the  case  of  a  member  of  the  Royal  Family),  after  which 
he  could  only  make  a  new  peer  upon  the  extinction  of  an  old  peer- 
age. This  measure,  which  passed  the  House  of  Lords,  was 
rejected  in  tlie  Commons,  mainly  in  consequence  of  Walpole's 
opposition.  It  is  hardly  to  be  doubted  that  its  framers  looked  for- 
ward to  tlic  possible  election  of  a  Tory  House  of  Commons,  and 
wished  to  hinder  a  Tory  minister  frcnn  making  himself  master  of 
the  House  o'l  Lords  by  creating  a  large  number  of  peers,  as  Harley 
and  St.  J(jhn  liad  done  in  171  i.  According  to  them,  the  House  of 
Lords  was  to  be  tlic  bulwark  of  the  Whigs  against  a  Tory  House  of 
Commons.      It  was  Walpole's  merit  that  he  saw  distinct'lv  that  this 


PARLIAMENTARY     SUPREMACY         473 

1720 

could  not  be,  as  the  bill,  if  it  had  passed,  would  have  made  the 
House  of  Lords  a  narrow  oligarchy  capable  of  setting  at  defiance 
both  the  Crown  and  the  House  of  Commons.  It  was,  moreover, 
clear  to  him  that  the  Commons  must  from  henceforth  be  the  chief 
member  of  the  constitutional  organization.  If  the  Whigs  were  to 
win  the  battle,  they  must  win  it  by  possessing  a  majority  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  not  by  setting  up  the  artificial  barrier  of  a 
restricted  House  of  Lords.  It  is  unlikely  that  Sunderland  acknowl- 
edged the  inferiority  of  his  own  statesmanship  to  that  of  Walpole, 
but  he  had  felt  his  power,  and  in  1720  admitted  both  him  and 
Townshend  to  subordinate  offices  in  the  government. 

Few  things  served  the  Whigs  so  well  as  their  adoption  of  a 
policy  of  peace,  to  which  their  short  war  with  Spain  hardly  fur- 
nished an  exception.  With  the  cessation  of  the  risks  due  to  war 
trade  increased  rapidly,  and  with  the  increase  of  trade  came  a  vio- 
lent increase  of  speculation.  Joint-stock  companies,  which  had 
hitherto  been  limited  to  a  few  great  undertakings,  were  formed  in 
large  numbers.  Some  met  with  success;  while  others,  started  by 
swindlers  or  by  persons  ignorant  of  trade,  speedily  collapsed. 
Among  these  latter  the  most  prominent  was  the  South  Sea  Com- 
pany, which  had  been  formed  by  Harley,  in  171 1,  to  carry  on  such 
trade  with  Spanish  America  as  might  be  rendered  possible  by  the 
expected  treaty  with  Spain.  Trade  with  the  Spanish  colonies  was 
allowed  by  the  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  to  a  single  English 
ship  in  each  year,  and  the  Assiento  Treaty  had  also  granted  to  the 
English  the  right  of  importing  negroes  into  them.  All  classes 
in  England  were  under  the  delusion  that  the  wealth  of  Spanish 
America  was  so  enormous  that  this  trade  would  enrich  all  who 
took  part  in  it.  Consequently  the  shares  of  the  South  Sea  Company 
were  eagerly  bought.  At  the  same  time  politicians  were  growing 
anxious  about  the  amount  of  the  national  debt,  and  in  1720  a 
bill  was  passed  enabling  tliose  to  whom  the  nation  owed  money  to 
take  shares  in  the  South  Sea  Company  in  the  place  of  their  claim 
upon  the  nation.  Large  numbers  of  all  classes  accepted  this 
arrcingement.  Others  rushed  eagerly  to  buy  sliares  which  were 
supposed  to  be  of  priceless  value.  Landlords  sold  their  estates,  and 
clergymen  and  widows  brought  their  savings  to  invest  in  the  South 
Sea  Company.  So  great  was  the  demand  that  in  .Vugust,  1720, 
shares  originally  worth  100/.  were  purchased  tor  1,000/.  The  mad- 
ness of  speculation  spread  rapidly,  and  new  companies  were  formed 


474  ENGLAND 

1720-1722 

every  day  for  objects  unlikely  to  be  remunerative.  People  actually 
took  shares  in  one  company  for  making  salt-water  fresh;  in  another 
for  transmuting  quicksilver  into  a  malleable  and  fine  metal ;  and  in 
another  for  importing  a  number  of  large  jackasses  from  Spain; 
while  one  impostor  asked  the  public  to  take  shares  in  an  under- 
taking the  nature  of  which  was  in  due  time  to  be  revealed. 

Before  long  people  began  to  find  out  that  they  had  paid  too 
highly  for  the  objects  of  their  visonary  hopes,  and  the  price  of  shares 
rapidly  fell.  Thousands  were  reduced  to  beggary,  and  the  ruined 
dupes  cried  out  for  the  punishment  of  those  by  whom  their  hopes 
had  been  excited.  One  peer  asked  that  the  directors  of  the  com- 
pany might  be  sewn  up  in  sacks  and  thrown  into  the  Thames.  The 
bitterest  indignation,  however,  was  directed  against  the  ministers. 
Most  of  them  had  speculated  in  the  shares,  and  some  of  them  had 
made  money  by  actual  swindling.  Sunderland  was  acquitted  of 
dishonorable  conduct,  but  he  had  been  among  the  speculators,  and 
resigned.  Stanhope,  who  had  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  specu- 
lation, fell  into  a  fit  in  answering  a  false  accusation,  and  died. 

Amid  the  general  crash  W'alpole  was  called  upon  to  restore 
order.  In  April,  1721,  he  became  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  and 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  He  had  a  financial  aljility,  which  was 
rare  in  those  times,  and  he  made  an  arrangement  which  at  least 
left  something  to  the  shareholders,  though  it  gave  them  far  less 
than  they  had  expected.  Walpole's  accession  to  office  was  the 
beginning  of  a  ministerial  career  which  lasted  twenty-one  years. 
Its  immediate  result  was  of  the  greatest  benefit  to  the  Whigs.  The 
seven  years  to  which  the  Septennial  Act  had  extended  the  duration 
of  the  existing  Parliament  ended  in  March,  1722.  There  can 
hardly  be  a  doubt  that  if  the  elections  had  taken  place  a  year  earlier, 
they  would  have  resulted  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Whigs.  As  it 
was.  the  country  connected  Walpole's  name  with  restored  order  and 
financial  probity,  and  a  large  Whig  majority  was  accordingly 
returned. 

It  was  not,  however,  merely  to  the  national  gratitude  that 
\\  alpole  owed  his  success  at  the  polls.  When  he  opposed  the 
Peerage  Pill  he  taught  the  Whig  aristocracy  that  it  must  rely  on 
the  H(Al^c  of  C(jmmijns.  Yet  it  was  hard  to  see  how  the 
House  <if  Commons  C(ju1(1  represent  the  people  at  large,  because, 
for  the  most  pari,  the  people  were  too  ignorant  and  ill-educated  to 
have  any  poliiical  npinions  at  all.     The  electors,  if  left  to  them- 


PARLIAMENTARY     SUPREMACY         475 

1722 

selves,  might  return  a  Parliament  as  Tory  as  had  been  the  Parlia- 
ments which  had  supported  Oxford  and  Bolingbroke.  Therefore 
the  Whigs,  even  before  Walpole  secured  power,  had  determined 
that  the  electors  should  not  be  left  to  themselves.  In  many  bor- 
oughs the  right  of  voting  was  confined  to  the  corporation ;  and  as 
large  numbers  of  these  boroughs  were  mere  villages  or  even 
hamlets,  the  members  of  their  corporations  were  poor  men — easily 
accessible  to  arguments  addressed  to  their  pockets.  The  wealthiest 
landowner  in  the  neighborhood  was  usually  a  Whig,  who  would 
use  his  influence  and  his  purse  in  securing  the  election  of  his  own 
nominee.  In  the  House  of  Commons  itself  the  same  system  of 
corruption  was  pursued.  What  amount  of  ready  money  Walpole 
paid  to  his  supporters  has  been  disputed,  and  it  was  certainly  much 
less  than  has  usually  been  supposed ;  but  he  had  in  his  gift  all  the 
offices  held  under  the  Crown,  a  large  number  of  which  were  sine- 
cures with  large  pay  and  no  duties.  Needy  members  discovered 
that  if  they  wanted  money  they  must  support  Walpole,  and  am- 
bitious members  discovered  that  if  they  wanted  office  they  could 
only  obtain  it  by  supporting  Walpole.  It  is  therefore  not  surpris- 
ing that  all  the  rising  talent  in  the  country  declared  itself  Whig. 

Yet,  evil  as  this  system  was,  it  was  rendered  tolerable  by  the 
knowledge  that  the  only  alternative — the  return  of  the  Tory  party 
to  power,  possibly  bringing  with  it  a  restoration  of  the  Stuart 
dynasty — would  have  been  still  more  disastrous.  The  political 
creed  of  the  Tory  squires  and  of  the  Tory  clergy  was  founded  on 
religious  intolerance  and  contempt  for  trade.  What  they  wanted 
was  a  king  who  would  keep  down  dissenters  and  moneyed  men,  and 
accordingly  most  of  the  Tories  had  by  this  time  become  Jacobites. 
The  great  Whig  nobles,  on  the  other  hand,  were  for  religious  tolera- 
tion and  for  weakening  the  power  of  the  king.  The  Whigs  gained 
the  day,  partly  because  they  were  more  intelligent  than  their  rivals, 
partly  because  the  predominance  even  of  a  corrupt  House  of  Com- 
mons— with  its  free  speech  and  its  show  of  government  by  argu- 
ment rather  than  by  arbitrary  will — was  in  itself  advantageous  as 
matters  then  stood.  In  all  this  work  they  found  a  fitting  leader  in 
W^alpole.  He  was  devoted  to  duty  and  was  single-eyed  in  devot- 
ing himself  to  the  interests  of  his  country;  but  his  manners  and  his 
mind  were  alike  coarse,  and  he  did  not  shrink  from  the  employment 
of  the  lowest  means  to  accomplish  his  ends.  On  the  other  hand 
it  may  be  said  in  his  favor  that  he  was  not  vindictive,  and  that  he 


476  ENGLAND 

1721-1722 

contented  himself  with  exchiding  his  rivals  from  power,  without 
even  seeking  to  inflict  punishment  upon  them. 

Walpole  took  for  his  motto  Oiiicta  non  movcre  (let  sleeping 
dogs  lie).  In  many  periods  of  English  history  such  a  confession 
would  have  been  disgraceful  to  a  statesman.  In  Walpole's  days 
it  was  an  honorable  one.  The  work  before  him  was  to  maintain 
toleration  and  constitutional  government,  and  he  was  aware  that 
he  could  only  hope  for  success  if  he  avoided  awakening  the  ignor- 
ant passions  which  were  slumbering  around.  He  remembered  the 
storm  of  popular  rage  to  which  the  Whigs  had  been  exposed  in  the 
time  of  the  Sacheverell  trial,  and  he  was  resolved  to  show  no  favor 
to  the  Dissenters  which  would  provoke  another  outburst  against 
them.  The  Dissenters  were  most  eager  to  obtain  a  repeal  of  the 
Test  Act  for  themselves,  though  not  for  the  Catholics.  Walpole, 
who  knew  the  anger  A\hich  would  be  excited  if  he  proposed  such 
a  measure,  always  told  them  that  the  time  was  not  convenient.  At 
last  they  asked  him  to  tell  them  when  the  time  would  be  convenient. 
"I  will  answer  you  frankly."  Avas  his  reply,  "Never!"  Year 
after  year,  however,  he  passed  through  Parliament  a  bill  indem- 
nifying all  persons  who  had  held  offices  in  defiance  of  the  Test  Act, 
and  thus  Dissenters  got  what  they  wanted  without  exciting  atten- 
tion. \\'hen  any  number  of  men  meet  together  to  transact  business, 
there  must  be  one  to  take  the  lead  if  their  m>eetings  are  not  to  end 
in  confusion.  Till  the  death  of  Anne,  Cabinets  had  met  in  the 
l-)resence  of  the  sovereign,  and  were  regarded  as  his  or  her  advisers. 
After  the  accession  of  George  I.,  when  the  king  ceased  to  sit  in  the 
Cabinet,  it  became  still  more  necessary  for  that  body  to  find  a 
leader,  and  Townshend  at  first  and  afterwards  Sunderland  are 
SMn^.etimes  spoken  of  by  modern  writers  as  Prime  Alinisters.  No 
sucli  ])()sition  was,  however,  r)penly  assigned  to  them  by  contem- 
])()ranc^,  and  wlien  \\'alpole  entered  office  in  172 1  ministers  were 
still  regarded  as  ecjual  among  themselves.  It  was  AA'alpole's  chief 
cnntril)ution  to  constitutional  progress  that  he  created  the  Prime 
Alinistership  in  his  own  person,  and  thereby  gave  to  Cabinet  gov- 
ernment that  unity  which  every  government  must  possess  if  its 
action  is  tn  ])e  enduring,  and  which  earlier  governments  possessed 
througli  the  i)residcncy  of  the  king.  Yet  so  hateful  was  the  new 
idea  that  AYalpole  Ind  to  disclaim  any  intention  of  making  himself 
IVime  Minister:  nnd  the  word  came  into  familiar  use  by  being 
applied  to  him  tauntiuglv  bv  his  enemies,  as  the  fit  name  for  a 


PARLIAMENTARY     SUPREMACY         477 

1723-1730 

minister  who  wanted  to  convert  all  other  ministers  into  his  instru- 
ments instead  of  regarding  them  as  his  equals. 

Walpole's  first  trial  of  strength  was  with  Lord  Carteret,  one 
of  the  Secretaries  of  State,  a  man  of  great  ability,  who  had  the 
advantage  of  being  able  to  address  the  king  in  German,  while 
Walpole  had  to  address  him  in  Latin.  Between  Carteret  and  Wal- 
pole  a  rivalry  soon  sprang  up,  and  in  1724  Carteret  was  forced  to 
resign  the  Secretaryship,  though  he  remained  a  member  of  the 
Cabinet  for  some  time  to  come. 

The  first  instance  of  Walpole's  method  of  averting  popular 
discontent  by  avoiding  a  collision  with  strong  feeling  arose  when 
a  grant  was  made  to  a  certain  Wood  of  the  right  of  issuing  a  copper 
coinage  in  Ireland.  The  coins  were  good  in  themselves,  but  Wood 
had  bought  the  right  of  coining  them  by  bribes  to  the  king's  German 
mistresses,  and  Irishmen  naturally  concluded  that  they  were  to  pay 
the  cost.  Swift,  delighted  at  the  opportunity  of  scourging  his  old 
enemies  the  Whigs,  poured  scorn  and  ridicule  upon  Wood's  Half- 
pence in  "  The  Drapier's  Letters."  and  for  the  first  time  in  Irish  his- 
tory both  races  and  both  creeds  were  united  in  resistance  to  the 
obnoxious  grant.  Walpole  dreaded  a  disturbance  more  than 
anything  else,  and  the  grant  was  withdrawn. 

Walpole's  influence  deservedly  grew  from  year  to  year.  In 
1727  George  I.  was  struck  down  by  apoplexy  in  his  carriage  and 
died.  The  new  king,  George  II.,  had  the  advantage  (which  his  father 
had  not  had)  of  being  able  to  speak  English.  He  was  not  intelli- 
gent, but  was  straightforward  and  courageous,  and  tliough,  like  his 
father,  he  kept  mistresses,  he  was  accustomed  on  all  difficult  ques- 
tions to  defer  to  the  advice  of  his  wife.  Queen  Caroline — a  woman  of 
sound  judgment  and  of  wide  intellectual  interests.  George's  first 
impulse  was  to  choose  as  his  leading  minister  Sir  Spencer  Compton, 
a  personal  favorite  of  his  own.  Compton,  however,  being  ordered 
to  write  the  speech  in  which  the  king  was  to  notify  his  accession 
to  the  Privy  Council,  v.-as  so  overpowered  by  the  difficulties  of  the 
task  that  he  begged  Walpole  to  write  it  for  him.  .Vfter  this  the 
queen  easily  persuaded  her  husband  tliat  C(3mpt()n  was  not  strong 
enrjugh  for  the  post ;  and  Walpole,  being  recalled  to  office,  was  soon 
as  much  trusted  by  George  II.  as  he  had  been  by  George  I. 

Even  after  the  complete  establishment  of  Parliamenlary  su- 
premacy the  favor  of  tlie  king  was  not  to  be  despised ;  for,  though 
he  could  not  shak-e  tlie  power  of  the  Whig  aristocracy  as  a  whole. 


478  ENGLAND 

1726-1732 

yet  if  one  Whig  entered  upon  a  rivalry  with  another,  his  support 
would  be  decisive,  at  least  for  a  time.  Such  a  rivalry  now  broke 
out  between  Walpole  and  his  brother-in-law,  Townshend,  who  had 
been  Secretary  of  State  since  1721.  The  main  cause  of  the  quar- 
rel is  best  described  by  Walpole  himself.  "  As  long,"  he  said,  "  as 
the  firm  was  Townshend  and  Walpole,  the  utmost  harmony  pre- 
vailed ;  but  it  no  sooner  became  \\'alpole  and  Townshend  than  things 
went  wrong."  In  other  words  the  question  between  them  was 
whether  there  was  to  be  a  prime  minister  or  not.  Townshend  held 
to  the  old  doctrine  that  he  was  accountable  only  to  the  king  and 
Parliament.  Walpole  held  to  the  new  doctrine  that  he  himself — 
as  the  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury — was  to  direct  the  policy  of  the 
other  ministers.  It  is  not  by  accident  that  the  First  Lord  of  the 
Treasury  has  usually  been  the  Prime  ^linister ;  in  later  years  it 
had  been  accepted  as  the  general  rule.  It  is  his  business  to  find  the 
money  expended  by  the  other  ministers,  and  it  is  therefore  only 
reasonable  that  he  should  be  able  to  exercise  a  veto.  In  1730 
Townshend  resigned,  and  being  honorably  desirous  of  keeping  out 
of  further  disputes  with  his  brother-in-law,  remained  in  private  life 
to  the  end  of  his  days. 

Already  a  violent  opposition  was  gathering  against  Walpole. 
In  1 716  the  Pretender,  being  too  stupid  to  take  good  advice,  had 
dismissed  Bolingbroke  from  his  service.  Bolingbroke,  by  bribing 
one  of  the  mistresses  of  George  I.,  had  interested  that  king  in  his 
favor,  and  in  1725  his  attainder  had  been  reversed.  Walpole,  how- 
ever, had  still  sufficient  influence  to  procure  the  maintenance  of  the 
clause  in  the  Act  of  Attainder  which  excluded  him  from  the  House 
of  Lords.  Bolingbroke,  the  most  eloquent  orator  of  the  day,  was 
thus  shut  out  frum  the  unly  place  in  which  at  that  time  it  was  pos- 
sible for  him  to  make  his  eloquence  heard.  Walpole  may  well 
have  thought  that  he  had  crushed  Bolingbruke  forever.  He  had, 
however,  underestimated  the  powers  of  the  Tory  leader.  Though 
Bolingbroke  cijuld  deliver  no  more  orations,  he  was  still  master  of 
his  pen  and  of  his  persuasive  t.jngue,  and  lie  set  to  work  to  weld 
together  a  parliamentary  opposition  out  of  tlie  most  discordant 
elements.  Those  elements  were  in  the  main  three.  There  were  in 
the  House  tjf  C<':nm.jns  about  fifty  Jacobites,  a  small  number  of 
Tories  accepting  the  House  of  Hanover,  and  a  gradually-increasing 
boidy  of  \\  higs  >ri:!<y  liecruise  Walpole  di'l  n^t  admit  them  to  a  siiare 
01  power.     (Ji  i:;e  ]'.\:vr  t'.e  Ica'ler  was  William  Pultenev,  an  in- 


PARLIAMENTARY     SUPREMACY         479 

1726-1733 

discreet  politician  but  an  excellent  speaker.  Between  Boling-broke 
and  Pulteney  an  alliance  was  struck,  and  by  the  end  of  1726  they 
had  combined  in  publishing  The  Craftsman,  a  weekly  paper  in 
which  Walpole  was  held  up  to  obloquy  as  erecting  a  ministerial 
despotism  by  the  use  of  corruption. 

In  1733  Walpole  gave  a  handle  to  the  attacks  of  his  enemies. 
There  was  an  immense  amount  of  smuggling  and  of  other  frauds 
on  the  customs  revenue.  To  meet  the  difficulty  Walpole  proposed 
to  establish  a  new  system  of  levying  the  duties  on  tobacco,  intend- 
ing, as  he  gave  out,  to  extend  it  subsequently  to  those  on  wine. 
According  to  this  new  system  all  tobacco  imported  was  to  be  brought 
free  of  duty  into  warehouses  under  government  supervision.  The 
duty  would  be  paid  by  those  who  took  it  out  for  home  consumption, 
and  its  sale  would  only  be  allowed  at  shops  licensed  for  the  pur- 
pose. As  the  tax  was  really  paid  on  an  imported  article,  it  would 
have  been  more  prudent  in  Walpole  if  he  had  continued  to  call  it 
a  customs  duty,  as  an  excise  was  an  unpopular  form  of  taxation. 
He  had,  indeed,  reason  to  hope  that  his  plan  would  prove  accept- 
able. In  the  first  place  if  it  were  adopted  smuggling  would  be  far 
more  difficult  than  it  had  hitherto  been,  because  it  would  now  be 
more  easy  to  detect  the  sale  of  the  smuggled  article;  and  in  the 
second  place  the  honest  trader  would  be  less  liable  to  be  undersold 
by  the  smuggler.  A  third  advantage  would  also  be  gained.  Hith- 
erto goods  imported  in  order  to  be  subsequently  exported  had  had  to 
pay  duty,  which  was  only  recoverable  upon  the  observance  of  in- 
tricate formalities  accompanied  by  considerable  expense.  According 
to  Walpole's  plan,  the  tobacco  stored  in  government  warehouses 
could  be  exported  without  any  payment  at  all;  and  the  export  trade 
of  the  country  would  be  encouraged  by  liberating  it  from  unneces- 
sary trammels. 

To  the  arguments  which  Walpole  addressed  to  the  intelligence 
of  his  hearers  he  took  care  to  add  others  addressed  to  their  pockets. 
Almost  all  the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  were  country 
gentlemen,  and  Walpole,  therefore,  reminded  them  that  the  revenue 
would  be  so  increased — at  the  expense  of  those  who  had  bought 
smuggled  goods — that  he  would  be  able  to  remit  the  land  tax. 
Walpole's  proposals  were  indeed  admirable,  but  Bolingbroke  and 
Pulteney  stirred  up  popular  feeling  against  them  by  wild  misrepre- 
sentations. The  masses  were  persuaded  to  believe  that  Walpole 
wanted  to  subject  them  to  a  general  excise,  to  search  their  houses 


480  E  X  G  L  A  X  D 

1733-1737 

at  any  hour  without  a  warrant,  and  to  raise  the  price  of  tobacco. 
All  classes  joined  in  the  outciy.  The  very  soldiers  were  no  longer 
to  be  depended  on.  At  last  Walpole  resolved  to  withdraw  the 
bill.  "  I  will  not,"  he  once  said  in  private  conversation,  "  be  the 
minister  to  enforce  taxes  at  the  expense  of  blood."  It  was,  in 
short,  wise  to  convert  customs  into  excise,  but  it  was  not  expedient. 
In  this  regard  for  expediency  lay  the  sum  of  A\^alpole's  political 
wisdom,  and  it  was  because  he  possessed  it  that  the  House  of  Han- 
over and  the  constitutional  system  connected  with  the  House  of 
Hanover  rooted  themselves  in  England.  If,  however,  W^alpole  gave 
way  before  the  nation,  he  resolved  to  be  master  of  the  Cabinet,  and 
he  summarily  dismissed  some  of  his  principal  colleagues  who  had 
been  intriguing  with  the  opposition  against  him. 

Bolingbroke  had  won  the  trick,  but  he  could  not  win  the  game. 
The  Excise  Bill  was  quickly  forgotten,  and  \\'alpole's  great  services 
were  again  remembered.  In  1734,  in  a  new  House  of  Commons, 
his  supporters  were  nearly  as  numerous  as  before.  Bolingbroke 
was  never  thoroughly  trusted  by  the  discontented  Whigs,  and  in 
1735  he  retired  to  France,  leaving  English  politics  to  shape  them- 
selves without  his  help. 

W^alpole's  management  of  foreign  affairs  was  as  dexterous  as 
his  management  of  Parliament.  He  had  hitherto  not  only  kept 
England  from  embarking  in  war,  l3ut  liad  contributed  his  aid  to  the 
restoration  of  peace  on  the  continent  itself  whenever  this  had  been 
possible.  In  1733  a  war  broke  out.  usually  known  as  the  War  of 
the  Polish  Succession,  but  embracing  tiie  west  of  Europe  as  well. 
It  was  noteworthy  that  in  the  war  France  and  Spain  appeared  in 
close  alliance,  and  that  thiey  had  signed  a  secret  treaty,  known  as 
the  Family  Compact,  which  was  directed  against  Austria  and  Eng- 
land. The  t\vo  brandies  of  tl^e  House  of  Bourbon  were  to  act 
together;  and  t1ie  whole  basis  of  Walpolc's  foreign  policv  was  thus 
swept  away.  \\'alpoie.  who  knew  of  the  existence  of  the  Family 
Compact  soon  after  its  signature,  had  abstained  from  joining  the 
war — perhaps  thinking  that  th.e  allies  were  too  well  occupied  in 
Europe  to  meddle  vitli  England. 

In  1737  Walp'-.'c's  position  was  weakened  by  two  untoward 
events.  A  quarrel  l)roke  out  between  George  II.  and  his  eldest 
son.  Frederick.  Prince  of  Wales;  and  the  prince,  being  turned  out 
of  court.  ])ut  1nm~c':"  at  the  head  of  the  oppr.vitifin.  X^ot  Ion""  after 
this  Queen  Caroline.  W'alpole's  truest  friend,,  died. 


Chapter    XLVl 


ESTABLISHMENT     OF     PARLIAMENTARY     SUPREMACY: 
WALPOLE,   CARTERET,   AND   THE    PELHAMS 

1737— 1754 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  George  II.,  A.D.  1727-1760 — Jenkins's  Ear,  1738 — War 
WITH  Spain,  1739 — Resignation  of  VValpole,  Feb.  17,  1742 — Resigna- 
tion OF  Carteret,  Nov.  23,  1744 — The  Young  Pretender's  Rising, 
1745 — Battle  of  Culloden,  April  16,  1746 — Peace  of  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  1748 — Death  of  Henry  Pelham,  March  6,  1754 

WALPOLE  had  been  hitherto  successful  because  he  had 
governed  on  principles  of  common  sense.  He  had  kept 
the  peace  and  had  allowed  men  to  grow  rich  by  leaving 
them  to  pursue  their  own  callings  without  interference.  Common 
sense  was,  indeed,  the  chief  characteristic  of  the  age.  Pope,  its 
leading  poet,  was  conspicuous  for  felicity  of  expression  and  for 
the  ease  and  neatness  with  which  he  dealt  with  topics  relating  to 
man  in  society.  High  imagination  and  the  pursuit  of  ideal  beauty 
had  no  place  in  his  mind.  In  matters  of  religion  it  was  much  the 
same.  Those  who  spoke  and  wrote  on  them  abandoned  the  search 
for  eternal  verities,  contenting  themselves  with  asking  where  the 
balance  of  probability  lay,  or,  at  the  most,  what  was  the  view  most 
suitable  to  the  cultivated  reason.  To  speak  of  anyone's  zeal  or 
enthusiasm  was  regarded  as  opprobrious.  In  social  life  there  was 
a  coarseness  which  was  the  natural  consequence  of  the  temper  of 
the  day.     Men  drank  heavily,  and  talked  openly  of  their  vices. 

Such  a  generation  turned  eagerly  to  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  and 
chafed  at  the  restrictions  which  other  nations  attempted  to  place 
upon  its  commerce.  It  happened  that  Spain  —  the  weakest  of 
European  nations — had  the  most  extended  territory  open  to  com- 
mercial enterprise.  As  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth,  the  Spanish  gov- 
ernment tried  to  prevent  the  English  from  trading  with  its  Ameri- 
can dominions,  while  the  Spanish  colonists,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
anxious  to  oromote  a  trade  by  which  they  were  benefited.     It  was 

481 


482  ENGLAND 

1737-1738 

notorious  that  English  merchants  did  their  best  to  evade  the  re- 
striction imposed  on  them  by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht.  The  one  ship 
of  600  tons  wliich  they  were  allowed  by  that  treaty  to  send  annually 
to  Panama  sailed  into  the  harbor  and  discharged  her  goods.  As 
soon  as  it  was  dark,  smaller  vessels  (which  had  kept  out  of  sight  in 
the  daytime)  sailed  in  and  filled  it  up  again,  so  that  the  one  ship 
was  enabled  to  put  many  shiploads  on  shore.  Besides  this,  there 
was  an  immense  amount  of  smuggling  carried  on  by  Englishmen 
on  various  parts  of  the  coast  of  Spanish  America.  Spanish  coast- 
guards, in  return,  often  seized  English  vessels  which  they  suspected 
of  smuggling,  and  sometimes  brutally  ill-treated  their  crews.  The 
Spaniards  also  claimed  to  have  the  right  of  searching  English 
vessels  even  on  the  high  seas.  Besides  this,  they  disputed  the 
English  assumption  of  the  right  to  cut  log-wood  in  the  bay  of 
Campeachy,  and  alleged  that  the  new  English  colony  of  Georgia, 
lately  founded  in  North  America,  encroached  on  the  boundaries 
of  what  was  then  the  Spanish  territory  of  Florida. 

To  Walpole  the  exceeding  energy  of  the  British  traders  and 
smugglers  was  annoying.  It  was  likely  to  bring  on  war,  and  he 
held  war  to  be  the  worst  of  evils.  Right  or  wrong,  the  smugglers 
carried  on  the  great  movement  which  has  filled  the  waste  places  of 
the  world  with  children  of  the  English  race.  Walpole  entered  on 
negotiations  with  the  Spanish  government,  hoping  to  obtain  com- 
pensation for  wrongs  actually  inflicted  by  its  agents.  Bolingbroke 
hurried  back  from  France  to  reorganize  the  Opposition,  at  the  head 
of  which  he  now  placed  the  foolish  Prince  of  Wales,  who  was  ready 
to  give  his  support  to  any  movement  against  Walpole,  simply  be- 
cause Walpole  was  the  favorite  minister  of  his  father. 

The  so-called  patriots  of  the  Opposition  and  the  Tories  were 
now  joined  by  a  small  group  of  young  men  called  by  Walpole  the 
Boys,  who  were  filled  with  disgust  at  the  corruption  around  them, 
and  fancied  that  all  that  went  wrong  was  the  fault  of  Walpole, 
and  not  the  fault  of  the  generation  in  which  he  lived.  Walpole's 
scorn  of  the  patriots  was  unmeasured.  "All  these  men  have  their 
price,  '  he  once  said,  pointing  to  the  benches  on  which  they  were 
sittmg.  lie  could  easily  make  a  patriot,  he  declared  on  another 
occasion,  by  merely  refusing  an  unreasonable  request.  It  was  with 
half-amused  contempt  that  he  regarded  the  Boys.  When  they  were 
older,  he  tliouglit,  tlicy  would  discover  the  necessity  of  dealing  with 
the  wrjrld  as  it  was.  nr)t  as  they  thought  it  ought  to  be.     He  had 


PARLIAMENTARY     SUPREMACY         483 

1738-1739 

found  that  men  could  only  be  governed  by  offers  of  money  or  of 
money's  worth,  and  so  it  would  ever  be.  Some,  indeed,  of  the 
Boys  lived  to  fulfill  Walpole's  cynical  expectation,  but  there  were 
among  them  a  few,  especially  William  Pitt,  who  maintained  in  old 
age  the  standard  of  purity  which  he  had  raised  in  youth.  Pitt  was 
a  born  orator,  but  as  yet  his  flashing  speeches,  filled  with  passionate 
invective,  had  little  reasoning  in  them.  That  which  lifted  him  above 
the  more  vehement  speakers  of  that  or  of  any  other  time  was  his 
burning  devotion  to  his  country:  whether  his  country  was  right  or 
wrong  he  hardly  knew  or  cared.  That  strength  of  feeling  which 
the  elder  generation  scouted,  broke  out  in  Pitt  in  the  form  of  en- 
thusiasm— not  for  any  cause  sacred  to  humanity  at  large,  but  for  the 
power  and  greatness  of  his  country.  Naturally,  he  attacked  Spain 
for  her  claim  to  the  right  of  search,  and  for  her  barbarities  to  Eng- 
lish seamen,  while  he  never  thought  of  mentioning  the  provoca- 
tion given  by  the  English  smugglers. 

Members  of  the  united  opposition  had  at  last  a  popular  cry 
in  their  favor.  Before  the  end  of  1738  they  produced  a  certain 
Captain  Jenkins,  who  declared — probably  with  truth — that  his  ear 
had  been  cut  off  seven  years  before  on  board  his  own  ship  by  a 
.Spanish  coastguard,  and  who  took  what  he  declared  to  be  his  ear 
out  of  a  box  to  show  to  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  Spaniard,  he  said,  had  bidden  him  to  take  his  ear  to  the  king. 
"  I  recommended,"  he  explained,  wlien  asked  what  his  thoughts 
had  been  on  the  occasion,  "  my  soul  to  my  God,  and  my  cause  to 
my  country."  The  words  were  repeated  from  one  end  of  England 
to  the  other.  "No  search!"  became  the  popular  cry.  In  vain 
Walpole,  early  in  1739,  announced  that  Spain  had  agreed  to  a 
treaty  indemnifying  those  English  sailors  who  had  suffered  actual 
wrong.  The  treaty  made  such  large  counter-demands  on  England 
that  its  concessions  were  more  nominal  than  real.  The  opposition 
grew  in  strength,  and  before  the  end  of  1739  England  went  to  war 
with  Spain. 

No  one  now  doubts  that  it  would  have  been  jjetter  for  Walpole 
if  he  had  resigned  rather  than  direct  a  war  which  he  regarded  as 
unjustifiable;  but  the  principle  that  a  minister  should  resign  rather 
than  carry  out  a  ])o]icy  of  which  he  disa])j)n)ves  was  not  yet  thor- 
oughly established,  and  Walpole  perha])s  llatlered  himself  that  he 
might  be  able  to  bring  about  a  peace  sooner  tlian  any  other  minister. 
He  knew  that  trouble  would  soon  come.     "  They  may  ring  tlie  bells 


484.  ENGLAND 

1739-1742 

now," — as  he  heard  the  peals  from  the  church  steeples  celebrating 
the  glad  tidings  that  war  had  been  declared — "  before  long  they  will 
be  wringing  their  hands."  At  first  the  war  was  successful.  In 
1 74 1  there  were  fresh  elections,  and  the  energy  of  the  opposition, 
together  with  the  excited  feeling  of  the  country,  reduced  Walpole's 
followers  in  the  new  Parliament.  In  those  days  election  petitions 
were  decided  by  a  majority  of  the  whole  House  of  Commons,  the 
vote  being  given  strictly  on  party  grounds.  Walpole  was  beaten 
on  the  Chippenham  election  petition  by  a  majority  of  one,  and  on 
February  17,  1742,  he  resigned,  receiving  the  title  of  Earl  of  Or- 
ford.  He  had  done  his  work.  England  had,  under  his  rule,  con- 
solidated herself,  and  had  settled  down  in  contented  acceptance  of 
the  Hanoverian  dynasty  and  the  Parliamentary  government  estab- 
lished at  the  Revolution.  It  was  inexplicable  to  Walpole  that  the 
first  result  of  the  national  unity  which  he  had  brought  about  should 
be  a  national  determination  to  go  to  war  in  the  assertion  of  the 
claims  of  England. 

There  was  some  difficulty  in  forming  a  new  ministry.  Poli- 
ticians who  had  agreed  in  attacking  Walpole  agreed  in  nothing  else, 
and  each  thought  that  his  own  claim  to  office  was  superior  to  that 
of  the  others.  So  hopeless  did  the  task  of  composing  their  differ- 
ences appear,  that  Pultcney,  who  had  led  the  late  opposition  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  refused  to  take  office,  and  consoled  himself 
with  being  made  Earl  of  Path.  "  Here  we  are,  my  Lord !  "  said  the 
new  Earl  of  Orford  to  his  former  rival,  when  he  met  him  in  the 
Ilouse  of  Lords — ■"  the  two  most  insignificant  men  in  England." 
Orford  knew  that  to  leave  the  House  of  Commons  was  to  abandon 
power.  iVt  last  the  new  ministry  was  got  together,  partly  from 
Walpole's  enemies  and  partly  from  Ins  friends.  Sir  Spencer  Comp- 
ton — now  made  Earl  of  Wilmington — became  First  Loril  of  the 
Treasury.  He  had  not  talents  enough  to  succeed  to  the  Prime 
Tvlinistership  which  Walpole  had  created.  The  new  administration 
did  what  it  could  to  bring  Walpole  to  punishment,  but  a  committee 
of  the  House  of  Commons  failed  to  substantiate  any  charge  against 
him. 

The  ministers  were  too  jealous  of  each  other  to  admit  that 
anyone  could  be  first  among  th.cm.  The  two  Secretaries  of  State 
were  tlie  Duke  of  Xcwcastle,  the  k.cad  of  the  Pelham  family,  and 
Lord  Carteret.  Xcwcasllc  Wcis  ignorant  and  incompetent,  and 
made  himself  ritliculous  by  his  fussy  atten.ipts  to  appear  energetic. 


PARLIAMENTARY     SUPREMACY         485 

1740-1744 

He  had  one  ruling  passion — the  love  of  power,  not  for  the  sake 
of  any  great  policy,  but  because  he  enjoyed  the  distribution  of  pat- 
ronage. He  was  himself  incorruptible,  but  he  took  pleasure  in 
corrupting  others.  Carteret,  on  the  other  hand,  was  an  able  states- 
man, especially  in  the  department  of  foreign  affairs.  He  was  as 
energetic  as  he  was  able,  and  as  his  knowledge  of  the  German  lan- 
guage and  of  German  politics  quickly  gained  him  the  king's  favor, 
he  soon  became  the  leading  man  in  the  ministry.  Practically  he  in- 
herited Walpole's  Prime  Ministership,  though  his  authority  was  by 
no  means  so  undisputed  as  Walpole's  had  been  in  the  later  years  of 
his  ministry. 

When  Carteret  came  into  office  Europe  was  distracted  by  a 
fresh  war.  The  Emperor  Charles  VI.,  having  no  son,  had  per- 
suaded his  various  hereditary  states  and  the  principal  European 
governments  to  accept  an  arrangement  known  as  the  Pragmatic 
Sanction,  according  to  which  they  all  agreed  to  acknowledge  his 
daughter,  Maria  Theresa,  at  his  death.  He  died  in  1740,  and  though 
Maria  Theresa  was  accepted  as  ruler  by  all  her  father's  states,  Ba- 
varia put  forth  a  claim  to  Bohemia  and  the  Archduchy  of  Austria, 
and  was  supported  by  France,  while  Frederick  H.  of  Prussia  seized 
Silesia.  In  the  summer  of  1742  Maria  Theresa  signed  the  treaty 
of  Breslau,  by  which  she  ceded  Silesia  to  Frederick,  hoping  to  be 
enabled  thereby  to  cope  with  her  other  enemies. 

The  English  people  sympathized  with  Maria  Theresa,  and 
George  II.  warmly  supported  lier  against  the  French.  Carteret's 
policy  was  to  bring  about  a  good  understanding  Ijctwcen  h^rederick 
and  Maria  Theresa,  and  to  unite  all  Germany  against  the  French. 
He  very  nearly  succeeded  in  his  object.  In  1744  Frederick  and 
]\Iaria  Theresa  were  again  at  war,  and  France  now  declared  war 
against  England.  Charles  Edward,  the  son  of  the  Pretender — who 
was  known  in  England  as  the  Young  Pretender,  and  among  his 
own  friends  as  the  Prince  of  Wales — was  sent  with  a  French  fleet 
to  invade  England.  The  lleet  was,  however,  shattered  by  a  storm, 
and  the  danger  was  thus  for  a  time  averted. 

Carteret's  object  had  been  to  take  up  again  the  policy  of  the 
Wliigs  of  Anne's  time  as  opposed  to  the  policy  of  the  time  of  Wal- 
polc.  Hie  former  had  aimed  at  a  general  European  c(jml)ination 
against  h^rance,  the  latter  at  keeping  the  peace  by  a  French  alliance. 
Reasons  were  not  wanting  for  such  a  change  of  polic}^  h^^ance 
was  now  formidable,  not  onlv  on  account  of  her  renewed  militar}' 


486  ENGLAND 

1743-1744 

Strength,  but  by  reason  of  her  close  alliance  with  Spain  (with  which 
England  was  still  at  war),  the  Family  Compact — first  signed  in 
1733 — having  been  renewed  in  1743.  Carteret,  who  had  a  bet- 
ter knowledge  of  continental  affairs — and  especially  of  German 
affairs — than  any  man  of  his  day,  thought  it  wise  to  oppose 
so  dangerous  a  combination.  There  were,  however,  many  dif- 
ficulties in  his  way,  even  as  far  as  the  continent  was  concerned. 
The  German  powers  were  too  intent  on  their  own  quarrels  to  be 
easily  brought  to  care  for  common  interests,  and,  as  far  as  England 
was  concerned,  Carteret  could  not  reasonably  expect  support. 
England  had  roused  herself  sufficiently  to  care  for  the  welfare  of 
her  trade  and  the  protection  of  her  smugglers,  but  she  was  far  more 
of  a  maritime  than  of  a  continental  power;  and,  while  the  effects 
of  the  Family  Compact — not  a  syllable  of  which  had  yet  been  made 
public — were  seen  in  a  close  alliance  between  France  and  Spain 
on  the  continent,  no  such  effects  had  as  yet  been  seen  at  sea.  When 
Spain  was  attacked  by  England  in  1739,  France  had  given  no  help 
to  her  ally.  As  Carteret  was  more  remiss  even  than  Walpole  in 
carrying  on  the  maritime  war  against  Spain,  people  unfairly 
thought  that  all  his  continental  schemes  were  merely  the  fruit  of 
his  subservience  to  the  king's  predilection  for  anything  that  would 
profit  the  Hanoverian  electorate.  Pitt,  who  afterwards  took  up 
much  of  Carteret's  policy,  thundered  against  him  with  passionate 
invective  as  the  base  minister  who  was  selling  the  interests  of  Eng- 
land for  the  profit  of  Hanover. 

Other  causes  contributed  to  weaken  Carteret.  He  had  no 
voice  in  the  military  arrangements,  and  the  armies  were  put  under 
worn-out  or  incompetent  officers.  His  greatest  weakness,  how- 
ever, arose  from  his  never  having  sat  in  tlie  House  of  Commons, 
and  his  consequent  inability  to  understand  its  ways.  "  What  is 
it  to  me,"  he  said  on  an  occasion,  "  who  is  made  a  judge  or  who  is  a 
bishop?  It  is  my  business  tc^  make  kings  and  emperors,  and  to 
maintain  the  balance  of  Europe."  "  Then,"  was  the  obvious  re- 
ply, "  those  who  want  to  be  bishops  and  judges  will  apply  to  those 
who  submit  to  make  it  their  business."  Newcastle,  at  least,  stuck 
to  the  work  of  making  judges  and  bishops,  and  thereby  gained  the 
House  of  Commons  to  his  side.  He  insisted  on  Carteret's  dis- 
missal, and  on  November  23,  1744,  Carteret — who  had  just  be- 
come, by  his  mother's  death.  Earl  Granville — was  driven,  in  spite 
of  the  king's  warm  support,  to  resign  office. 


PARLIAMENTARY    SUPREMACY  487 

1744-1746 

Henry  Pelham,  Newcastle's  brother,  who  had  for  some  time 
been  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  now  became  virtually  Prime 
Minister.  He  was  a  good  man  of  business,  and  anxious  to  return 
to  Walpole's  policy  of  peace.  His  administration  was  distinguished 
as  the  Broadbottomed  Administration,  because  everyone  whose  in- 
fluence or  talents  rendered  him  at  all  dangerous  was  at  once  given 
a  place  in  it.  The  consequence  was  that,  for  the  only  time  since 
party  government  began,  there  was  no  Opposition  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  For  the  present,  indeed,  the  king  refused  to  admit 
Pitt  to  office,  but  Pitt  knew  that  the  ministers  were  friendly  to  him, 
and  abstained  from  attacking  them.  When  once,  however,  the 
Pelhams  had  turned  out  Granville,  they  forgot  their  professions, 
and  squandered  English  money  on  Hanoverian  troops  and  German 
princes,  without  any  of  Carteret's  genius  to  enable  them  to  use 
their  allies  for  any  good  purpose  whatever.  A  large  British  force, 
indeed,  joined  the  allies  to  defend  the  Netherlands  against  a  French 
army  at  that  time  under  a  great  general,  Alarshal  Saxe;  and  on 
IMay  I,  1745,  a  battle  was  fought  at  Fontenoy.  The  British 
column,  headed  by  the  king's  second  son,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland, 
pressed  steadily  on  into  the  heart  of  the  French  line,  and,  driving 
everything  before  it,  all  but  won  the  day.  The  Dutch,  however, 
failed  to  second  it,  and  the  French  guard,  falling  upon  the  isolated 
column,  drove  it  back.  The  British  army  had  maintained  its 
honorable  traditions,  but  the  French  gained  the  battle;  and  the 
frontier  towns  of  the  Austrian  Netherlands  fell  at  once  into  their 
hands. 

The  French  victory  in  Fontenoy  encouraged  Charles  Edward, 
the  Young  Pretender,  to  try  his  fortunes  in  Scotland.     On  July  25, 

1745,  he  landed  in  the  West  Highlands,  with  only  seven  friends. 
The  Flighlanders  gathered  round  him  in  small  numbers,  while  the 
prince  had  the  best  of  allies  in  the  incapacity  of  the  British  com- 
mander. Sir  John  Cope.  At  Preston  Pans  the  Highlanders 
broke  up  the  British  ranks.  Charles  Edward  now  marched  into 
England  at  the  head  of  increased  forces,  but  finding  no  support 
had  to  turn  back  at  Derby.  The  king  had  made  ready  to  leave 
England  if  necessary;  and  it  is  said  that  on  Black  Friday — as  it 
was  called — the  Bank  of  England  cashed  checks  in  sixpences,  in 
order  to  delay  payment  as  long  as  possible. 

Charles   Edward   won   one  more   victory.        On  January    17, 

1746,  he  defeated  Hawley — a  general  as  inctjm[)clent  as  Cope — at 


488  ENGLAND 

1746-1751 

Falkirk.  The  Duke  of  Cumberland,  however,  advanced  into  Scot- 
land with  an  army  of  8,000,  while  Charles  Edward  (who  retreated 
to  Inverness)  had  now  but  5,000  with  him.  Cumberland  was  not 
a  great  general,  but  he  had  some  knowledge  of  tne  art  of  war. 
On  the  morning  of  April  16  Charles  Edward  tried  to  surprise 
Cumberland  on  Culloden  ^Moor,  but  the  English  held  firm,  won 
the  day,  and  slaughtered  their  enemies.  Charles  Edward  himself 
wandered  long  among  the  mountains.  At  last  he  succeeded  in 
making  his  way  back  to  France.  Flis  later  life  was  aimless,  and  he 
sank  into  drunkenness.  He  did  not  die  till  1788,  and  his  brother 
Henry,  who  had  become  a  Cardinal,  survived  till  1807.  Henry  was 
the  last  descendant,  in  the  male  line,  of  the  House  of  Stuart,  though 
there  are  descendants  of  Henrietta,  the  youngest  daughter  of 
Charles  I.,  still  living,  among  whom  the  most  conspicuous  is  the 
present  king  of  Italy. 

The  Pelhams  made  use  of  the  struggle  in  Scotland  to  press  for 
Pitt's  admission  to  the  ministry,  and,  on  the  king's  refusal,  resigned 
office.  George  II.  ordered  Granville  to  form  a  ministry,  but  Gran- 
ville found  it  impossible  to  gain  the  support  of  a  majority  in  the 
Houses,  and  in  forty-eight  hours  he  gave  up  the  task.  The  Pel- 
hams  were  reinstated  in  power,  bringing  Pitt  with  them.  It  was 
the  first  thorough  acknowledgment  by  a  king  that  he  was  powerless 
in  the  face  of  Parliament.  It  is  true  that  the  majority  commanded 
by  the  Pelhams  was  secured  by  unblushing  corruption;  but  there 
v.as  as  yet  no  popular  sentiment  opposed  to  that  corruption  to  which 
the  king  could  appeal. 

The  war  on  the  Continent  still  continued.  The  French  over- 
ran the  Austrian  Xetherlands,  but  were  checked  in  Italy,  while 
the  English  were  successful  at  sea.  At  last,  in  1748,  a  general 
peace  was  made  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  every  power  restoring  its 
conquests  with  the  exception  of  Frederick,  who  kept  Silesia  for 
Prussia. 

The  remainder  of  Henry  Pelham's  ministry  was  uneventful. 
In  1582  Pope  Gregory  XIII.  had  set  straight  an  error  which  had 
grown  up  in  tlie  Calendar,  and  the  new  Gregorian  Calendar  had 
by  this  lime  been  adrjpted  by  most  European  powers.  England, 
however,  had  long  objected  even  to  be  set  right  by  a  Pope,  and  in 
the  eighicenili  century  tlie  almanac  was  eleven  days  wrong.  What 
was  really,  for  instance,  September  12,  was  known  in  England  as 
Sei)tember   i.      In   1751   an  act  of  Parliament  ordered  that  eleven 


PARLIAMENTARY    SUPREMACY         489 

1751-1754 

days  should  be  dropped  out  of  the  calendar,  in  order  to  make  the 
reckoning  correct.  Large  numbers  of  people  fancied  that  they  were 
cheated  out  of  eleven  days'  pay,  and  mobs  went  about,  shouting, 
"  Give  us  our  eleven  days."  The  timid  Newcastle  told  Chesterfield 
that  he  hated  new-fangled  things — that  he  had  better  not  meddle 
with  matters  so  long  established.  The  witty  earl  was  wiser.  He 
made  a  speech  of  which  he  has  given  a  most  ingenuous  account  in 
a  letter  to  his  son :  "  I  consulted  the  ablest  lawyers  and  the  most 
skillful  astronomers,  and  we  cooked  up  a  bill  for  the  purpose.  But 
then  my  difficulty  began.  I  was  to  bring  in  this  bill,  which  was 
necessarily  composed  of  law-jargon  and  astronomical  calculations, 
to  both  of  which  I  am  an  utter  stranger.  However,  it  was  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  make  the  House  of  Lords  think  that  I  knew 
something  of  the  matter;  and  also  make  them  believe  that  they 
knew  something  of  it  themselves,  which  they  do  not.  For  my  own 
part,  I  could  just  as  soon  have  talked  Celtic  or  Slavonian  to  them 
as  astronomy,  and  they  would  have  understood  me  full  as  well ;  so 
I  resolved  to  do  better  than  speak  to  the  purpose,  and  to  please 
instead  of  informing  them,"  The  peers  were  amused  at 
Chesterfield. 

In  175 1  an  event  occurred  which,  for  some  time,  disturbed  all 
the  calculations  of  the  scheming  politicians  of  this  intriguing  age. 
Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  died  after  a  short  illness  on  the  20th 
of  March.  Leicester  House,  his  town  abode,  had  long  been  tlie 
central  point  of  opposition  to  the  Government.  We  have  seen  how 
far  the  unhappy  estrangement  of  the  prince  from  his  parents  was 
carried  before  the  death  of  Queen  Caroline.  Years  had  passed 
over,  and  yet  the  animosities  l^etween  the  reigning  king  and  the 
heir-apparent  were  never  subdued.  In  175 1  George  II.,  although 
a  hale  man,  was  in  his  sixty-eighth  year.  The  worshipers  of  the 
rising  sun  grew  bolder  in  their  devotion.  Bubb  Doddington,  the 
Treasurer  of  the  Navy,  resigned  his  office  in  ]\Iarch,  1749,  having 
received  a  message  from  the  prince  that  the  principal  direction  of 
his  royal  highness'  affairs  should  be  put  in  the  skillful  intriguer's 
liands.  He  saw  the  prince  at  Kew,  and  was  told  that  "  what  he 
could  not  do  for  me  in  his  present  situation  must  be  made  up  to 
me  in  futurity."  The  prince  further  said  "  that  he  thought  a 
peerage,  with  the  management  of  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the 
seals  of  Secretary  of  State  for  the  southern  provinces,  would  be 
the  proper  station  for  nie,  if  I  a])proved  (jf  it."     Such  was  the  mode 


490  ENGLAND 

1754 

in   which   England  was  to  be   governed  by  favoritism,   had   she 
endured  the  misfortune  of  a  King  Frederick  I. 

In  1754  Henry  Pelham  died.  The  new  constitutional  doctrine 
that  England  was  governed  by  the  Cabinet,  and  that  the  Cabinet 
could  retain  office  irrespective  of  the  king's  good  will  if  it  could 
secure  the  support  of  Parliament,  was  now  fully  established. 
The  king  may  dismiss  his  ministry,  however,  and  appeal  to 
Parliament,  and  even  to  the  country,  but  the  proceeding  has  become 
hazardous  and  is  not  attempted.  The  Prime  Minister  selects  from 
the  cliief  officers  of  the  Government,  whose  names  he  submits  to 
the  crown,  those  whom  he  will  have  in  his  cabinet,  and  he  is  not 
restricted  as  to  their  number  nor  their  division  betw^een  the  two 
Houses  of  Parliament,  except  that  prescription  has  fixed  the  num- 
ber at  not  less  than  eleven — First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  Lord 
Chancellor,  Lord  President  of  the  Council,  Lord  Privy  Seal, 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  and  the 
five  Secretaries  of  State.  This  body  is  the  responsible  Government 
of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  stands  or  falls  together.  Its  meetings 
are  secret,  no  records  of  its  proceedings  are  kept,  it  is  dishonorable 
to  divulge  its  deliberations,  each  member  is  bound  by  its  decisions 
or  must  resign  liis  office  in  the  ministry,  and  in  practice  he  is  a 
member  of  Parliament. 


PART  IX 

THE   FALU   OF  THE  WHIGS  AND  THE   RISE 
OF  THE  NEW  TORYISM.    1754-1789 


Chapter    XLVII 

NEWCASTLE    AND    PITT.      1754—1760 

LEADING   DATES 

Reign  of  George  II.,  A.D.  1727-1760 — Newcastle  Prime  Minister, 
1754 — Beginning  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  1756 — Ministry  of 
Devonshire  and  Pitt,  1756 — Coalition  Between  Pitt  and  Newcastle, 
1757 — Conquest  of  Cape  Breton,  1758 — Capture  of  Quebec,  1759 — 
Conquest  of  Canada,  1760 — Death  of  George  II.,  Oct.  25,  1760 


Formation  of  the  East  India  Company,  1600 — Death  of  Aurungzebe, 
1707 — Clive's  Defense  of  Arcot,  1751 — Battle  of  Plassey,  1757 — 
Battle  of  Wandewash,  1760 

IN  religion  as  well  as  politics  everything  savoring  of  enthusiasm 
had  long  been  scouted,  and  in  polite  society  little  of  moral 
earnestness  was  to  be  found.  There  had,  indeed,  been  much 
discussion  as  to  the  truth  of  Christianity,  and  for  a  long  time  there 
was  a  steady  growth  of  opinion  in  favor  of  deism.  Latterly,  how- 
ever, there  had  been  a  strong  reaction  in  favor  of  Christian  doc- 
trines. Their  noblest  advocate,  Butler,  whose  "  Analogy  "  was  pub- 
lished in  1736,  writing  as  he  did  for  educated  men,  appealed  to  the 
reason  rather  than  to  the  heart.  The  task  of  moving  the  masses 
fell  into  the  hands  of  John  Wesley,  who  had  in  his  youth  striven 
to  live  a  pious,  beneficent  life  at  Oxford,  where  he  and  his  followers 
had  been  nicknanied  Methodists.  In  1738  Weslev  came  to  believe 
that  no  real  Christianity  was  possible  without  conversion,  or  a 
supernatural  conviction  of  salvation.  That  wliich  he  believed  he 
taught,  and  his  enthusiasm  gained  him  followers,  in  whom  he 
kindled  zeal  equal  to  his  own.  Wesley  was  a  minister  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  in  that  Church  he  wished  to  abide;  but  the  clergy 
counted  him  as  a  madman,  and  in  1739  he  was  obliged  to  gather 
his  followers  elsewhere  than  in  churches.  A\'hiteficl(l,  a  born  orator 
vvdiose  views  were  very  similar  to  those  of  V\'es1ey.  preferred  to 
preach  in  the  open  air.  TTc  stirred  llie  hearts  of  immense  crowds, 
as  many  as  twenty  thousand  sometimes  coming  to  hear  him.      y\t 

49:i 


494  ENGLAND 

1739-1755 

Kingswood,  near  Bristol,  the  colliers  flocked  to  him  in  multitudes, 
their  tears  flowing,  making  white  streaks  over  faces  blackened  with 
coal-dust.  Wesley  was,  however,  the  organizer  of  the  movement, 
and  gathered  into  congregations  those  who  had  been  converted, 
teaching  them  to  confess  their  sins  one  to  another,  and  to  relate  in 
public  their  spiritual  experiences.  There  was  no  room  for  such 
enthusiasm  in  the  Church  of  that  day,  and,  much  against  his  will, 
Wesley  was  compelled  to  organize  his  congregations  outside  the 
Church.  \\' hat  he  and  Whitefield  did  had  a  value,  apart  from  their 
system  and  teaching.  Thev  reminded  their  generation  that  man 
has  a  heart  as  well  as  a  head,  and  that  the  cultivation  of  the  intel- 
lect is  not  all  that  is  necessary  to  raise  human  nature  above  brutality ; 
and  thus  they  stirred  to  higher  and  purer  thoughts  thousands  of 
their  countrymen  who  were  sunk  in  inertness  and  vice.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  course  they  were  persecuted,  and  men  of  intelligence  and  posi- 
tion thought  it  well  that  it  should  be  so. 

In  literature  and  art,  as  well  as  in  religion,  a  new  life  was  mak- 
ing itself  manifest.  Fielding,  in  his  "  Tom  Jones  "  and  "  Joseph 
Andrews,"  has  been  styled  the  creator  of  the  modern  novel  in  its 
portraiture  of  living  humanity.  Hogarth  was  undoubtedly  the 
originator  of  an  English  school  of  painting.  Both  Fielding  and 
Hogarth  were  often  coarse  in  expression,  but  their  tendencies  w^ere 
moral,  and  their  work  robust  and  vigorous. 

In  politics,  too,  the  time  of  drowsy  inaction  was  coming  to  an 
end.  "  Now,"  said  George  II.,  when  he  heard  of  Pelham's  death, 
"  I  shall  have  no  peace."  Newcastle  was,  indeed,  appointed  First 
Ford  of  the  Treasury  and  was  regarded  as  Prime  ^Minister  in  his 
brother's  place,  but  Newcastle  had  not  his  brother's  capacity  for 
business,  and,  besides  that,  he  was  not  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
lie  must  choose  someone  to  lead  the  House  of  Commons,  and  there 
vvere  three  persons  on  whom  his  choice  might  fall:  Murray,  Pitt, 
and  Henry  Fox. 

?^Iurray,  wb.o  was  the  greatest  lawver  of  the  day,  had  no 
am])ition  except  that  of  becoming  Chief  Justice,  and  was  dis- 
qualified by  liis  professional  turn  of  mind  from  occupying  a 
political  post.  Ne\vca^lle  objected  to  Pitt  as  too  opinionated, 
wliile  Fox  seemed  just  the  man  to  suit  him.  Newcastle  and  Fox 
both  l(.ved  c<n-rupti.  ;n  ;  but  while  Newcastle  loved  it  for  the  sake 
of  the  })]tasure  (jf  oxTcising  patronage.  Fox  loved  it  for  the  sake  of 
ils  profits.     Fox  was  the  ablest  debater  of  his  day,  and  might  have 


NEWCASTLE    AND    PITT  495 

1754-1755 

risen  high  if  he  had  not  preferred  to  hold  unimportant  but  well-paid 
posts  rather  than  important  posts  of  which  the  pay  was  less.  He  now 
refused  Newcastle's  proposal  that  he  should  lead  the  House  of 
Commons,  because  Newcastle  insisted  on  keeping  the  secret-service 
money — in  other  words,  the  money  spent  in  bribing  men  to  vote  for 
the  government — in  his  own  hands.  Fox  truly  said  that  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  ask  members  for  their  votes  unless  he  knew 
whether  they  had  been  bribed  or  not.  Accordingly  Newcastle  ap- 
pointed Sir  Thomas  Robinson  to  lead  the  House.  Robinson  was  a 
diplomatist,  who,  having  been  long  absent  from  England,  knew 
nothing  about  the  ways  of  members.  Pitt  and  Fox,  agreeing  in 
nothing  else,  joined  in  baiting  Robinson.  Whenever  he  made  a 
mistake  they  ironically  took  his  part  on  the  ground  that  he  had 
been  so  long  abroad  that  he  could  not  be  expected  to  know  better. 
Robinson  threw  up  his  post  in  disgust,  and,  in  1755,  Fox  aban- 
doning the  conditions  on  which  he  had  formerly  insisted, 
became  Secretary  of  State  with  the  leadership  of  the  House  of 
Commons. 

In  1754,  when  Newcastle  succeeded  his  brother  as  Prime  Min- 
ister, there  was  already  danger  of  a  war  with  France.  In  North 
America  the  expansion  of  the  French  possessions  and  of  the  English 
colonies  was  likely  to  bring  about  a  clash.  In  the  settling  of  this 
question  would  lay  the  answer  to  a  further  question,  as  yet  un- 
suspected, whether  the  English  or  the  French  was  to  be  the  pre- 
dominating race  in  America  and  in  the  world  of  the  future.  Great 
Britain  was  once  more  drifting  into  a  war  which,  like  the  war  with 
Spain  in  1739,  would  be  one  for  mercantile  and  colonial  expansion. 
The  difference  was  that,  whereas  in  1739  she  was  matched  witli  the 
decaying  monarchy  of  Spain,  she  was  now  matclied  against 
the  vigorous  monarchy  of  France.  The  Family  Compact  unitin.g 
Spain  and  France  had  as  yet  caused  little  real  danger  to  Eng- 
land. As  France  had  shown  no  signs  of  su])porting  Spain  in 
America  in  1739,  Spain  showed  no  signs  of  supporting  France 
in  1754. 

Newcastle  was  not  the  man  to  conduct  a  great  war  success- 
fully. In  1754,  hearing  that  the  French  had  established  a  fort 
called  Fort  Duquesne,  at  the  head  of  tlie  Ohio  vahcy.  he  sent  Gen- 
eral Braddock  from  England  to  capture  it.  In  1755  Braddock,  one 
of  those  brave,  but  unintelligent  officers  of  whom  tlicre  were  many 
in  the  British  service,  falling  into  an  ambuscade  f)f  Frcncli  and  In- 


496  ENGLAND 

1754-1756 

dians,  was  himself  killed  and  his  troops  routed.  Newcastle  could 
not  make  up  his  mind  whether  to  fight  or  not.  It  was  finally  re- 
solved that,  though  war  was  not  to  be  declared,  Hawke  was,  by  way 
of  reprisal  for  the  capture  of  British  shipping,  to  seize  any  French 
ships  he  met  with.  Naturally,  when  Hawke  carried  out  these  in- 
structions, the  French  regarded  the  seizure  of  their  ships  as  an  act 
of  piracy.  Meanwhile  George  II.  was  frightened  lest  Hanover 
should  be  lost  if  a  war  broke  out,  and,  by  his  direction,  Newcastle 
agreed  to  treaties  giving  subsidies  to  various  German  states  and 
even  to  Russia,  in  return  for  promises  to  find  troops  for  the  de- 
fense of  Hanover.  Against  this  system  Pitt  openly  declared  him- 
self. Behind  Pitt  was  the  rising  spirit  of  the  nation,  eager  to 
enter  on  a  struggle  for  colonial  empire,  but  not  wishing  to  incur  loss 
for  the  sake  of  the  king's  German  electorate.  Legge,  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  a  close  ally  of  Pitt,  refused  to  give  the  money 
needed  to  pay  a  subsidy  to  Hesse,  and  both  he  and  Pitt  were  dis- 
missed from  their  offices.  Newcastle  had  an  overwhelming  ma- 
jority in  both  Houses,  but  so  helpless  was  he  that  in  1756  he  actu- 
ally asked  the  king  to  bring  Hanoverian  and  Hessian  soldiers  to 
England  to  save  it  from  a  French  invasion. 

The  weakness  of  the  Government  weakened  the  hands  of  its 
officers.  In  1756  a  French  fleet  and  army  assailed  Port  ]\Iahon, 
in  the  Island  of  Minorca,  and  Admiral  Byng,  finding  the  French 
ships  more  numerous  than  his  own,  thought  it  prudent  to  withdraw 
without  serious  fighting.  Before  long  the  whole  of  INIinorca  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  French.  Port  Mahon  and  Gibraltar  were  the 
two  ports  on  which  English  maritime  operations  in  the  ]\Iediter- 
ranean  could  be  based,  and  it  is  therefore  no  wonder  that  there  was 
a  howl  of  indignation  in  England  at  the  loss  of  one  of  them.  The 
popular  theory  was  that  Byng  had  been  bribed  to  avoid  fighting. 
The  charge  was  utterly  false,  but  so  many  bribes  were  taken  in 
those  days  that  it  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  unreasonable.  Byng 
was  brought  home  to  await  his  trial. 

After  tliis,  war  was  at  last  declared.  What  might  have  been 
the  result  if  England  and  France  had  been  obliged  to  fight  it  out 
alone,  it  is  impossiljle  to  say.  France,  however,  had  other  enemies 
than  England.  While  England  had  only  a  sea  frontier,  France 
liad  a  land  frontier  as  well,  and,  therefore,  while  England  was 
able  to  throw  her  main  strength  into  a  struggle  for  mastery  on  the 
sea  and    fur  the   accjuisition  of  colonies,   France   threw   her  main 


NEWCASTLE    AND    PITT  497 

1756-1757 

Strength  into  her  efforts  to  become  predominant  by  land,  and  conse- 
quently neglected  her  navy  and  her  colonies.  This  time  she  for- 
sook her  old  policy  of  hostility  to  Austria,  and  joined  with  Austria, 
Russia,  and  the  German  states  to  attack  and  dismember  Prussia. 
The  war  which  was  thus  begun  in  1756  is  known  as  the  Seven 
Years'  War. 

So  strong  was  the  feeling  aroused  by  Newcastle's  incompetence 
that  his  own  subordinates  were  frightened.  In  October,  1756,  Fox- 
resigned,  and  no  one  could  be  found  to  fill  his  place.  Murray 
would  give  no  help  to  the  ministry,  and  was  allowed  to  become 
Chief  Justice,  with  the  title  of  Lord  Mansfield,  under  which  he  is 
known  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  English  judges.  Newcastle,  help- 
less and  frightened  lest  the  mob  which  was  raving  for  the  hanging 
of  Byng  should  want  to  hang  him  too,  also  resigned.  The  Duke 
of  Devonshire  became  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  with  Pitt  as 
Secretary  of  State  and  practically  Prime  Minister.  At  once  Pitt 
took  vigorous  measures  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  Money 
was  raised,  and  men  levied.  It  was  not,  however,  merely  by  his 
energy  that  Pitt  differed  from  the  former  ministers.  Newcastle 
relied  on  a  Parliamentary  majority  acquired  by  influence  and  cor- 
ruption; Pitt  had  confidence  in  the  nation  and  in  himself  as  well. 
"  My  lord,"  he  said  to  Devonshire,  "  I  know  that  I  can  save  this 
nation  and  that  nobody  else  can."  He  understood  how  to  inspire 
the  confidence  which  he  needed.  Lie  sent  out  of  England  the 
Hanoverian  and  Hessian  troops  which  had  been  brought  over  to 
protect  the  country,  and  passed  a  bill  for  reorganizing  the  national 
militia.  He  even  raised  regiments  in  the  very  Highlands,  out  of 
the  men  who  had  been  the  most  vigorous  enemies  of  the  House 
of  Hanover,  knowing  that  the  Highlanders  had  fought  under 
Charles  Edward  far  more  because  they  were  poor  than  because  th(ry 
reverenced  the  House  of  Stuart.  On  the  other  hand,  he  moved  for 
a  grant  of  200,000/.  for  the  protection  of  Hanover.  It  seemed  as 
if  Pitt  was  about  to  fall  back  on  the  policy  of  Carteret.  There  was, 
however,  this  dift'erence,  that  whereas  with  Carteret  the  war  on  the 
continent  was  alone  thought  of,  with  Pitt  intervention  on  the 
continent  was  regarded  as  subsidiary  to  the  great  colonial  struggle 
on  which  England  was  now  embarked. 

Pitt  was  the  most  popular  man  in  England,  but  he  had  only  a 
scanty  following  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  he  was  disliked  by 
the  king  on  account  of  his  former  declamations  against  payments 


498  ENGLAND 

1757 

for  the  sake  of  Hanover.  While  he  was  in  office  Byng  was  brought 
to  trial  and  condemned  to  be  shot  as  a  coward,  which  he  certainly 
was  not.  Pitt  pleaded  for  Byng's  life  with  the  king,  telling  him 
that  the  House  of  Commons  was  favorably  disposed.  "  You  have 
taught  me,"  was  George's  reply,  "  to  look  for  the  sense  of  my  peo- 
ple in  other  places  than  in  the  House  of  Commons."  Byng  received 
no  pardon  and  died  bravely,  having  been  guilty  of  no  more  than 
an  error  of  judgment.  Soon  afterwards  the  king  dismissed  Pitt. 
At  once  there  was  an  outburst  of  feeling  in  his  favor. 

Pitt's  popularity,  though  widespread,  was  not  like  that  by 
which  a  popular  statesman  is  supported  at  the  present  day.  It  was 
not  a  popularity  among  the  nation  at  large,  of  which  the  majority 
could  not  at  that  time  either  read  or  write,  or  appreciate  a  political 
discussion.  Pitt's  enthusiastic  admirers  w^ere  to  be  found  among 
the  merchants  and  tradesmen  of  the  towns.  These  were  the  men 
who  had  built  up  England's  commercial  prosperity  by  their  thrift 
and  honesty.  Among  them  the  profligacy,  the  drunkenness,  and 
the  gambling  which  disgraced  polite  society  found  little  place.  They 
had  borne  long  with  Newcastle  and  his  like  because  times  had  been 
quiet,  and  the  government,  scandalous  as  it  was,  never  harassed 
Englishmen  in  their  business  or  their  pleasure.  Now  that  times 
were  dangerous  they  called  for  Pitt — the  Great  Commoner,  as  they 
styled  him — to  assume  power,  not  because  they  were  conscious  of  his 
latent  capacity  for  statesmanship,  but  because  they  knew  him  to 
be  even  ostentatiously  uncorrupt.  To  the  end  of  his  life  Pitt  called 
himself  a  Whig,  but  his  hostility  to  a  system  of  government  in 
which  patronage  was  distributed  to  those  who  could  bring  most 
votes  to  the  Government,  without  regard  to  merit,  led  him  to  place 
himself  in  opposition  to  Newcastle,  and  ultimately  led  to  his 
estrangement  from  the  great  Whig  families.  By  opposing  power 
derived  from  popular  support  to  power  based  on  Parliamentary 
connection,  he  introduced  into  constitutional  struggles  an  element 
which  had  long  been  left  out  of  account,  and  thus  became  (though 
unintentionally)  a  precursor  of  the  new  Toryism  which,  in  the 
hands  of  his  srm.  broke  the  power  of  the  Whigs. 

The  middle  class  in  the  towns  formed,  at  this  time,  the  most 
vigorous  element  in  English  society;  but  it  disposed  of  few  votes 
in  Parliament.  The  great  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons 
sought  for  loaves  and  fishes,  and  as  they  knew  that  incompetency 
might  hope   for  reward  from   Newcastle  but  not  from  Pitt,   they 


NEWCASTLE    AND    PITT  499 

1757-1758 

steadily  voted  as  Newcastle  bade  them,  even  after  he  had  ceased 
to  hold  office.  Newcastle,  however,  could  not  make  up  his  mind 
whether  he  wished  to  resume  office  or  not.  He  was  too  fond  of 
the  lower  sort  of  power  to  share  it  willingly  with  any  colleague 
whose  intelligence  was  greater  than  his  own,  and  too  timid  to  grasp 
authority  at  a  time  when  it  was  dangerous  to  its  possessor.  Ac- 
cordingly, he  long  vacillated  between  acceptance  and  refusal,  and 
for  eleven  weeks  there  was  no  ministry  at  all.  At  last  an  admirable 
arrangement  was  made.  A  coalition  was  effected  between  New- 
castle and  Pitt.  Newcastle  was  to  be  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury 
to  manage  the  business  of  patronage,  and  Pitt  was  to  be  Secretary 
of  State  to  manage  the  business  of  politics  and  war.  Both  were 
satisfied ;  Newcastle  gave  to  Pitt  the  Parliamentary  majority  which 
he  wanted,  and  Pitt  took  on  himself  the  responsibility  which  New- 
castle shunned.  Fox  got  a  lucrative  appointment  without  political 
influence,  and  in  a  few  years  made  himself  enormously  rich. 

When  Pitt  took  office  in  combination  with  Newcastle  things 
were  going  badly  both  in  America  and  in  Germany,  where  the  king 
of  Prussia,  Frederick  the  Great,  after  overrunning  Saxony  in  the 
preceding  year,  now,  in  1757,  was  disastrously  defeated  in  June. 
A  French  army,  in  the  meanwhile,  entered  Hanover  and  defeated 
the  Duke  of  Cumberland  at  Hastenbeck;  after  which  Cumberland 
signed  the  Convention  of  Closterseven  in  September,  leaving  Han- 
over in  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

Pitt  set  himself  to  remedy  the  mischief,  as  far  as  he  could. 
His  plans  for  military  action  were  often  faulty,  but  he  had  indomi- 
table courage,  and  an  almost  unique  power  of  inspiring  others  with 
courage.  Boldly  throwing  aside  the  traditions  of  the  century, 
according  to  which  appointments  in  the  army  and  navy  were  given 
to  men  of  good  birth,  or  of  families  whose  favor  woul<l  bring  votes 
in  Parliament,  he  chose  commanders  for  their  merit.  Every  young 
officer  knew  that  Pitt's  eye  was  on  him,  and  that  he  would  be  pro- 
moted if  he  conducted  himself  well,  even  if  he  were  poor  and  friend- 
less. A  new  spirit  was  breathed  into  both  services.  Before  Pitt 
could  achieve  anything,  Frederick's  military  genius  had  given  him 
the  mastery  over  his  enemies.  In  Nuvenil)er  the  king  of  Prussia 
smote  down  the  French  at  Rossbach,  and  in  December  he  smote 
down  the  Austrians  at  Leuthen.  Pitt  at  once  saw  that  a  close  al- 
liance with  Frederick  was  necessary  if  luigland  was  lo  maintain 
her  struggle  with  France  beyond  the  Atlantic.     In  1758,  tlierefore. 


500  ENGLAND 

1757-1760 

he  repudiated  the  Convention  of  Closterseven,  which  had  not  been 
brought  into  a  binding  form,  gave  a  subsidy  of  700,000/.  a  year  to 
Frederick,  and  sent  12,000  English  soldiers  to  join  the  Hanoverian 
army  in  defending  Hanover. 

Both  in  1757  and  1758  Pitt  sent  expeditions  to  harass  the 
French  at  home.  In  America  Pitt  made  a  great  effort  to  gain  his 
ends.  He  dismissed  the  incompetent  Loudon,  and  appointed  Aber- 
crombie  to  command  in  chief,  placing  under  his  orders  young  men 
whose  ability  and  energy  he  had  noted,  of  whom  the  most  conspicu- 
ous was  Wolfe,  who  had  distinguished  himself  in  the  abortive  at- 
tempt at  Rochefort.  England's  superiority  at  sea  now  told  heavily 
in  her  favor.  In  the  course  of  1758  Louisburg  and  Fort  Duquesne 
were  taken,  though  Abercrombie  was  repulsed  at  Ticonderoga.  In 
America  the  British  troops,  supported  as  they  were  by  the  colonial 
militia,  far  outnumbered  the  French.  France  was  so  fully  occupied 
in  Germany  that  she  was  unable  to  send  more  than  scanty  reinforce- 
ments to  the  Marquis  of  Montcalm,  the  commander  of  the  French 
army  in  Canada,  who  had,  therefore,  to  defend  the  French  pos- 
sessions in  America  against  heavy  odds. 

Pitt  planned  a  serious  attack  on  Canada  for  1759.  Aber- 
crombie, having  failed  at  Ticonderoga,  was  discarded.  Three 
armies  were  to  be  brought  from  distant  points  to  meet  before 
Quebec,  the  fortified  capital  of  Canada.  The  idea  that  three  armies, 
seiiarated  by  vast  and  thinly  populated  regions,  could  be  brought 
tti  cooperate  at  a  given  time  was  essentially  faulty.  In  fact,  Wolfe 
found  himself,  with  his  troops,  alone  at  the  meeting-point  on  the 
St.  Lawrence.  The  position  of  Quebec  is  exceedingly  strong. 
!)Chincl  it  rise  tlie  Heights  of  Abraliam,  which  are  easily  defensible, 
as  it  has  steep  cliffs  on  the  river  sides.  Around  the  defenses  of  the 
town  ]\f()ntcalm  maneuvered  with  admirable  skill.  W^olfe  moved 
his  sliips  u])  the  river  past  Quebec,  hoping  to  be  able  to  achieve 
somclhirig  from  tliat  side.  Though  he  had  but  little  hope,  he  re- 
solved to  make  one  desperate  attempt.  Placing  his  men  in  boats 
at  night  lie  iloated  witli  them  down  the  river.  His  boats  were 
slccrcd  lor  a  jjoini  :it  wliicli  there  w^as  a  zigzag  path  up  the  cliff 
which  edged  llic  Weights  of  Abraham.  It  was  so  narrow  that  the 
hrcnch  h.'Ml  t;il<rn  no  special  precautions  to  guard  it,  and  when  a 
\vw  I'jighsh  solihicrs  rciched  the  top  the  T^rench  sentinels  ran  off 
ill  siir])risc.  In  liic  liattlc  wliic]"!  ensued  Wolfe  was  killed.  Mont- 
calm, to'i,  was  S'ircly  voaindcd  in  the  battle,  and  died  on  the  fol- 


WTI.LIAM    I  ITT.    IMRST    F.AKI.    OF    niATTIAM: 


NEWCASTLE    AND    PITT  501 

1600-1760 

lowing  day.     Quebec  surrendered,  and  in  1760  the  whole  of  Canada 
submitted  to  the  British. 

In  1759,  the  year  in  which  Quebec  was  captured,  the  French 
threatened  to  invade  England,  Pitt  let  loose  upon  them  three  ad- 
mirals. Rodney  bombarded  Havre  and  destroyed  the  boats  in 
which  the  invading  army  was  to  cross  the  Channel.  Boscawen  de- 
feated off  Lagos  in  Portugal  a  fleet  which  was  on  its  way  from 
Toulon  to  protect  the  crossing.  Hawke,  a  seaman  of  the  highest 
quality,  blockaded  another  fleet  at  Brest  till  it  broke  out  in  a  storm. 
Hawke,  however,  pursued  it  and  caught  it  off  Ouiberon  Bay.  Con- 
flans,  the  French  admiral,  took  refuge  among  the  rocks  and  shoals 
which  guard  the  mouth  of  the  river  Vilaine.  Hawke  dashed  after 
him,  though  a  gale  was  blowing.  His  pilot  remonstrated  with  him 
at  the  risk  he  was  incurring.  "  You  have  done  your  duty,"  replied 
Hawke,  "  in  this  remonstrance ;  you  are  now  to  obey  my  orders 
and  lay  me  alongside  the  French  admiral."  A  complete  victory  was 
the  result. 

In  Germany  things  went  hard  with  Frederick.  Hemmed  in 
by  enemies  on  every  side  he  struggled  on  with  unabated  heroism, 
but  with  almost  continued  ill  success.  The  time  seemed  approach- 
ing when  Prussia  and  its  king  must  succumb,  borne  down  by  mere 
numbers;  yet  the  end  of  1760  saw  Frederick  with  sadly  diminished 
forces,  yet  still  alert  and  hopeful  of  relief,  though  he  knew  rot 
where  to  look  for  it.  Prince  Ferdinand,  in  command  of  the  British 
and  Hanoverian  army,  at  least  did  him  good  service  by  warding  (  ff 
the  blow^s  of  the  French.  In  1759  the  prince  inflicted  on  the  French 
army  at  Minden  a  defeat  which  would  probably  have  been  decisive 
but  for  the  misconduct  of  Lord  George  Sackville,  who,  being  in 
command  of  the  cavalry,  refused,  in  spite  of  distinct  orders,  to 
charge  at  a  critical  moment. 

The  superabundant  energy  of  the  English  race,  for  which 
Pitt  provided  an  outlet  in  America,  made  itself  also  felt  without 
assistance  from  the  home  government,  in  Asia.  The  Fast  India 
Company,  an  association  of  private  merchants,  was  constituted  by 
a  charter  from  Elizabeth  in  1600,  for  the  purpose  of  trading  in  the 
East.  Its  most  important  commerce  was  for  some  time  with  the 
spice  islands  of  the  Eastern  Archipelago,  but  its  trade  in  that  quar- 
ter was  ultimately  ruined  by  the  Dutcli.  In  India  itself,  on  the 
other  hand,  its  factories  were  secured  from  violence  by  the  protec- 
tion of  the  Great  Moguls,  the  descendants  of  the  Alolianiniedan  con- 


502  ENGLAND 

1658-1761 

querors  of  Xorthern  India.  At  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century 
the  East  India  Company  held  three  posts  in  India — Madras,  Bom- 
bay, and  Calcutta.  In  the  meantime  the  ]\Iogul  Empire  was  weak- 
ened during  the  reign  of  Aurungzebe,  and  on  his  death  it  broke  up, 
and  power  was  gradually  gained  by  the  ]Mahrattas.  Whether  the 
Mahratta  power  would,  under  any  circumstances,  have  mastered  the 
whole  of  India,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  It  was  checked  by  the  exist- 
ence of  a  French  settlement  at  Pondicherry  and  of  an  English  settle- 
ment at  ]\Iadras.  There  were  still  ]\Iohammedan  rulers  in  that  part 
of  India  who  were  the  enemies  of  the  ]\Iahrattas,  and  whose  dis- 
putes among  themselves  offered  advantages  to  a  European  who 
might  strengthen  himself  by  taking  part  in  their  quarrels.  Dupleix, 
the  French  governor  of  Pondiclierry,  was  the  first  to  perceive  this, 
and  was  also  the  first  to  enlist  nati^•e  soldiers,  who  came  to  be  known 
in  England  as  sepoys,  and  to  drill  them  to  fight  after  the  European 
fashion.  In  1746  he  had  captured  Madras,  but  at  the  peace  of 
Aix-la-Chapelle  had  been  compelled  to  surrender  it  to  the  English 
again.  B}'  his  policy  with  the  natives,  however,  he  continued  to 
disturb  the  English.  It  was  due  to  one  of  the  clerks  of  ^Madras, 
Robert  Clive,  a  man  of  undaunted  bravery,  that  the  French  were 
checked.  He  seized  Arcot  and  won  over  some  of  the  most  power- 
ful native  chiefs. 

Clive  was  the  servant  of  a  trading  company,  and  his  successes 
were  not  won  like  those  of  Wolfe,  a  few  years  later,  by  the  support 
of  the  British  Government  and  the  valor  of  the  British  army.  In 
1755,  when  a  war  v;ith  France  was  imminent,  the  East  India  Com- 
pany sent  him  out  as  the  governor  of  Fort  St.  David,  near  ]\Iadras. 
When  he  arrived  in  1756  he  heard  the  bad  news  of  the  Black 
Hole  of  Calcutta,  and  hastened  to  Bengal  to  avenge  this  outrage. 
On  Tune  23.  1757,  he  won  a  great  victory  at  Plassey  over  50,000 
men  and  gained  power  for  the  company  and  great  wealth  for 
himself. 

Around  Madras,  in  the  meanwhile,  the  French,  under  Lally. 
began  a  fresh  struggle  for  supremacy;  but  in  1760  Colonel  Eyre 
Coote  gained  a  signal  victory  at  Wandewash,  and  Pondicherry 
surrendered  to  him  early  in  1761.  Tlie  predominance  of  English- 
men over  Frenchmen  in  India  was  tlnis  secured.  As  vet  the  Eng- 
lish did  not  undertake  the  actual  government  of  anv  part  of  the 
country.  In  point  of  fact,  the  officials  of  the  company  had  every- 
thing their  own  way. 


NEWCASTLE     AND     PITT 


503 


1760 


In  all  that  had  taken  place  George  II.  had  little  part,  except  so 
far  as  he  had  given  up  all  thought  of  resisting  ministers  with  whom 
he  was  dissatisfied.  "  Ministers,"  he  once  said,  "  are  the  king  in 
this  country."     On  October  25,  1760,  he  died  suddenly.     He  was 


INDIA 


succeeded  by  his  grandson,  George  III.,  the  son  of  Frederick,  the 
late  Prince  of  Wales,  a  young  man  of  twenty-two,  whose  character 
and  training  made  it  unlikely  that  he  w'ould  be  content  to  be  thrust 
into  the  background  as  his  grandfather  had  been. 


Chapter    XLVIII 

THE    BREAK   UP    OF   THE    WHIG    PARTY 

1760 — 1770 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  George  III.,  A.D.  1760-1780 — Accession  of  George  TIL, 
Oct.  25,  1760 — Resignation  of  Pitt,  Oct.  5,  1761 — Bute's  Ministry, 
1762 — The  Peace  ot  Paris,  1763 — Ministry  of  George  Grenville, 
April  8,  1763 — The  Stami'  Act,  1765 — Ministry  of  Rockingham,  July 
10,  1765 — Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  1766 — Ministry  of  Chatham, 
July  29,  1766 — Grafton  Prime  Minister,  1767 — American  Import 
Duties,  1767 — The  Middlesex  Elections,  1768-1769 — Lord  North 
Prime  Minister,  1770 

EORGE  III.  had  been  educated  by  his  mother,  the  Princess 
of  Wales,  in  the  principles  of  Bolingbroke's  "  Patriot 
King."  From  her  he  had  learned  that  it  was  his  duty  to 
break  down  that  coalition  of  the  great  Whig  families  which  ruled 
England  by  means  of  the  corrupting  influence  of  wealth.  "  George, 
be  a  king,"  were  the  words  which  she  had  dinned  into  his  ears.  He 
came  to  the  throne  resolved  to  overthrow  the  Whig  party  con- 
nection by  setting  his  own  personal  authority  above  that  of  the 
great  Whig  borough-owners,  and  to  govern,  in  the  interests  of  the 
Vv'hole  nation,  1)y  ministers  who,  having  been  selected  by  himself, 
would  be  contented  to  carry  out  his  policy  and  to  act  at  his  dicta- 
tion. To  a  certain  extent  his  intentions  resembled  those  of  Charles 
I.  Both  were  well-meaning  and  desirous  of  governing  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  nation,  but  Qiarles  I.  defied  tb.c  House  of  Commons, 
\',hereas  George  III.  knew  that  it  v,-as  necessary  to  have  the  House 
of  Commons  on  his  side,  and  he  knew  that  it  could  only  be  gained 
by  a  lavish  employment  of  corruption.  Personally,  he  was  simple 
in  In's  tastes,  and  strictly  moral  in  his  habits;  but  in  pursuit  of  his 
political  aims  he  emploved  men  of  the  vilest  character,  and  reck- 
lessly lavislicd  places  and  gifts  of  money  on  those  whose  services 
he  rccjuired. 

George  III.  and  Pitt  joined  in  detesting  the  yoke  of  the  Whig 
fa.milics:  l)!i!  llicy  differed  as  to  the  remedy  for  tlie  disease.  George 
HI.  aimed  at  crusln'ng  tliem  by  the  exercise  of  the  powers  of  the 

504 


THEWHIGPARTY  505 

1761-1763 

Crown;  Pitt,  by  appealing  to  the  people  for  support.  The  king's 
first  object,  therefore,  was  to  get  rid  of  Pitt.  Pitt  had  raised  ene- 
mies in  the  Cabinet  by  his  arrogance,  and  even  among  his  friends 
there  was  a  growing  feeling  that  all  necessary  objects  of  the  war 
had  been  accomplished.  In  June,  1761,  there  were  fresh  English 
successes,  and  France  would  probably  have  submitted  to  Pitt's 
terms,  if  Charles  III.,  who  had  recently  become  king  of  Spain, 
had  not  renewed  the  Family  Compact,  knovring  that  the  vast 
colonial  empire  of  Spain  was  endangered  by  the  predominance  of 
England  in  North  America.  Pitt,  having  secret  intelligence  of 
what  had  happened,  urged  the  Cabinet  to  declare  war  on  Spain 
at  once.  The  Cabinet,  however,  regarding  him  as  a  firebrand, 
refused  to  follow  him,  and  on  October  5    Pitt  resigned  office. 

Pitt  was  justified  by  the  event.  Spain  declared  war  as  soon 
as  she  thought  it  convenient  to  do  so ;  she  was,  however,  utterly 
unprepared  for  it.  In  1762  one  English  expedition  reduced  Cuba 
and  another  reduced  Manila,  while  Spanish  commerce  was  swept 
from  the  sea.  Pitt  got  all  the  credit  because  it  was  known  that  he 
had  foreseen  the  struggle  and  had  made  the  preparations  which 
had  proved  successful.  In  the  meanwhile,  the  ministry  was  hope- 
lessly divided.  Alongside  of  Newcastle  and  the  Whigs  were  new 
ministers  who  had  been  introduced  by  George  III.  In  ^Tay,  1762, 
Newcastle  was  driven  to  resign,  and  was  succeeded  by  Lord  Bute, 
the  nominee  of  the  king.  Peace  negotiations  had  for  some  time 
been  carried  on,  and  on  February  10,  1763,  the  Peace  of  Paris 
was  signed.  England  regained  Minorca  in  the  Mediterranean, 
while  her  possession  of  Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Ca])e  Breton, 
besides  that  of  Senegal,  and  of  several  West  Indian  islands,  was 
acknowledged  by  the  French.  Spain  ceded  Florida  to  England 
and  acquired  Louisiana  from  France,  receiving  back  again  the 
other  colonies  wliich  she  had  lost.  In  India  France  received  back 
the  towns  which  had  been  taken  from  her,  but  she  could  not  regain 
the  influence  which  had  passed  from  lier,  and  l^ngland  tlius  retained 
her  predominance  in  India  as  well  as  in  America.  Frederick  com- 
plained bitterly  that  England  had  aJjandoned  him;  yet  he  suffered 
little  loss  in  consequence,  for  he  signed  the  peace  of  llubertsburg, 
which  left  him  in  full  possession  of  liis  dominions.  Tlie  result  of 
the  Seven  Years'  War  was  briefly  this,  tliat  the  British  race  had 
become  predominant  in  North  America,  and  that  the  Prussia  of 
Frederick  the  Great  maintained  itself  against  all  its  enemies. 


606  ENGLAND 

1762-1763 

In  placing  Bute  in  office  George  III.  made  his  first  attempt  to 
break  the  power  of  the  Whigs.  He  had  already  gathered  round 
him  the  country  gentry,  who,  now  that  Jacobitism  was  extinct, 
were  delighted  to  transfer  their  devotion  to  a  Hanoverian  king, 
who  would  lead  them  against  the  great  landowners.  They  were 
joined  by  certain  discontented  Whigs,  and  out  of  this  combination 
sprung  up  a  new  Tory  party.  It  ceased  to  regard  the  Dissenters 
as  dangerous,  and  no  longer  asked  for  special  legislation  against 
them.  The  principle  which  now  bound  the  Tories  to  the  king  and 
to  one  another  was  their  abhorrence  of  the  Whig  connection.  They 
constantly  declaimed  against  the  party  system,  generally  holding  it 
to  be  better  that  George  III.  should  give  office  to  such  ministers 
as  he  held  fit,  than  that  ministers  should  be  appointed  at  the  dic- 
tation of  the  leaders  of  a  Parliamentary  party. 

The  principle  upheld  by  the  Tories  was  so  far  legitimate  that 
Parliamentary  parties  in  those  days  were  not,  as  is  now  the  case, 
combinations  of  members  of  Parliament  holding  definite  political 
opinions  and  constantly  appealing  for  support  to  the  large  masses 
of  their  countrymen  by  whom  those  opinions  are  shared.  The  plain 
fact  was  that  they  were  composed  of  wealthy  and  influential  men 
who,  by  the  possession  of  boroughs,  gained  seats  in  Parliament  for 
men  who  would  vote  for  them  w^hether  they  thought  them  to  be 
right  or  wrong,  and  who,  if  they  could  obtain  office,  gained  more 
votes  by  the  attraction  of  the  patronage  of  which  they  had  the  dis- 
posal. George  III.,  therefore,  if  he  wished  to  gain  his  ends,  had 
to  follow  their  example.  He  consequently  resolved  to  rely  on  mem- 
bers of  Parliament  known  as  the  king's  friends,  who  voted  as  he 
bade  them,  simply  because  they  thought  that  he,  and  not  the  Whig 
Lords,  would,  in  future,  distribute  honors  and  patronage.  In  this 
way  George  III.  deserted  the  part  of  a  constitutional  king  to  reap 
the  advantages  of  a  party  leader.  George's  attempt  to  change  the 
balance  of  politics  could  not,  however,  succeed  at  once.  Bute's 
ministry  did  not  last  long.  He  was  a  Scotchman,  and  at  that  time 
Scotchmen  were  very  unpopular  in  England,  besides  which  there 
were  scandals  afloat,  entirely  untrue,  about  his  relations  with  the 
king's  mother,  the  Princess  of  Wales.  Mobs  insulted  and  fright- 
ened him.  He  had  not  sufficient  abilities  to  fill  the  post  of  a  Prime 
Minister,  and  being,  unlike  Newcastle,  aware  of  his  own  defects, 
on  April  8,  1763,  he  suddenly  resigned. 

By  this  time  the  king  had  no  longer  a  united  Whig  party  to 


THEWHIGPARTY  507 

1763-1764 

contend  against.  The  bulk  of  the  Whigs,  indeed,  held  together, 
and  having  selected  Lord  Rockingham  as  their  leader  in  the  place 
of  Newcastle,  had  in  many  ways  gained  by  the  change.  It  is  true 
that  Rockingham  was  not  a  man  of  much  ability,  and  was  so  shy 
tiiat  he  seldom  ventured  to  speak  in  public;  but  he  was  incorrupt- 
ible himself,  and  detested  the  work  of  corrupting  others.  Those 
who  follow^ed  him  renounced  the  evil  ways  dear  to  Newcastle. 
What  these  Whigs  gained  in  character  they  lost  in  influence  over 
a  House  of  Commons  in  which  many  members  wanted  to  be  bribed, 
and  did  not  want  to  be  persuaded.  A  second  party  followed  the 
Duke  of  Bedford.  Bedford  himself  was  an  independent,  though 
not  a  very  wise  politician,  but  his  followers  simply  put  themselves 
up  to  auction,  and  hung  together  to  secure  better  terms.  A  third 
party  followed  Pitt's  brother-in-law,  George  Grenville.  Grenville 
was  a  thorough  man  of  business,  and  quite  honest ;  but  he  had  little 
knowledge  of  mankind.  He  had  quarreled  with  Pitt  because,  while 
Pitt  thought  of  the  glories  of  the  war,  he  himself  shrank  from  its 
enormous  costliness,  the  national  debt  having  nearly  doubled  during 
its  progress,  rising  to  more  than  132,000,000/.  He  had,  therefore, 
after  Pitt's  resignation  and  Newcastle's  fall,  supported  Bute,  and 
now  that  the  king  was  compelled  to  choose  between  Rockingham, 
Bedford,  and  Grenville,  he  naturally  selected  Grenville  as  Prime 
Minister,  as  having  seceded  from  the  great  Whig  connection. 

At  first  the  king  got  on  well  wnth  Grenville,  as  they  were  both 
inclined  to  take  high-handed  proceedings  with  those  who  criticised 
the  Government.  John  Wilkes,  a  member  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, blamed  the  king's  speech  in  No.  45  of  the  North  Briton. 
The  king  ordered  the  prosecution  of  all  concerned  in  the  article, 
and  Lord  Halifax,  as  Secretary  of  State,  issued  a  warrant  for  the 
apprehension  of  its  authors,  printers,  and  publishers.  Such  a  war- 
rant was  called  a  general  warrant,  because  it  did  not  specify  the 
name  of  any  particular  person  who  was  to  be  arrested.  On  this 
warrant  Wilkes  was  arrested  and  sent  to  the  Tower.  On  ]\Iay  6, 
however,  he  was  discharged  by  Pratt,  the  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Common  Pleas,  on  the  ground  that,  by  his  privilege  as  a  member 
of  Parliament,  he  was  protected  from  arrest,  except  for  treason, 
felony,  or  breach  of  the  peace.  Not  long  afterwards  Pratt  declared 
general  warrants  to  be  illegal,  though  tliere  had  been  several  exam- 
ples of  their  use.  In  November,  17^)3.  tiie  House  of  Commons, 
urged  on  by  the  king  and  Grenville,  voted  No.  45  of  the  North 


508  ENGLAND 

1763-1765 

Briton  to  be  a  libel,  while  the  House  of  Lords  attacked  Wilkes 
on  the  ground  that  in  the  notes  of  an  indecent  poem  called  "An 
Essay  on  Woman,"  of  which  he  was  tlie  author,  he  had  assailed 
Bishop  Warburton,  a  member  of  that  House.  Wilkes,  indeed,  had 
never  published  the  poem,  but  its  existence  was  betrayed  by  Lord 
Sandwich,  one  of  the  Bedford  party,  who  had  been  a  boon  com- 
panion of  Wilkes,  and  whose  life  was  as  profligate  as  Wilkes's 
own.  On  January  19,  1764,  the  House  of  Commons  expelled 
Wilkes  on  account  of  No.  45,  and  on  February  21,  in  the  Court 
of  King's  Bench,  a  verdict  was  recorded  against  him  both  as  a 
libeler  and  as  the  author  of  an  obscene  poem.  Attempts  having 
been  made  to  get  rid  of  him  by  challenging  him  to  fight  duels, 
he  escaped  to  France  and  was  outlawed  by  the  Court. 

Wilkes  became  suddenly  popular  because  of  his  indomitable 
resistance  to  a  king  who  was  at  that  time  unpopular.  George  HL 
had  shown  strength  of  will,  but  as  yet  he  had  been  merely  striving 
for  mastery,  without  proposing  any  policy  which  could  strike  the 
imaginations  of  his  subjects.  All  officials  who  voted  against  him 
were  dismissed,  even  when  their  offices  were  not  political.  George 
HL  was  as  self-willed  and  dictatorial  as  Grenville  himself,  and  soon 
ceased  to  be  on  good  terms  with  the  Prime  Minister.  In  Septem- 
ber, 1763,  Grenville,  to  increase  the  number  of  his  supporters  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  admitted  the  Duke  of  Bedford  and  his 
followers  to  ofiice,  but  Bedford  soon  made  himself  even  more 
disagreeable  to  the  king  than  Grenville.  George  HL,  weary  of  his 
ministers,  made  overtures  to  Pitt  to  come  to  his  help,  but  for  a 
long  time  they  remained  without  effect,  and  much  as  he  now  dis- 
liked both  Grenville  and  Bedford  he  was  compelled  to  keep  them 
in  office. 

One  measure  indeed  of  Grenville's  secured  the  warm  support 
of  the  king.  Since  the  late  war,  not  only  was  England  burdened 
with  a  greatly  increased  debt,  but  it  had  become  desirable  that  a 
large  military  force  should  be  kept  up  tor  the  defense  of  her  in- 
creased durniiiions.  The  army  in  Anterica  amounted  to  10,000 
men,  and  Grenville  tlKiUght  that  the  colonists  ought  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  a  force  of  which  they  were  to  have  the  chief  benefit — 
especially  as  the  f(jrmer  war  liad  been  carried  on  in  their  behalf. 
If  it  had  been  pDSsiMc.  he  would  have  preferred  that  the  money 
needed  should  ha\e  been  granted  by  tlie  colonists  themselves.  It 
was,  howcA-er,  extremely  improbable  that  this  would  be  done.    There 


THEWHIGPARTY  509 

1765-1766 

was  no  general  assembly  of  the  American  colonies  with  which  the 
home  Government  could  treat.  Grenville  accordingly  thought  that 
the  only  authority  to  which  all  the  colonies  would  bow  was  that 
of  the  British  Parliament,  and  in  1765  he  obtaind  without  diffi- 
culty the  assent  of  Parliament  to  a  Stamp  Act,  calculated  to  raise 
about  100,000/.  by  a  duty  on  stamps  to  be  placed  on  legal  docu- 
ments in  America. 

Before  news  could  arrive  of  the  effect  of  the  Stamp  Act  in 
America,  the  king  had  been  so  exasperated  by  the  rudeness  with 
which  Grenville  and  Bedford  treated  him  that,  much  as  he  disliked 
Rockingham  and  the  old  Whigs,  he  placed  them  in  office  until  he 
could  find  an  opportunity  of  getting  rid  of  them  as  well.  The  new 
ministers  were  weak,  not  only  because  the  king  disliked  them 
and  intrigued  against  them,  but  because  they  refused  to  resort  to 
bribery,  and  were  therefore  unpopular  with  the  members  who 
wanted  to  be  bribed.  Xor  had  they  anyone  among  them  of 
commanding  ability,  while  Pitt,  whom  Rockingham  asked  to  join 
him,  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  old  Whigs,  whom  he 
detested  as  cordially  as  did  the  king. 

Before  Parliament  met  in  December,  news  reached  England 
that  the  Americans  had  refused  to  accept  the  stamped  papers  sent 
out  to  them,  and  had  riotously  attacked  the  officers  whose  duty 
it  was  to  distribute  them.  The  British  Parliament,  in  fact,  had 
put  itself  into  the  position  occupied  by  Charles  I.  when  he  levied 
ship-money.  Each  tax  was  desirable,  but  the  power  of  levying  the 
tax  was  liable  to  become  absolute.  If  the  British  Parliament  could 
levy  a  stamp  duty  in  America,  it  could  levy  otlier  duties,  and  the 
Americans  would  thus  be  entirely  at  its  mercy.  The  Rockingham 
ministry  drew  back  from  the  prospect  of  a  struggle  with  the  colo- 
nists, and  at  its  instance  the  Stamp  Act  was  repealed  early  in  1766, 
though  its  repeal  was  accompanied  by  a  Declaratory  Act  asserting 
the  right  of  the  British  Parliament  to  tax  the  colonies  as  well  as 
to  legislate  for  them. 

In  taking  this  course  the  Rockingham  ministry  was  supported 
by  Edmund  Burke,  who  now  entered  Parliament  for  the  first  time, 
and  who  was  the  greatest  political  thinker  of  the  age.  As  Pitt, 
too,  applauded  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  Rockingham  made 
fresh  but  unsuccessful  efforts  to  induce  Iiim  to  combine  with  the 
ministry.  Yet,  though  Pitt  and  Burke  agreed  in  disliking  the 
Stamp  Act,  their  reasons  for  so  doing  were  not  the  same.     Pitt 


510  ENGLAND 

1766-1767 

held  that  the  British  Parliament  had  a  right  to  impose  duties  on 
American  trade,  for  the  sake  of  regulating  it — in  other  words,  of 
securing  a  monopoly  for  British  manufactures — but  that  it  had 
no  right  to  levy  internal  taxes  in  America.  Burke,  on  the  other 
hand,  detested  the  very  idea  of  claiming  or  disclaiming  a  right  to 
tax,  holding  that  in  all  political  matters  the  only  thing  worth  dis- 
cussing was  whether  any  particular  action  was  expedient.  Amer- 
ica, according  to  him,  was  not  to  be  taxed,  simply  because  it  was 
not  worth  while  to  irritate  the  Americans  for  the  sake  of  any  sum 
of  money  which  could  be  obtained  from  them.  This  was  not  the 
only  point  on  which  Pitt  and  Burke  differed.  Burke  wished  to 
found  government  on  a  combination  among  men  of  property 
honestly  and  intelligently  seeking  their  country's  good,  and  using 
the  influence  which  their  wealth  gave  them  to  fill  the  benches  of 
the  House  of  Commons  with  men  as  right-minded  as  themselves. 
Pitt,  on  the  other  hand,  distrusting  all  combinations  between 
wealthy  landowners,  preferred  appealing  to  popular  support. 

There  was  this  much  of  agreement  between  George  III.  and 
Pitt,  that  they  both  disliked  the  Rockingham  Whigs,  and  in  July, 
1766,  the  king  dismissed  Rockingham,  created  Pitt  Earl  of 
Chatham,  and  made  him  Prime  Minister  with  the  office  of  Lord 
Privy  Seal.  Chatham  formed  his  ministry  by  selecting  men  of  all 
kinds  of  opinion  who  were  willing  to  serve  under  him.  Before 
the  end  of  the  year  his  health  broke  down,  and  his  mind  was  so 
completely  deranged  as  to  render  him  incapable  of  attending  to 
business.  In  1767  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  being  First  Lord  of  the 
Treasury,  became  nominally  Prime  ]^Iinister,  but  he  was  quite 
incapable  of  controlling  his  subordinates,  and  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  Charles  Townshend,  a  brilliant,  unwise  speaker,  had 
everything  his  own  way. 

Although  the  Stamp  Act  had  been  repealed,  in  1767  Town- 
shend obtained  from  Parliament  an  act  imposing  on  America 
import  duties  on  glass,  red  and  white  lead,  painters'  colors,  paper 
and  tea.  The  produce  was  estimated  at  40,000/.,  and  was  to  be 
employed,  not  in  maintaining  an  army  to  defend  the  colonies,  but 
in  paying  their  judges  and  governors,  with  the  object  of  making 
them  dependent  on  the  Crown,  and  independent  of  the  public  opin- 
ion of  the  colonists.  I^-om  the  point  of  view  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment the  colonists  were  like  unruly  children,  who  required  to  l)e 
kept  in  order.     In  America,  on  the  other  hand,  the  new  duties  were 


THEWHIGPARTY  511 

1767-1769 

denounced  as  an  attempt  to  govern  America  from  England.  Not 
only  did  people  agree  together  to  avoid  the  consumption  of  articles 
subject  to  the  new  duties,  but  attacks  were  made  on  the  revenue 
officers  who  had  to  collect  the  money,  and  whatever  violence  was 
committed  against  them,  juries  refused  to  convict  the  offenders. 
On  September  4,  1767,  before  further  steps  could  be  taken  in 
England,  Townshend  died.  His  successor  as  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  was  Lord  North,  who  was  inclined  to  carry  out  Town- 
shend's  policy.  In  reality,  however,  the  king  was  himself  the  head 
of  the  ministry. 

Though  before  the  end  of  1768  Chatham  recovered  his  health, 
he  felt  himself  helpless,  and  formally  resigned  office.  In  that  year 
there  was  a  general  election,  and  Wilkes,  reappearing  from  France, 
was  elected  in  Middlesex.  His  election  was  a  token  of  a  wide- 
spread dissatisfaction,  not  so  much  with  the  taxation  of  America 
as  with  the  corruption  by  which  the  king  had  won  Parliament  to 
his  side.  In  February,  1769,  the  House  of  Commons  expelled 
Wilkes.  He  was  then  reelected,  and  the  House  replied  not  only 
by  expelling  him  again,  but  by  incapacitating  him  from  sitting 
in  the  House  during  the  existing  Parliament.  When  an  election 
was  again  held,  ^^^ilkes  was  again  at  the  head  of  the  poll,  but  the 
House  declared  his  opponent.  Colonel  Luttrell,  to  be  duly  elected, 
though  the  votes  for  him  had  been  very  few.  A  grave  constitu- 
tional question  was  thus  raised.  George  Grenville  and  the  Rock- 
ingham-Whigs  agreed  in  asserting  that  nothing  short  of  an  act 
of  Parliament  passed  by  both  Houses  could  deprive  the  electors 
of  their  right  of  choosing  whom  they  would  as  their  representative, 
though  they  admitted  that  the  House  might  expel  a  member  so 
chosen  as  often  as  it  pleased.  To  this  doctrine  Chatham,  who  had 
now  recovered  his  health,  gave  his  warm  support.  It  seemed  as 
if  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  ministry  to  hold  out  against  such 
a  weight  of  authority  and  argument. 

The  opponents  of  the  court  on  the  question  of  the  Middlesex 
election  had  on  their  side  two  dangerous  allies — a  libeler  and  the 
mob.  The  libeler,  who  called  himself  ''  Junius."  was  probably  Sir 
Philip  Francis.  He  attacked  with  malignant  bitterness  the  king 
and  all  his  instruments.  Tlie  mob.  actuated  by  a  sense  of  the  un- 
fairness with  which  Wilkes  v/as  treated,  took  his  part  warmly. 
"  Wilkes  aiitl  liljeity  "  was  their  cry.  At  the  time  of  the  Middlesex 
election  "  45  "  was  freely  clialked  up  on  the  doors  of  the  houses. 


512  ENGLAND 

1769-1770 

in  allusion  to  the  condemned  number  of  the  North  Briton.  Noble- 
men most  hostile  to  Wilkes  were  compelled  to  illuminate  their 
houses  in  honor  of  his  success  at  the  poll.  In  June  Wilkes,  having 
surrendered  to  take  his  trial  for  the  publication  of  No.  45  and  the 
"  Essay  on  Woman,"  was  committed  to  prison,  whence,  on  May  10, 
an  enormous  crowd  strove  to  rescue  him.  and  was  only  driven  off 
after  the  soldiers  had  fired  and  killed  five  or  six  persons.  Wilkes 
was  sentenced  to  fine  and  imprisonment  as  a  libeler,  but  the  citi- 
zens of  London,  as  enthusiastic  in  his  favor  as  the  crowd,  chose 
him  as  Alderman  while  he  was  still  in  prison.  The  badness  of 
his  character  was  forgotten,  and  his  pertinacious  stand  against  the 
Court  was  alone  remembered. 

When  Parliament  met,  in  January,  1770,  Chatham,  now  again 
in  full  possession  of  his  powers,  took  up  the  cause  of  Wilkes, 
maintaining  that  the  House  of  Commons  had  no  right  to  place 
Luttrell  in  his  seat.  The  very  sound  of  his  voice  dissolved  the 
composite  ministry.  The  Lord  Chancellor  was  dismissed.  The 
king,  finding  that  no  notable  lawyer  agreed  with  him  as  to  the 
right  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  disqualify  Wilkes  from  being 
elected,  persuaded  Charles  Yorke.  an  eminent  lawyer  and  a  hitherto 
devoted  follower  of  Rockingham.,  to  accept  the  Chancellorship, 
although  in  so  doing  he  would  have  to  argue  against  his  own  set- 
tled convictions.  Yorke.  tempted  by  the  greatness  of  the  prize, 
accepted  the  offer,  but  he  was  unable  to  bear  the  reproaches  of 
his  friends,  and  for  very  shame  committed  suicide.  Grafton  re- 
signed office,  and  other  ministers  followed  his  example.  The  king 
then  made  Lord  Xorrli  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  and  gave  him 
the  position  of  a  Prime  Minister,  though  the  title  was  still  held 
to  be  invidious,  and  Xortli  himself  objected  to  have  it  used  in  his 
own  case.  North  was  an  able  man,  skillful  in  the  management  of 
public  aft'airs.  and  honestly  a  supporter  of  strong  measures  against 
Wilkes  and  the  Americans,  and  lie  fully  adopted  the  principle  that 
the  king  was  to  choose  liis  ministers  and  to  direct  their  policy. 
If  North  could  maintain  b.imself  in  Parliament,  the  new  Toryism, 
of  which  the  dependence  of  ministers  on  the  Crown  was  the  leading 
feature,  w'culd  have  won  the  day. 


Chapter  XLIX 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE 

1770— 1783 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  George  III.,  A.D.,  1760-1820 — Lord  North  Prime  Minister, 
1770 — Cargoes  of  Tea  Thrown  into  Boston  Harbor,  1773 — Begin- 
ning OF  the  American  War,  1775 — Declaration  of  Independence, 
1776 — Capitulation  of  Saratoga,  1777 — War  with  France,  1778 — 
Burke's  Bill  for  Economical  Reform,  1780 — Capitulation  of  York- 
town,  1781 — Second  Rockingham  Ministry,  1782 — Shelburne  Min- 
istry, 1782 — Peace  of  Paris,  1783 

THE  opposition,  seemingly  strong,  was  weakened  by  a  con- 
flict of  opinion  among  its  leaders.  Chatham  declared 
for  Parliamentary  reform,  suggesting  that  a  third  mem- 
ber should  be  given  to  each  county,  as  the  freeholders,  who  at  that 
time  alone  voted  in  county  elections,  were  more  independent  than 
the  borough  electors.  Burke  and  the  Rockingham  \A'higs,  on  the 
other  hand,  objected  to  any  constitutional  change  as  likely  in  the 
end  to  throw  power  into  the  hands  of  the  ignorant.  The  violence  of 
mobs  since  AA'ilkes's  election  no  doubt  strengthened  the  conservative 
feeling  of  this  section  of  the  Whigs,  and  at  the  same  time  made 
strongly  in  favor  of  the  Government,  because  in  times  of  disorder 
quiet  people  are  apt  to  support  the  Governmeiit  whether  they  agree 
with  it  politically  or  not.  North  was  well  11- led  to  take  advantage  of 
this  state  of  opinion.  He  was  an  easy-going  man,  who  never 
lost  his  temper  and  never  gave  unnecessary  offense.  At  the  same 
time  he  was  an  able  party  manager,  and  though  not  a  great  states- 
man, was  a  sensible  politician.  With  the  king  at  his  back,  he  had 
at  his  disposal  all  the  engines  of  corruption  by  which  votes  were 
gained,  and  though  members  of  Parliament  had  for  some  time 
ceased  to  sell  their  votes  for  ready  money  as  they  had  done  in  tlic 
days  of  Walpole  and  Newcastle,  they  still  continued  to  sell  them 
for  pensions,  offices,  and  especially  for  sinecures.  Moreover,  North 
had  the  advantage  of  sharing  in  the  king's  strong  feeling  against 
the  conduct  of  the  Americans,      Public  opinion   in   England   was 

513 


514  ENGLAND 

1770-1771 

turning  more  and  more  against  the  Americans,  and  for  the  first 
time  in  his  reign  George  III,  found  support  for  his  poHcy  in 
pubhc  opinion. 

Only  two  courses  were  open  to  the  British  Government : — the 
one  to  treat  the  Americans  as  a  virtually  independent  people,  allow- 
ing them  to  tax  themselves  and  to  govern  themselves  as  they 
pleased,  the  other  to  compel  them  to  obedience  by  military  force. 
It  is  hardly  strange  that  Englishmen  were  not  wise  enough  to  ac- 
cept the  former  alternative.  They  did  not  perceive  that  the  colo- 
nists, in  refusing  the  payment  of  taxes  imposed  by  others  than 
themselves,  had  a  proper  foundation  for  constitutional  resistance, 
while  they  did  perceive  that  the  American  resistance  was  not  alto- 
gether carried  on  in  a  constitutional  manner.  Lord  North  was, 
indeed,  sensible  enough  to  perceive  that  Townsliend's  import  duties 
roused  unnecessary  irritation,  especially  as  the  net  income  derived 
from  them  was  less  than  300/.  He  induced  Parliament  to  repeal 
all  the  duties  except  that  on  tea. 

In  Parliament  Lord  North  gathered  strength.  George  Gren- 
ville  having  died  in  1770  and  Bedford  early  in  1771,  the  followers 
of  these  two  leaders  resolved  to  support  tlie  ^Jinistry.  So,  too,  did 
Grafton,  who  had  lately  resigned  office  rather  tiian  oppose 
Chatham,  and  W'edderburn.  an  unscrupulous  lawyer  who  had  pro- 
fessed the  strongest  opposition  principles,  but  who  now  sold  him- 
self for  the  office  of  Solicitor-General.  T!ie  combined  Opposition 
was  reduced  to  a  hopeless  minority.  Yet  even  thus,  though  unable 
to  influence  the  American  policy  of  the  ^Ministry,  it  was.  on  one 
occasion,  able  to  bring  about  a  valuable  reform  at  home.  The 
House  of  Commons  had  long  been  jealous  of  the  reporting  of  its 
debates  and  of  the  comments  of  newspapers  on  its  members.  In 
February.  1771.  Colonel  Onslow,  a  member  of  the  House,  com- 
plained that  a  newspaper  liad  called  him  '"  little  cocking  George." 
and  "  a  paltry,  insignihcant  insect."  TJ-.e  proposal  to  summon  the 
printers  to  the  bar  was  resisted  l.w  obstructive  motions  from  both 
the  followers  of  Rocking^Jam  and  the  followers  of  Chatham,  and 
when  it  was  at  last  carried  time  liad  s!i])pcd  bv,  and  it  was  found 
difficult  to  catch  all  the  printers.  One  of  tlicm,  named  j.Iiller.  was  ar- 
rested in  the  city  by  a  nicsscnger  of  the  House,  but  the  messenger 
in  turn  was  arrested  and  brought  before  tlie  Lord  Mavor  and  two 
aldermen — one  of  whom  was  Wilkes — who  put  the  messenger  in 
prison  for  infringing  the  city  charter  by  making  an  arrest  in  the 


AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE  515 

1770-1775 

City  without  the  authority  of  its  magistrates.  The  House  of  Com- 
mons, prudently  leaving  Wilkes  alone,  sent  the  Lord  Mayor  and 
the  other  alderman  to  the  Tower,  where  they  were  royally  feasted 
by  the  City  till  the  end  of  the  session,  after  which  time  no  im- 
prisonment, by  order  of  either  House,  can  be  enforced.  The  Op- 
position had  gained  its  point,  as  since  that  time  no  attempt  has 
been  made  to  stop  the  reporting  of  debates.  It  was  the  freedom 
of  reporting  which  ultimately  enabled  Parliamentary  reform  to 
be  effected  without  danger.  Only  a  people  which  is  allowed  to 
have  knowledge  of  the  actions  and  words  of  its  representatives 
can  be  trusted  to  control  them. 

In  America  resistance  to  the  British  Government  rose  and  fell 
from  year  to  year.  In  1770  was  the  "  Boston  Massacre,"  and  in 
1773  the  "  Boston  Tea  Party,"  which  threw  overboard  the  tea  con- 
signed to  that  port. 

When  the  news  of  this  violence  reached  England  it  was  evi- 
dent to  all  that  either  the  British  Parliament  must  abandon  its 
claim  to  enforce  the  payment  of  the  tea  duty  or  it  would  have  to 
maintain  its  authority  by  force.  Burke  pleaded  for  a  return  to 
the  older  system  under  which  Great  Britain  had  been  respected 
for  so  many  years.  The  king,  Lord  North,  and  Parliament  thought 
otherwise,  and  passed  repressive  acts,  and  sent  General  Gage  to 
Boston  with  troops.  The  answer  of  the  colonies  was  a  Congress 
at  Philadelphia,  attended  by  deputies  of  all  the  colonies  except 
Georgia,  under  the  name  of  the  Continental  Congress.  Though 
this  assembly  had  no  legal  powers,  it  liad  popular  support,  and 
it  directed  the  stoppage  of  all  importation  from  and  exportation 
to  Great  Britain  till  the  grievances  of  the  colonies  had  been  re- 
dressed. There  was  no  sign  of  any  wish  for  separation,  though 
the  majority  were  in  favor  of  resistance  unless  concessions  were 
granted.  Both  in  America  and  in  England  illusions  prevailed.  The 
Americans  thought  that  the  British  Parliament  would  repeal  its 
obnoxious  measures,  if  only  the  American  case  were  faidy  repre- 
sented to  it,  while  the  British  Parliament  continued  to  regard  the 
power  of  resistance  in  America  as  altogether  contemptible.  Hos- 
tilities began  without  any  deliberate  purpose  on  either  side.  On 
April  18,  1775,  occurred  the  first  bloodshed,  the  skirmishes  at  Lex- 
ington and  Concord. 

After  this  all  New  England  sprang  to  arms.  On  i\Iay  10 
Ticonderoga   was   seized,   and   the   command   of  Lake   Champlain 


516  ENGLAND 

1775-1776 

gained,  while  on  June  17  an  English  force  was  twice  repulsed  at 
the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  The  affair,  taken  by  itself,  was  not  of 
great  importance,  but  it  showed  how  well  Americans  could  fight 
behind  entrenchments,  and  how  capable  they  were  of  developing 
military  qualities  unsuspected  by  the  British  generals. 

After  blood  had  been  shed  conciliatory  efforts  were  less  likely 
to  be  successful.  An  offer  to  abandon  the  British  claim  to  tax  any 
American  colony  which  would  provide  for  its  own  defense  and 
its  civil  government  had  been  made  in  March  by  Lord  North,  but 
it  was  not  known  in  America  till  after  the  conflict  at  Lexington, 
and  was  then  summarily  rejected.  On  May  10  a  second  Congress 
was  held,  at  Philadelphia,  and  as  it  was  attended  by  delegates  from 
all  the  thirteen  colonies,  it  assumed  the  style  of  "  The  Congress  of 
the  United  Colonies."  On  July  8  the  Congress  set  forth  terms  of 
reconciliation  in  a  petition  known  as  "  The  Olive  Branch  Petition," 
but  its  offers  proved  as  unacceptable  in  England  as  Lord  North's 
had  been  in  America. 

George  Washington  was  placed  in  command  of  the  American 
army — a  good  soldier  of  high  moral  and  intellectual  qualities, 
unselfish  and  of  infinite  patience,  which  was  needed,  to  discipline 
the  volunteers,  and  to  keep  his  subordinates  within  bounds. 

The  Canadian  campaign  of  1775-76  by  the  Americans  failed, 
but  in  March,  1776,  Boston  had  to  be  evacuated  by  the  British. 
Yet  it  was  not  altogether  the  fault  of  the  commanders  that  they 
did  nothing.  So  little  had  the  British  Parliament  expected  resist- 
ance that  it  had  allowed  the  numbers  of  the  army  to  sink  to  a 
low  ebb.  In  1774  the  whole  of  the  king's  forces  did  not  exceed 
17,547  men,  and  when,  in  1775,  an  attempt  was  made  to  raise 
them  to  55,000,  it  was  found  impossible  to  obtain  the  required 
number  of  men  in  Great  Britain.  In  despair  the  Government  had 
recourse  to  a  bargain  with  some  German  princes  for  the  sale  of 
their  subjects.  In  this  way  17,742  unhappy  Germans  were  sent 
oft',  like  so  many  slaves,  to  serve  George  III.  in  re-conquering 
America. 

The  year  1776  was  marked  by  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence by  the  colonies  (July  4)  and  the  successful  campaign  of  Lord 
Howe  against  Xew  York  and  in  New^  Jersey.  The  fortunes  of  the 
Americans  were  at  the  lowest  possible  ebb,  but  the  surprise  at 
Trenton  on  Christmas  night  and  the  battle  of  Princeton  a  week  later 
restored  their  spirits  and  won  back  Xew  Jersey. 


AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE  517 

1776-1778 

If  Great  Britain  had  had  to  deal  only  with  the  Americans, 
it  could  hardly  have  failed  to  wear  out  their  resistance,  considering 
how  large  a  part  of  the  population  longed  for  reconciliation  rather 
than  for  independence.  Its  own  population  was  8.000.000,  while 
that  of  the  United  States  was  less  than  2,000,000.  A  nation,  how- 
ever, which  attacks  a  people  inferior  to  itself  in  strength  must 
always  take  into  account  the  probability  that  other  states,  which 
for  any  reason  bear  a  grudge  against  her,  will  take  the  part  of 
her  weaker  enemy.  In  1776  France,  burning,  in  the  first  place,  to 
revenge  her  defeat  in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and  in  the  second 
place  to  break  down  the  British  monopoly  of  American  commerce, 
lent,  underhand,  large  sums  of  money  to  America,  and  gave  other 
assistance  in  an  equally  secret  way.  "  All  Europe  is  for  us,"  wrote 
the  American  diplomatists  who  negotiated  with  France.  "  Every 
nation  in  Europe  wishes  to  see  Britain  humbled,  having  all  in  their 
turn  been  offended  by  her  insolence."  French  volunteers  of  good 
birth,  of  whom  the  most  noted  was  Lafayette,  crossed  the  Atlantic 
to  take  service  under  Washington. 

In  the  campaign  of  1777  Howe  defeated  Washington  on  th.e 
Brandywine,  and,  pushing  onward,  occupied  Philadelphia.  In  the 
north  Burgoyne,  an  English  officer  of  repute,  was  coming  down 
the  valley  of  the  Hudson  from  Canada,  hoping  to  join  Clinton, 
who  was  to  come  up  the  valley  from  New  York.  He  never  reached 
Clinton.  Though  he  pushed  on  far,  his  troops  dwindled  away  and 
his  provisions  fell  short.  The  Americans  occupied  every  post 
around  his  diminished  army,  and  on  October  16  he  was  forced 
to  capitulate  at  Saratoga. 

The  British  disaster  at  Saratoga  encouraged  the  French  Gov- 
ernment, and  on  February  6,  1778,  France  openly  allied  herself 
with  America.  Lord  North  offered  to  yield  anything  short  of 
independence,  and  begged  the  king  to  relieve  him  of  office  and 
to  appoint  Chatham.  George  III.  refused  to  admit  Chatham  except 
as  North's  subordinate.  Chatham,  though  he  declined  this  insult- 
ing offer,  opposed,  on  April  7,  a  motion  by  one  of  the  Rockingham 
Whigs  for  acknowledging  the  independence  of  America,  and  thus 
practically  gave  his  support  to  North.  Fie  was  ready  to  give  way 
on  all  the  points  originally  in  dispute,  but  he  could  not  reconcile 
himself  to  the  abandonment  of  the  colonies,  and  he  firmly  pro- 
tested against  "  the  dismemberment  of  this  ancient  and  most  noble 
monarchy."     A.s  lie  spoke  his  voice  failed  him,  and  on  rising  to 


518  ENGLAND 

1777-1779 

make  a  second  speech,  he  fell  back  in  a  fit  of  apoplexy.  On  May 
II  he  died.  With  many  faults,  he  stands  forth  among  the  great- 
est figures  in  English  history.  He  had  not  merely  done  great 
things — he  had  inspired  England  with  confidence  in  herself. 

French  help  was  oftered  to  America  none  too  soon.  In  the 
winter  of  1777-/8  Washington's  army  at  Valley  Forge  was  almost 
destitute.  Wlien  spring  arrived  the  result  of  the  French  alliance 
was  clearly  seen.  In  June  the  British  evacuated  Philadelphia,  and 
in  July  a  French  fleet  appeared  off  the  American  coast.  Yet  the 
operations  of  1778  were  desultory.  The  unwillingness  of  the 
Americans  to  support  their  army  was  so  great  that  at  the  end 
of  1778  Washington  was  almost  as  despondent  as  he  had  been  at 
the  beginning  of  the  year. 

Each  side  saw  its  own  dif^culties,  and  in  1779  every  statesman 
in  England  was  to  the  full  as  despondent  as  Washington.  Lord 
North  himself  thought  it  impossible  to  re-conquer  America  now 
that  France  was  her  ally.  George  III.,  with  a  determination  which, 
when  it  succeeds  is  called  firmness,  and  when  it  fails  is 
called  obstinacy,  declared  tl:at  he  would  never  yield  or  give  office 
to  any  man  who  would  not  first  sign  a  declaration  that  he  was 
"resolved  to  keep  the  empn-e  entire,  and  that  no  troops  shall  con- 
sequently be  withdrawn  from  America  nor  independence  ever 
allowed."'  To  the  king's  resolute  will  North  reluctantly  submitted, 
though  in  June,  1779.  Spain  allied  herself  with  France  and  Amer- 
ica against  Great  Britain.  North  again  and  again  offered  his 
resignation,  but  the  king  forced  him  to  retain  otlice. 

The  hour  of  French  vengeance  had  come.  Early  in  1779  a 
French  naval  squadron  seized  the  British  possessions  in  Senegal 
and  on  the  Gambia,  and  in  the  summer  of  the  same  year  a  combined 
French  and  Spanish  tleet  sailed  up  the  Channel,  which  the  British 
fleet  did  not  even  venture  to  meet.  For  the  first  time  since  the 
battle  of  La  Hogue  the  French  navy  was  master  of  the  sea.  The 
fact  was  that  the  circumstances  under  which  the  French  navy  now 
appeared  at  sea  were  different  from  those  under  which  it  had 
suffered  defeat  in  the  Seven  Years'  War.  In  the  first  place,  Louis 
NVL,  who  had  been  king  of  France  since  1774,  had  paid  special 
attention  to  the  navy,  and  had  both  increased  the  number  of  his 
warships  and  had  done  his  utmost  to  render  their  crews  efiicient. 
In  the  second  place,  he  abandoned  the  policy  which  had  been  pur- 
sued by  every  ruler  of  France  since  the  days  of   Richelieu,  and 


AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE  519 

1779-1780 

which  consisted  in  throwing  the  whole  strength  of  the  country 
into  territorial  aggression  on  its  land  frontier,  thus  weakening 
its  ability  to  engage  successfully  in  naval  warfare.  The  new  king, 
by  keeping  at  peace  with  his  neighbors  on  the  continent,  was  thus 
enabled  to  struggle  with  better  chance  of  success  against  England, 
the  old  maritime  rival  of  France. 

In  1779  and  1780  the  English  won  victories  in  the  southern 
colonies.  Had  the  treason  of  Benedict  Arnold  been  accomplished, 
it  would  have  ended  the  war. 

In  England  there  was  as  yet  no  active  opposition  to  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  war,  but  there  was  a  growing  dissatisfaction  with 
its  apparently  endless  expense.  Towards  the  close  of  1779  the 
opposition  turned  this  current  of  feeling  against  the  emplo>Tnent 
of  the  patronage  of  the  Crown,  by  which  George  III.  secured  votes 
in  Parliament.  They  raised  a  cry,  which  was  fully  justified,  in 
favor  of  Economical  Reform,  and  they  gathered  large  public 
meetings  in  their  support.  The  practice  of  bringing  the  opinion 
of  public  meetings  to  bear  upon  Parliament  was  of  recent  origin, 
having  sprung  into  existence  in  1769,  during  the  agitation  con- 
sequent on  Wilkes's  election.  In  1779  it  spread  over  the  country. 
The  signal  was  given  by  a  meeting  at  York,  presided  over  by  Sir 
George  Savile,  a  highly  respected  member  of  the  Rockingham 
party.  These  meetings  were  everywhere  attended  by  the  orderly 
classes,  and  were  an  indication  of  the  dissatisfaction  widely  felt 
with  a  system  through  which  the  House  of  Commons  had  become 
a  mere  instrument  in  the  king's  hands.  In  February,  1780,  Burke 
brought  in  a  bill  for  the  abolition  of  sinecures,  the  only  use  of 
which  was  the  purchase  of  votes ;  and  in  a  magnificent  speech 
pleaded  the  cause  of  Economical  Reform.  He  put  the  case  in  a 
nutshell  when  he  announced  that  "  the  king's  turnspit  was  a  peer 
of  Parliament."  The  House  was  too  alarmed  at  the  outburst  of 
popular  feeling  to  refuse  to  the  bill  a  second  reading,  but  it  rejected 
its  leading  clauses  in  Committee,  and  the  bill  was  consequently 
dropped.  In  April,  however.  Dunning,  a  Whig  lawyer,  carried 
a  resolution  that  "  the  influence  of  the  Crown  has  increased,  is  in- 
creasing and  ought  to  be  diminished." 

Though  the  opposition  was  united  in  favor  of  Economical 
Reform,  which  would  render  the  Plouse  of  Commons  less  depend- 
ent on  the  king,  it  was  divided  on  the  subject  of  Parliamentary 
Reform,  which  would  have  made  it  more  dependent  on  the  nation. 


520  ENGLAND 

1780 

Burke,  with  the  greater  number  of  the  Rockingham  party,  opposed 
the  latter,  but  it  was  supported  by  Charles  James  Fox,  the  son  of 
the  Henry  Fox  who  had  been  noted  as  the  most  corrupt  minister 
of  a  corrupt  time.  The  younger  Fox  was,  in  private  life,  a  lover 
of  pleasure,  especially  at  the  gaming  table,  thereby  alienating  from 
him  the  more  decorous  portion  of  mankind.  Yet  in  spite  of  this, 
the  charm  of  his  kindly  nature  gained  him  warm  personal  friend- 
ships, and  often  disarmed  the  hostility  of  opponents.  In  public 
life  he  showed  himself  early  as  a  ready  and  fluent  speaker,  always 
prepared  with  an  answer  on  the  spur  of  the  moment.  He  was 
ever  ready  to  throw  himself  enthusiastically  into  all  generous  and 
noble  causes,  praising  beyond  measure  and  abusing  beyond  meas- 
ure, and  too  deficient  in  tact  and  self-restraint  to  secure  power 
on  the  rare  occasions  when  he  attained  it. 

On  June  2,  1780,  the  Duke  of  Richmond  called,  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  for  manhood  suffrage  and  annual  Parliaments.  That 
very  day  the  unfitness  of  the  multitude  of  those  times  for  political 
power  received  a  strong  illustration.  In  1778  Sir  George  Savile 
had  carried  a  bill  relieving  Roman  Catholics  of  some  of  the  hard- 
ships inflicted  on  them  by  the  law.  The  cry  of  "  No  Popery  "  was 
at  once  raised,  and  while  the  Duke  of  Richmond  was  speaking  to 
the  peers,  a  mob,  led  by  Lord  George  Gordon,  a  half-crazy  fanatic, 
poured  down  to  Westminster  with  a  petition  for  the  repeal  of 
Savile's  Act.  Members  of  both  Houses  were  hustled  and  ill-used, 
and  for  some  time  the  mob  endeavored  to  burst  into  the  House  of 
Commons.  Failing  in  this,  they  streamed  off  and  sacked  and  burned 
the  chapels  of  Roman  Catholic  ambassadors.  The  mob,  however, 
loved  riot  more  than  they  hated  Popery.  They  burned  Newgate  and 
liberated  the  prisoners.  They  fell  with  special  eagerness  upon  the 
houses  of  magistrates.  For  six  days  they  were  in  complete  pos- 
session of  a  considerable  part  of  London,  plundering  and  setting 
fire  to  houses  at  their  pleasure.  Soldiers  alone  could  arrest  such 
a  flood  of  mischief;  and  when  at  last  soldiers  were  ordered  to 
attack  the  mob.  the  riot  was  suppressed. 

The  suppression  of  the  riots  in  London  brought  back  some 
support  to  the  king,  but  the  enemies  of  England  abroad  were 
growing  stronger.  English  ships  claimed  the  right  of  search  in 
neutral  vessels  on  the  high  seas,  and  they  proceeded  to  confiscate 
enemies'  goods  found  in  tliem.  They  also  seized  neutral  vessels 
trading  with   ports  of  their  enemies,   which   they   declared   to  be 


AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE  521 

1780-1781 

blockaded,  even  when  they  were  not  in  sufficient  force  to  exercise 
an  effective  blockade.  A  leag-iie  sprung  up  among-  the  northern 
states,  headed  by  Russia,  to  estabhsh  an  "  Armed  NeutraHty  "  for 
protection  against  such  attacks.  This  league,  supported  by  France, 
advanced  what  was  then  the  new  doctrine,  that  "  Free  ships  make 
free  goods,"  and  proclaimed  that  "  paper  blockades  " — that  is  to 
say,  blockades  not  enforced  by  a  sufficient  naval  squadron — were 
inadmissible.  The  Dutch  Republic  moreover  adopted  this  view 
and  resisted  the  right  of  search  when  used  by  the  English,  just 
as  the  English,  in  Walpole's  time,  had  resisted  it  when  exercised 
by  the  Spaniards,  and  in  December,  1780,  England  declared  war 
on  the  Republic. 

The  campaign  of  1781  in  America  was  looked  forward  to 
as  likely  to  be  decisive.  Despite  Cornwallis's  early  successes,  he 
was  hemmed  in  at  Yorktown,  Virginia,  in  September,  by  the 
French  fleet  and  American  army.  On  October  19  Cornwallis 
surrendered,  and  the  American  War  was  virtually  at  an  end. 

American  independence  had  been  the  work  of  an  active  minor- 
ity, especially  vigorous  in  New  England,  and  in  some  other  parts 
further  south.  This  minority  was  always  ready  to  take  advantage 
of  every  circumstance  arising  in  their  favor,  and  availing  them- 
selves of  the  assistance  of  the  foreign  enemies  of  England.  The 
cause  of  America  was  to  some  extent  the  cause  of  England  herself. 
The  same  reasons  which  made  Parliament  ready  to  set  aside  by 
an  act  of  power  the  resistance  of  the  Americans  to  the  payment 
of  a  tax  to  which  their  representatives  had  not  consented  had 
weighed  with  the  House  of  Commons  when  they  set  aside  the 
repeatedly  declared  choice  of  the  Middlesex  electors.  In  the  one 
case  the  British  Parliament,  in  the  other  case  the  British  House  of 
Commons,  insisted  on  having  its  way,  because  it  believed  itself 
in  the  right.  The  principle  of  self-government — of  the  system  which 
acknowledges  that  it  is  better  to  allow  a  people  to  blunder  in  order 
that  they  may  learn  by  experience,  than  to  coerce  them  for  their  own 
good — was  at  stake  in  both.  It  seemed  as  easy  to  suppress  America 
as  it  was  to  suppress  the  Middlesex  electors;  and  when  England  dis- 
covered that  this  was  not  the  case  she  learned  a  lesson  which  would 
teach  her  in  the  future  how  mucli  consideration  was  due  to  those 
dependencies  which  were  still  left. 

The  news  of  the  surrender  at  Yorktown  reached  England  on 
November  25.     "  Oh,  Cod!  "  cried  North  when  he  heartl  it,  "  it  is 


522  ENGLAND 

1778-1782 

all  over."  The  king  insisted  on  North's  retaining  office  and  pro- 
longing the  struggle.  During  the  next  few  months  Minorca  sur- 
rendered to  the  Spaniards,  and  De  Grasse's  fleet  captured  one  West 
Indian  island  after  another.  The  supporters  of  the  ministry  in 
Parliament  deserted  it.  and  on  ]vlarch  20,   1782,  North  resigned. 

Much  to  his  annoyance,  George  III.  had  to  place  the  Opposi- 
tion in  office,  with  Rockingham  as  Prime  Minister,  and  to  allow 
the  new  ministers  to  open  negotiations  on  the  basis  of  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  American  independence.  The  two  most  important 
members  of  Rockingham's  second  administration  were  Fox  and 
Lord  Shelburne,  the  latter  being  the  leader  of  that  section  of  the 
Whigs  which  had  followed  Chatham.  The  king,  who  hated  the 
Rockingham  section  as  an  aristocratic  faction,  intrigued  with  Shel- 
burne against  the  other  members  of  the  ministry.  As  Shelburne 
disliked  Fox  personally,  the  prospect  of  a  united  ministry  was  not 
encouraging.  For  the  moment,  however,  the  new  ministers  did 
plenty  of  good  work.  They  opened  negotiations  for  peace,  and 
were  likely  to  obtain  the  better  terms,  as  on  April  12  Admiral 
Rodney  gained  a  decisive  victory  in  the  West  Indies  over  De 
Grasse's  fleet.  At  home,  the  ministers  set  themselves  to  purify 
Parliament.  They  carried  measures,  in  the  first  place,  disqualify- 
ing revenue  officers,  who  were  liable  to  dismissal  by  the  Govern- 
ment, from  voting  at  elections,  and  in  the  second  place,  disqualify- 
ing contractors  from  sitting  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  their  interest  not  to  offend  the  ministers. 
Burke's  Economical  Reform  Bill,  which  had  been  throv^-n  out  in 
1 78 1,  was  also  passed,  in  a  modified  form,  in  1782.  Though  the 
king  still  retained  sufficient  patronage  to  make  him  formidable, 
he  would  now  have  less  corrupting  influence  than  before. 

The  Irish  Parliament  had  for  some  time  been  growing  dis- 
contented with  its  subordinate  position.  It  is  true  that  it  repre- 
sented tlie  Protestants  only,  but  its  desire  to  make  itself  independ- 
ent had  the  result  of  rendering  it  unusuallv  inclined  to  conciliate 
the  Catholics.  A  few  reforms  were  wrung  from  the  new  ministry. 
At  Fox's  motion  the  British  Parliament  passed  an  act  by  which  the 
act  of  George  I.  binding  Ireland  to  obey  laws  made  in  Great 
Britain  was  repealed,  and  Poyning's  law  was  so  modified  as  to 
put  an  end  to  the  control  of  the  British  Privy  Council  over  the 
making  of  laws  in  Ireland.  However,  the  independent  Parlia- 
ment at  Dublin — Grattan's  Parlianient,  as  it  is  sometimes  called — 


AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE  523 

1782-1783 

had  two  sources  of  weakness.  In  the  first  place  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  chosen  by  Protestants  alone;  in  the  second  place  it  had 
no  control  over  the  executive  government. 

On  July  I,  1782,  Rockingham  died,  and  the  king  at  once 
appointed  Shelburne  Prime  Minister,  who,  as  he  thought,  would 
be  more  likely  than  any  of  the  other  ministers  to  help  him  to  keep 
down  the  Whig  aristocracy.  Fox,  who  detested  Shelburne,  and 
had  for  some  time  been  engaged  in  a  bitter  dispute  with  him  on 
the  subject  of  the  negotiations  for  peace,  resigned,  together  with 
others  of  Rockingham's  followers.  When  Shelburne  became  Prime 
Minister  the  negotiations  were  far  advanced.  France  and  Spain 
were,  however,  anxious,  before  they  signed  a  peace,  to  regain 
Gibraltar,  which  their  fleets  and  armies  had  been  besieging  for 
more  than  three  years.  On  September  13  a  tremendous  attack 
was  made  on  the  fortress  with  floating  batteries  which  were 
thought  to  be  indestructible.  The  British,  on  the  other  side,  fired 
red-hot  shot  at  the  batteries  till  they  were  all  burned.  After  this 
failure  France  and  Spain  were  ready  to  come  to  terms  with  Great 
Britain.  The  preliminaries  of  peace  with  the  United  States  of 
America  were  signed  at  Paris  on  November  30,  1782,  and  with 
France  and  Spain  on  January  20,  1783.  The  preliminaries  were 
converted  into  definitive  treaties  on  September  3,  1783.  The  Dutch 
held  out  longer,  but  were  obliged  to  yield  to  a  peace  a  few  montiis 
later. 

The  treaties  with  France  and  Spain  restored  to  France  the 
right  of  fortifying  Dunkirk,  which  had  been  taken  from  her  by 
the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  and  to  Spain  the  possession  of  Minorca, 
while  certain  exchanges  were  effected  in  the  West  Indies,  Africa, 
and  India.  In  America,  Florida  went  back  to  Spain.  By  the 
treaty  with  the  United  States  their  independence  was  acknowl- 
edged, and  their  western  border  was  fixed  on  the  Mississippi,  be- 
yond which  was  Louisiana,  ceded  by  France  to  Spain  at  the  end 
of  the  Seven  Years'  War. 


Chapter    L 

PITT   AND    FOX.     1782— 1789 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  George  III.,  A.D.  1 760-1 820— Pitt  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  1782— The  Coalition  Ministry,  April  2,  1783— Pitt 
Prime  Minister,  Dec.  23,  1783— Pitt's  India  Bill,  1784— Bills  for 
Parliamentary  Reform  and  for  a  Commercial  Union  with  Ireland, 

I785_COMMERCIAL  TREATY  WITH  FRANCE,  1786— INSANITY  OF  THE  KiNG, 

1788 — The  Regency  Bill,  1789 

CHATHAM'S  second  son,  William  Pitt,  had  entered  Parlia- 
ment in  1780,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one.  He  had  supported 
Burke's  Economical  Reform,  and  denounced  the  American 
War.  "  Pitt."  said  someone  to  Fox,  "  will  be  one  of  the  first  men  in 
the  House  of  Commons."'  "  He  is  so  already.''  replied  Fox.  Burke's 
saying  was  not  strictly  accurate.  The  qualities  of  the  younger  Pitt 
were  different  from  those  of  his  father.  He  had  none  of  the  fire 
of  the  impetuous  Chatham,  but  he  had  what  Chatham  did  not  pos- 
sess, unerring  tact  in  the  management  of  men  and  high  sagacity 
in  discriminating  between  things  possible  to  be  done  and  things 
which  were  not  possible.  When  the  second  Rockingham  ^Ministry 
was  formed  he  was  offered  a  post  which  did  not  carry  with  it  a 
seat  in  the  Cabinet,  but  Vv-hich  brought  a  salary  of  5,000/.  a  year. 
Pitt,  who  was  a  young  barrister  making  a  bare  300/.  a  year,  refused 
the  offer,  and  astonished  the  House  by  asserting  that  he  ''  never 
would  accept  a  subordinate  situation."  He  soon  asked  for  a  com- 
mittee to  inquire  into  the  need  for  Parliamentary  reform,  adopting 
the  views  of  his  father  on  this  subject,  in  opposition  to  those  of 
the  Rockingham  \Miigs.  When  Shelburne  became  Prime  Minis- 
ter he  made  Pitt  Chancellor  of  the  Exchecjuer,  with  the  leadership 
of  the  House  of  Commons. 

Shelburne's  Alinistry  did  not  last  long.  Shelburne  never  con- 
tinued lor  any  lengtli  uf  time  on  good  terms  with  other  men  and  he 
was  unreasonably  suspicic^is.  in  the  beginning  of  17S3  most  of 
his  colleagues  had  ceased  to  attend  b-is  Cabinet  meetings.  It  v.as 
obvious  that  Shelburne,  with  all  his  ability,  was  not  a  ruler  of  men. 

5-2i 


PITTANDFOX  625 

1783 

and  it  is  almost  certain  that  if  Fox  had  had  a  httle  patience,  Shel- 
burne  must  have  resigned,  and  the  way  have  been  opened  for  a 
strong  and  reforming  Ministry,  in  which  Fox  and  Pitt  would  have 
played  the  leading  part.  Unfortunately,  Fox  had  neither  patience 
nor  tact.  He  formed  a  coalition  with  North,  and  as  the  two 
together  had  a  large  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons  at  their 
disposal,  Shelburne  resigned  on  February  24. 

The  king  was  furious,  but  for  the  time  helpless.  He  regarded 
North  as  an  ungrateful  deserter,  and  he  had  more  than  one  reason 
for  disliking  Fox.  Not  only  was  Fox  the  most  brilliant  supporter 
of  the  system  of  Parliamentary  connections  v\hich  George  III.  had 
set  himself  to  break  down,  but  he  was  personally  intimate  with 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  afterwards  King  George  IV.  The  prmce 
was  now  living  a  dissipated  life,  and  the  king  attributed  the  mischief 
to  the  evil  influence  of  Fox,  though  the  low  character  of  the  prince 
himself,  and  the  repulsiveness  of  the  very  moral  but  exceedingly 
dull  domestic  life  of  the  royal  family,  had  no  doubt  some  part  in 
the  unfortunate  result.  The  people  at  large  were  scandalized  at 
a  coalition  formed  apparently  for  the  mere  purpose  of  securing 
power  for  Fox  and  North,  who  had  been  abusing  one  another  for 
many  years,  and  who  did  not  come  into  office  to  support  any  policy 
which  Shelburne  had  opposed,  or  to  frustrate  any  policy  which 
Shelburne  had  supported.  Nevertheless,  sufficient  indignation 
had  not  yet  been  shown  to  enable  the  king  to  dissolve  Parlia- 
ment with  a  fair  hope  of  success.  He  was  therefore,  after  various 
attempts  to  avoid  yielding,  obliged  on  April  2  to  admit  the  Coali- 
tion to  office.  Fox  and  North  became  Secretaries  of  State,  and 
the  Duke  of  Portland,  a  man  of  no  great  capacity,  became  nomi- 
nally Prime  Minister.  During  the  remainder  of  the  session  Pitt 
again  brought  forward  a  motion  for  Parliamentary  reform,  attack- 
ing tlie  secret  influence  of  the  Crown  as  strongly  as  the  venality 
of  the  electors  in  the  petty  boroughs.  Fox  supported  and  North 
opposed  him;  after  which  his  motion  was  lost  by  a  majority  of 
nearly  two  to  one.  When  the  House  of  Commons  met  again,  Fox 
laid  before  it  a  bill  for  the  government  of  India. 

Clive  had  returned  to  England  in  1760.  Whatever  might  be 
the  nominal  position  of  the  East  India  Company's  servants,  in 
reality  they  were  masters  of  Bengal.  They  used  tlieir  power  to  till 
their  own  pockets  at  the  expense  of  the  natives.  After  a  career  of 
plunder  and  extortion  many  of  them  returned  home  with  enormous 


526  ENGLAND 

1765-1777 

fortunes.  In  1765  Clive  was  sent  out  again  to  correct  the  evil.  In 
1767  Clive  finally  left  India.  For  the  next  five  years  everything- 
in  Bengal  was  in  confusion.  In  1772  Warren  Hastings  was  ap- 
pointed Governor  of  Bengal,  with  orders  to  put  an  end  to  the 
confusion. 

Hastings  was  a  man  of  the  highest  ability,  and  it  would  have 
been  well  if  the  Company  had  given  him  supreme  power  to  take 
the  whole  of  the  government  of  Bengal  into  his  own  hands,  and 
to  set  aside  the  pretense  of  leaving  any  part  of  it  to  the  Xawab. 
The  Company,  however,  too  scrupulous  to  upset  even  an  evil  sys- 
tem which  it  found  in  existence,  did  not  authorize  him  to  do  this ; 
and  though  he  did  immense  service  in  organizing  the  administra- 
tion on  English  principles,  he  could  not  prevent  considerable  con- 
fusion arising  from  the  technical  uncertaintv  of  his  position. 

In  1773  was  passed,  at  the  instance  of  Lord  North,  the  Regu- 
lating Act.  which  was  intended  to  introduce  order  into  the  pos- 
sessions of  the  Company  in  India.  The  English  Parliament,  how- 
ever, had  no  experience  in  dealing  with  Eastern  peoples,  and  tried 
to  introduce  constitutional  checks,  which  were  better  suited  for 
Westminster  than  for  Calcutta.  The  Governor  of  Bengal  was  to 
be  called  Governor-general  of  Bengal,  but  there  was  to  be  a  council 
of  four  members  besides  himself,  and  if  he  was  outvoted  in  the 
council  he  was  to  be  obliged  to  conform  his  conduct  to  the  de- 
cisions of  his  opponents.  There  was  also  set  up  a  supreme  court, 
which  miglit  easily  come  into  conflict  with  the  Governor,  as  no 
rules  were  laid  down  to  define  tlieir  separate  powers.  The  governor- 
general  had  authority  over  the  governors  of  ^Madras  and  Bombay, 
but  it  was  insufficient  to  enable  liim  to  dictate  their  policy. 

The  new  Council  wr.s  opposed  to  Hastings,  and  almost  drove 
him  from  his  post,  but  gradually,  by  the  death  or  removal  of  the 
hostile  Councillors,  in  1777,  Hastings  regained  power.  Then 
came  the  n\??t  critical  time  in  tlie  history  of  British  rule  in  India, 
the  struggle  with  tlte  Mahratta  confederacy.  Intportant  as  it 
was  to  the  C^'Uipany.  it  was  far  more  important  to  the  natives 
of  India,  as  t'.:e  victory  of  the  Mahrattas  would  bring  with  it 
outrage  and  misery,  wliereas  the  victory  of  tlie  Company  would 
bring  with  it  t;:e  establisp.ment  of  peace  and  settled  government. 
Xevertiieless.  it  would  lia\-e  been  well  if  the  conflict  could  have 
been  deferred  till  tr.e  Company  was  stronger  than  it  then  was. 
Lnluckily.  the  Bombay  Government  entered  upon  an  unnecessary 


P  I  T  T    A  N  D    F  0  X  527 

1781-1783 

war  with  the  Mahrattas.  About  the  same  time  it  seemed  as  though 
the  French  would  enter  vigorously  into  the  war,  and  the  Moham- 
medan rulers  of'  the  south,  the  Nizam  and  Hyder  Ali,  also  rose. 
In  his  pressing  need  for  money,  Hastings  imposed  an  immense  fine 
on  Cheyt  Singh,  the  Rajah  of  Benares. 

In  1 78 1  Hyder  Ali  was  defeated  and  the  next  year  peace  was 
made  with  his  successor  and  with  the  Mahrattas,  while  the  French 
withdrew.  By  his  pertinacity  he  had  saved  the  British  hold  on  India 
and  had  laid  the  foundations  of  a  system  on  wliich  the  future  peace 
and  prosperity  of  the  country  depended.  Yet  that  system  would  have 
been  severely  shaken  if  future  governors-general  had  continued  to 
levy  fines  limited  only  by  their  own  discretion,  or  to  supply  forces  to 
Eastern  potentates  to  enable  them  to  recover  their  dues.  Much  as 
may  be  said  on  Hastings's  behalf  in  all  these  affairs,  it  can  hardly 
be  denied  that  it  would  have  been  better  if  he  could  have  supported 
his  government  upon  the  revenues  of  the  Company's  own  provinces, 
and  could  have  acted  beyond  the  Company's  frontier  only  by  agents 
responsible  to  himself.  That  he  did  not  do  so  was  mainly  the 
fault  of  the  weakness  of  his  own  official  position.  What  was 
urgently  needed  was  the  reform  of  a  system  which  left  the 
governor-general  hampered  in  his  authority  by  those  who  should 
have  been  his  subordinates,  while  at  the  same  time  it  was  desirable 
that  he  should  be  made  directly  responsible,  not  to  a  trading  com- 
pany interested  in  making  money,  but  to  the  British  Govern- 
ment itself. 

In  1783  the  Coalition  ]\Iinistry  brought  in  a  bill  for  the  better 
government  of  India,  which  was  intended  to  meet  only  the  latter 
of  these  two  requirements.  Though  the  bill  was  introduced  by  Fox 
into  the  House  of  Commons,  it  was  the  work  of  Burke.  Burke  felt 
deeply  and  passionately  the  wrongs  done  to  the  natives  of  India, 
and  he  proposed  to  take  the  government  entirely  away  from  the 
East  India  Company,  giving  it  to  a  board  of  seven  commissioners, 
appointed  in  the  bill  itself,  that  is  to  say,  practically  by  the  ministers 
who  drew  up  the  bill.  No  member  of  this  board  could  be  dismissed 
by  the  king  for  four  years,  except  at  the  request  of  both  Houses  of 
Parliament,  though  at  the  end  of  four  years  the  king  was  to  name 
the  commissioners.  As  the  whole  patronage  of  India  was  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  board,  and  as  the  possessor  of  patronage  could 
always  sell  it  for  votes  in  the  British  Parliament,  the  bill  made 
for  the  increase  of  the  power  of  the  Crown  in  the  long  run,  though 


528  ENGLAND 

1783-1784 

it  weakened  it  for  four  years.  The  opponents  of  the  Coalition, 
however,  shutting  their  eyes  to  the  former  fact  and  fixing  them  on 
the  latter,  bitterly  attacked  the  bill  as  directed  against  the  power 
of  the  Crown.  It  was  an  attempt,  said  Thurlow,  who  had  been 
Lord  Chancellor  in  Lord  Shelburne's  ]slinistry,  to  take  the  diadem 
from  the  king's  head  and  to  put  it  on  that  of  i\Ir.  Fox. 

Though  the  bill  was  strongly  opposed  by  Pitt  and  others, 
it  passed  the  Commons  by  a  large  majority.  When  it  reached  the 
Lords,  the  king  sent  a  private  message  through  Pitt's  cousin, 
Lord  Temple,  to  each  peer,  to  the  effect  that  whoever  voted  for 
the  India  Bill  was  not  only  not  the  king's  friend,  but  would  be  con- 
sidered as  his  enemy.  As  many  of  the  lords  were  conscientiously 
opposed  to  the  Coalition,  and  others  needed  the  king's  patronage, 
the  bill  was  thrown  out,  on  which  the  king  contemptuously  dis- 
missed the  Ministry.  Constitutional  writers  have  blamed  his  in- 
terference, on  the  ground  that  a  king  ought  not  to  intrigue  against 
ministers  supported  by  the  House  of  Commons.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  may  be  said  that  on  this  occasion  the  ministers  had  gained 
their  posts  by  an  intrigue,  and  that  it  was  difficult  to  respect  the 
House  of  Commons  at  a  time  when  large  numbers  of  its  members 
were  swayed  backwards  and  forwards  by  hopes  of  patronage  from 
one  side  or  the  other.  The  only  hope  of  a  better  state  of  things 
lay  in  the  intervention  of  the  nation   itself. 

George  III.,  burning  to  free  himself  from  the  Coalition,  made 
Pitt  Prime  Minister  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-five.  Pitt  accepted 
the  position  from  the  king,  and  so  far  adopted  what  was  now  the 
established  Tory  doctrine,  that  ministers  were  to  be  named  by  the 
king,  and  not  by  the  House  of  Commons ;  but  he  also  reintroduced 
what  had  long  been  forgotten,  the  principle  that  the  constituencies 
must  be  appealed  to  before  any  final  decision  could  be  taken.  For 
weeks  he  struggled  in  the  House  of  Commons,  refusing  to  resign 
or  to  dissolve  Parliament  until  he  could  place  his  opponents  at 
a  disadvantage.  Fox,  with  his  usual  want  of  tact,  gave  him  the 
advantage  which  he  required,  by  opposing  a  dissolution  and  the 
consequent  appeal  to  the  constituencies,  and  by  insisting  that  it 
was  Pitt's  duty  to  resign  at  once,  because  he  was  outvoted  in  the 
existing  House  of  Commons.  L'nder  these  circumstances,  Pitt 
was  beaten  again  and  again  by  large  majorities.  The  nation  at 
large  had  for  some  time  disliked  the  Coalition  as  unprincipled,  and 
it  now  rallied  to  Pitt  in  admiration  of  his  undaunted  resolution. 


PITTANDFOX  529 

1784-1785 

Members  of  the  House,  who  had  supported  the  CoaHtion  merely  for 
the  sake  of  the  loaves  and  fishes,  began  to  suspect  that  it  might  be 
Pitt  after  all  who  would  have  the  loaves  and  fishes  to  dispense. 
These  men  began  to  change  sides,  and  Pitt's  minority  grew  larger 
from  day  to  day.  At  last,  on  IMarch  8,  1784,  the  opposition  had 
only  a  majority  of  one.  On  this  Parliament  was  dissolved.  The 
constituencies  rallied  to  Pitt,  and  160  of  Fox's  supporters  lost  their 
seats.     They  were  popularly  known  as  Fox's  martyrs. 

George  III.,  delighted  as  he  was  with  Pitt's  victory,  found  it 
impossible  to  make  a  tool  of  him,  as  he  had  made  a  tool  of  Lord 
North.  Pitt  owed  his  success  even  more  to  the  nation  than  to  the 
king,  and,  with  the  nation  and  the  House  of  Commons  at  his  back, 
he  was  resolved  to  have  his  own  way.  He  soon  showed  himself 
to  be  a  first-rate  financier,  and  in  his  first  budget  introduced  the 
principle,  afterwards  largely  followed,  of  reducing  custom-duties 
in  order  to  make  smuggling  unprofitable.  He  then  passed  an  India 
Bill  of  his  own.  The  Company  was  to  retain  all  the  patronage 
except  the  appointment  of  the  governor-general  and  of  one  or  two 
high  functionaries,  so  that  neither  the  king  nor  any  other  political 
body  would  have  the  disposal  of  places  in  India,  to  serve  as  an  in- 
strument of  corruption.  The  government  was  nominally  left  in 
the  hands  of  the  directors  of  the  East  India  Company ;  but  the 
dispatches  in  which  were  conveyed  the  orders  to  its  servants  in 
India  were  now  liable  to  be  amended  by  a  board  of  control  composed 
of  the  king's  ministers,  power  being  given  to  this  new  board  to 
give  orders,  in  cases  requiring  secrecy,  even  without  the  consent 
of  the  directors.  This  dual  government  lasted  till  1858.  While 
Pitt  avoided  Fox's  mistake  in  the  matter  of  patronage,  he  deprived 
the  Company  of  its  government  without  the  appearance  of  doing 
so.  Hastings  discovered  that  he  would  not  be  supported  by  the 
the  new  minister,  and  in  February,  1785,  he  resigned  his  office  and 
sailed  for  England. 

For  the  third  time  Pitt  attempted  to  carry  Parliamentary 
reform.  He  now  proposed  to  lay  by  a  sum  of  1,000,000/.  to  be 
employed  in  buying  up  seventy-two  seats,  which  were  practically 
in  private  hands.  If  any  of  the  owners  refused  to  sell,  tliC  share 
of  the  purchase-money  which  would  ha\-e  fallen  to  him  was  to  be 
laid  out  at  compound  interest  till  it  l)ccanie  valuable  enough  to 
tempt  him  to  close  with  tlie  increased  offer.  The  bill  was  thrown 
out,  and  Pitt  never  again  appeared  as  a  parliamentary  reformer. 


530  ENGLAND 

1785-1786 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was  in  earnest  in  desiring  parHa- 
mentary  reform,  as  it  would  have  strengthened  him  against  the 
unpopular  Whigs.  But  he  was  not  one  of  those  statesmen  who 
bring  forward  particular  measures  on  which  they  have  set  their 
hearts,  and  who  carry  them  ultimately  by  their  self-abnegation  in 
refusing  to  take  further  part  in  the  government  of  the  country  till 
right  has  been  done.  He  clung  to  power,  partly  for  its  own  sake, 
but  partly  also  because  he  believed  the  Coalition  which  he  resisted 
to  be  so  unprincipled  that  his  own  retention  of  office  was,  in 
itself,  a  benefit  to  the  country.  No  statesman  of  equal  eminence 
ever  failed  so  often  to  persuade  Parliament  to  adopt  his  schemes ; 
but  this  was  chiefly  because  his  schemes  were  usually  too  much  in 
advance  of  the  public  opinion  of  the  time. 

A  proposal  made  by  Pitt  for  a  commercial  union  with  Ireland 
failed  as  completely  as  his  Reform  Bill.  There  was  to  be  complete 
free-trade  between  the  two  countries,  and  Ireland  in  return  was  to 
grant  a  fixed  revenue  for  the  maintenance  of  the  navy,  by  w'hich 
both  countries  were  protected.  The  Parliament  at  Dublin  assented 
to  the  scheme,  but  in  England  the  manufacturers  raised  such  an 
outcry  that  Pitt  was  forced  to  change  it,  restricting  freedom  of 
trade  in  many  directions,  and  making  the  Irish  Parliament  de- 
pendent, in  some  respects,  on  the  British  for  the  regulation  of 
commerce.  The  scheme  thus  altered  was  rejected  at  Dublin  as 
giving  Ireland  less  than  complete  freedom  of  trade  and  infringing 
on  the  independence  of  her  Parliament. 

Pitt  was  more  successful  in  1786  with  a  treaty  of  commerce 
with  France.  The  doctrine,  that  freedom  of  trade  was  good  for 
all  countries  concerned  in  it,  had  been  promulgated  by  Adam  Smith 
in  his  "  Wealth  of  Nations  "  published  in  1776.  Shelburne  was  the 
first  minister  who  adopted  his  views,  but  his  official  career  was  too 
short  to  enable  him  to  give  effect  to  them,  and  Pitt  was,  therefore, 
the  first  minister  to  reduce  tliem  to  practice.  Duties  were  lowered 
in  each  country  on  the  productions  of  the  other,  and  both  countries 
were  the  better  for  the  change. 

In  1786  Pitt  appointed  Lord  Cornwallis  Governor-General  of 
India,  and  took  a  wise  step  in  obtaining  from  Parliament  an  act  em- 
powering him  to  over-rule  his  council.  Cornwallis  was  a  man  of 
strong  common  sense,  and  as  he  liad  fewer  difliculties  to  contend 
with  than  Hastings  had  liad,  he  was  under  no  temptation  to  resort  to 
acts  such  a.s  those  which  had  disfigured  the  administration  of  Hast- 


PITTANDFOX  531 

1788-1789 

ings.  In  Parliament,  Burke,  backed  by  the  whole  of  the  Opposi- 
tion, called  for  Hastings's  impeachment.  Pitt  gave  way,  and  in 
1788  Hastings's  trial  began  before  the  Lords  in  Westminster  Hall. 
Burke  and  Sheridan,  in  impassioned  harangues,  labored  to  prove 
him  to  have  been  a  tyrant  and  a  villain.  The  trial  dragged  on, 
and  it  was  not  till  1795  that  the  Lords  in  accordance  with  the  evi- 
dence pronounced  sentence  of  acquittal. 

In  1765  George  III.  had  been  for  a  short  time  mentally  de- 
ranged. In  the  autumn  of  1788  there  was  a  more  violent  recur- 
rence of  the  malady.  Dr.  Willis,  the  first  physician  who  treated 
lunatics  with  kindness,  asserted  a  recovery  to  be  probable,  though 
it  might  be  delayed  for  some  time.  Both  Pitt  and  Fox  were 
agreed  that  there  must  be  a  regency  during  the  king's  illness,  and 
that  the  Prince  of  Wales  must  be  the  regent.  Fox,  however,  argued 
that  the  prince  had  a  right  to  the  post,  and  therefore  ought  not 
to  be  subjected  to  any  restrictions.  "  I'll  unwhig  the  gentleman 
for  the  rest  of  his  life,"  said  Pitt,  and  argued  that  it  was  for  Par- 
liament to  provide  a  regent.  Pitt  carried  the  day,  and  a  bill  was 
passed  through  both  houses  conferring  the  regency  on  the  prince, 
but  limiting  his  powers  by  VvMthholding  from  him  the  right  of  mak- 
ing peers,  or  of  appointing  to  offices,  unless  the  appointments  were 
revocable  by  the  king  if  he  recovered.  By  this  arrangement,  how- 
ever, the  prince  would  not  be  prevented  from  dismissing  the  existing 
ministry  and  calling  a  new  one  to  office ;  and  everyone  knew  that 
his  first  act  would  be  to  change  the  ministry,  placing  F\^x  in  office 
instead  of  Pitt.  Pitt  himself  knew  that  his  followers  would  go 
over  to  Fox  if  he  were  made  Prime  Minister,  and  as  he  had  amassed 
no  fortune,  declared  his  readiness  to  "  take  his  blue  bag  again  " 
and  practice  as  a  barrister.  The  expected  change,  however,  never 
took  place,  as,  under  the  wise  care  of  Dr.  Willis,  the  king  recovered 
in  the  spring  of  1789,  and  the  Regency  Bill  became  unnecessary. 

When  George  III.  returned  thanks  for  his  recovery  at  St. 
Paul's,  the  enthusiasm  of  the  whole  population  was  unbounded. 
Something  of  this  popularity  was  undoubtedly  owing  to  the  disgust 
which  had  been  caused  by  the  recent  misconduct  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  who  had  heartlessly  jeered  at  the  unhappy  condition  of  his 
father — speaking,  for  instance,  of  the  king  in  a  pack  of  cards  as 
a  lunatic — but  much  of  it  was  the  result  of  genuine  delight  at  the 
king's  recovery.  The  mass  of  people  coukl  a])preciate  his  domestic 
virtues,  and  had  no  reason  to  be  dissatisfied  with  his  policy.     Even 


532  ENGLAND 

*^'''*  1700-1801 

if  he  had  gone  wrong  in  the  matter  of  the  American  War,  he  went 
wrong  in  company  with  the  large  majority  of  his  subjects,  and  for 
the  last  five  years  he  had  reaped  the  benefit  of  the  firm  and  en- 
lightened government  of  Pitt. 

The  country  which  gave  power  to  Pitt  in  1784,  and  which 
sustained  him  in  it  in  1789,  had  changed  much  since  the  beginning 
of  the  century.  Its  population  was  more  numerous,  its  wealth 
greater,  and  its  intellectual  activity  more  widely  spread.  The  popu- 
lation of  England  and  Wales  was  probably  about  5,000,000  in 
1700;  about  6,000,000  in  1750;  and  was  certainly  about  9,000,000 
in  1 80 1.  Such  growing  numbers  could  not  have  been  fed  if  there 
had  not  been  improvements  in  farming  to  give  them  more  food,  and 
improvements  in  manufacture  to  give  them  more  employment. 

Up  to  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  husbandry  had 
been  poor,  and  the  necessity  of  leaving  corn  land  fallow  once  in 
three  years  had  made  the  produce  of  the  soil  scanty.  Lord  Town- 
shend,  after  his  quarrel  with  Walpole,  encouraged,  by  his  example, 
the  cultivation  of  turnips,  and  as  turnips  could  be  planted  in  the 
third  year  in  which  the  ground  had  hitherto  been  left  fallow,  the 
crops  were  largely  increased.  By  degrees  improvements  in  drain- 
ing and  manuring  were  also  introduced. 

In  1755  Bakewell  began  to  improve  the  breed  of  sheep  and 
cattle  by  judicious  crossing.  The  result  was  that,  before  long,  a 
sheep  or  an  ox  produced  tvvice  as  many  pounds  of  meat  as  before, 
and  that  the  meat  was  far  more  tasty.  Improvements  in  agricul- 
ture and  cattle-breeding  were  possible,  because  landowners  were 
wealthy  enough  to  enclose  waste  lands  and  to  make  poor  lands  fit 
for  culture.  In  one  way,  however,  the  changes  effected  were  not 
for  good.  The  small  proprietor,  who  had  hitherto  to  a  great  ex- 
tent kept  himself  free  from  debt  by  the  domestic  manufactures  of 
his  wife  and  daughters,  could  not  afford  to  lay  out  the  money 
needed  for  the  cultivation  of  his  land  in  the  new  fashion,  and  was 
forced  to  sell  it.  Thus  gradually  small  holdings  were  bought  by 
large  landowners,  and  the  work  of  cultivation  fell  almost  entirely 
into  the  hands  of  hired  laborers. 

Trade,  which  had  been  growing  steadily  during  the  first  half 
of  the  century,  received  an  impulse  from  the  invention  of  a  new 
means  of  conveyance.  Goods  had  been  conveyed  either  on  slow 
and  lumbering  wagoiis,  or,  more  often,  on  the  backs  of  pack-horses. 
Such  a  means  of  transport  added  greatly  to  the  price  of  the  goods, 


PITTANDFOX  533 

1761-1779 

and  made  it  almost  impossible  for  an  inland  town  to  compete  in 
foreign  markets  with  one  near  the  sea.  It  happened  that  the  Duke 
of  Bridgewater  owned  a  coal  mine  at  Worsley,  seven  miles  from 
Manchester;  but  hills  intervened,  and  the  expense  of  carting  the 
coal  over  the  seven  miles  was  too  great  to  make  it  worth  his  while 
to  send  the  coal  to  Manchester.  By  advice  of  James  Brindley.  a 
millwright  in  his  service,  a  canal  was  constructed  which  surmounted 
natural  obstacles  by  tunnels  and  aqueducts.  In  1761  the  canal  was 
finished,  and  many  others  were  before  long  made  in  other  parts  of 
the  country. 

In  old  days  the  spinning  of  thread  was  mainly  committed  to 
young  women,  who  were  consequently  known  as  spinsters.  In  the 
Middle  Ages  and  long  afterwards  the  material  spun  was  wool,  and 
Parliament  had  been  so  anxious  to  extend  the  manufacture  of 
woolen  cloth  that  it  even  passed  an  Act  directing  that  all  persons 
should  be  "  buried  in  woolen."  Gradually,  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
calico  came  into  use,  and  in  1738  the  invention  of  Kay's  flying 
shuttle  enabled  the  weavers  to  produce  double  as  much  as  before, 
thus  creating  a  demand  for  cotton  thread  which  all  the  spinners  in 
England  were  unable  to  meet. 

Necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention,  and,  in  order  to  provide 
thread  for  the  weavers,  Hargreaves,  in  1767,  invented  the  spinning- 
jenny,  which  worked  several  spindles  at  once,  and  enabled  a  single 
spinner  to  produce  more  than  a  hundred  threads  at  the  same  time. 
By  this  discovery  many  persons  were  thrown  out  of  work,  as  there 
was  not  a  demand  for  calico  enough  to  occupy  all  the  spinners  who 
at  first  had  been  needed  to  produce  threads  with  their  hands  only. 
Accordingly,  Hargreaves's  neighbors  broke  his  machine  and  obliged 
him  to  fly  for  his  life.  In  the  long  run,  indeed,  Hargreaves's  in- 
vention, like  all  labor-saving  inventions,  would,  by  producing 
cheaply,  create  a  demand  which  would  increase  instead  of  dimin- 
ish the  number  of  laborers  employed  in  tlie  manufactures ;  but  it 
cfjuld  hardly  be  expected  that  uneducated  men,  threatened  with 
starvation,  would  look  so  far  ahead. 

In  1769  Arkwright  took  out  a  patent  for  an  improved  spin- 
ning-machine worked  by  water-power.  He,  too,  became  obnoxious 
to  the  hand-workers,  and  his  mill  was  burned  down  Ijv  a  mob. 
He  was,  however,  determined  to  succeed,  and  was  at  last  allowed  to 
live  in  peace.  A  yet  furtlier  impro\ement  was  made  in  1779, 
when  a  poor  weaver  named  Samuel  Crompton  invented  a  spinning- 


634  ENGLAND 

1779-1785 

machine  known  as  "  the  mule."  When  his  machine  was  finished, 
hearing  that  a  mob  was  collecting  with  the  intention  of  destroying 
it,  he  took  it  to  pieces  and  concealed  it.  When  quiet  was  restored, 
he  put  it  together,  and  began  to  spin.  Manufacturers  came  round 
his  house  and  peeped  through  his  windows  to  discover  his  secret. 
Crompton  had  not  enough  money  to  take  out  a  patent  so  as  to 
secure  the  profits  of  his  invention.  He,  therefore,  told  his  secret, 
on  the  promise  of  the  manufacturers  to  raise  a  subscription  for 
him.  They  subscribed  no  more  than  67/.  6^.  6d.,  and  made  thou- 
sands of  pounds  by  the  work  of  his  brains. 

Before  Hargreaves  invented  the  spinning-jenny,  no  more  cot- 
ton had  been  spun  than  was  required  by  the  weavers.  After 
Crompton  invented  the  "  mule  "  the  weavers  could  not  make  into 
calico  nearly  as  much  thread  as  was  produced.  In  1785  a  clergy- 
man named  Cartwright  patented  a  power-loom,  which,  by  weaving 
by  machinery,  increased  the  number  of  looms  and  thus  kept  the 
spinning  "  mules  "  in  full  work. 

There  were  many  other  inventions  in  different  branches  of 
manufacture;  but  the  most  important  of  all  was  Watt's  steam- 
engine.  For  some  time  steam-engines  had  been  employed  for 
pumping  water  out  of  collieries,  but  they  consumed  much  fuel, 
and  therefore  cost  too  much  to  come  into  general  use.  James 
Watt,  a  mathematical  instrument  maker  in  Glasgow,  discovered  a 
way  of  lessening  the  cost  of  fuel,  and  of  making  the  engine  more 
serviceable  at  the  same  time.  He  entered  into  partnership  with  a 
capitalist  named  Boulton,  and  set  up  works  near  Birmingham.  At 
first  manufacturers  distrusted  the  new  engines,  and  Boulton  and 
Watt  only  succeeded  in  inducing  them  to  buy  by  offering  to  go 
without  payment  if  the  engines  sold  did  not  save  their  cost  in  the 
course  of  a  year.  Before  long  all  manufacturers  were  anxious  to 
get  them.  "  I  sell  here,"  said  Boulton  to  George  HI.,  when  he 
visited  his  works,  "  what  all  the  world  desires — power." 

One  great  result  of  the  invention  of  the  improved  steam- 
engine  was  the  transference  of  population  from  the  south  to  the 
north.  Hitherto  the  north  had  been  poor  and  of  little  weight  in 
the  political  scale.  When  the  north  had  taken  part  in  political 
struggles  it  had  usually  chosen  the  side  ultimately  rejected  by  the 
nation.  It  fought  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VI.  for  the  Lancastrians; 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  for  the  monasteries;  in  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth  for  the  Papacy;  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  for  the  king; 


PITTANDFOX  535 

1785-1789 

in  the  reign  of  George  I.  for  the  Pretender.  Coal,  however, 
existed  in  many  parts  of  the  north ;  the  steam-engine  fohowed  coal, 
manufactures  followed  the  steam-engine,  and  population  followed 
manufactures.  In  Sussex,  for  instance,  there  was  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  a  considerable  population  supported  by  the  manu- 
facture of  iron,  and  it  was  from  this  Sussex  iron  that  the  railings 
round  St.  Paul's  were  made.  By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  however,  the  weald  of  Sussex,  on  which  had  once  stood  the 
forest  which  had  for  some  time  blocked  the  way  of  the  South 
Saxon  conquest,  had  been  denuded  of  its  wood,  in  consequence 
of  the  large  demands  made  by  the  furnaces  for  smelting  iron. 
and  now  the  industry  of  iron  manufacture  moved  entirely  to 
the  north.  At  first,  indeed,  the  transfer  of  laborers  to  the  north 
was  not  followed  by  beneficial  results.  The  crowds  who  gathered 
for  work  were  for  the  most  part  ignorant,  and  always  in  haste 
to  be  rich.  There  was  neglect  of  sanitary  requirements,  and  those 
who  rose  to  be  masters  often  wore  away  the  lives  of  their  work- 
men. As  yet,  law  did  not  interfere  to  protect  the  weak  from 
excessive  labor,  or  to  guard  against  the  frequent  occurrence  of 
preventable  accidents.  It  was  as  though  a  new  world  had  opened 
in  the  north,  of  which  Parliament  knew  so  little  that  it  neither 
desired  to  regulate  it  nor  even   thought  of  making  the  attempt. 

But  the  growth  of  the  factory  system  as  opposed  to  the  do- 
mestic system  has  always  been  marked  by  growth  in  civilization, 
and  its  abuses,  while  great,  have  in  nowise  outweighed  the  dis- 
tinct advantage  to  the  v/orker.  The  unsanitary  conditions  which 
years  later  called  so  loudly  for  improvement,  resulting  in  the  Eight 
Hours  agitation  and  laws  regulating  the  labor  of  women  and 
children,  had  had  their  evil  counterpart  in  the  crowded  homes  of 
the  workers  under  the  domestic  system,  where  wheels  and  looms 
disputed  accommodations,  and  crowded  quarters,  bad  air,  and  bad 
surroundings  in  the  individual  huts  could  have  been  no  more  con- 
ducive to  moral  and  physical  welfare.  The  great  pauper  class  in 
Great  Britain's  agricultural  districts  at  one  time  called  for  one- 
fourth  the  annual  budget  for  its  support.  It  was  an  evil  which 
neither  legislation  nor  philanthropy  seemed  able  to  check.  By  the 
invention  of  the  cotton  manufactures  and  increase  of  factory  dis- 
tricts many  of  the  paupers  as  well  as  the  peasants  were  absorbed, 
and  from  this  time  is  traced  the  pauper  evil's  decline. 

Moreover,  the  lifting  of  the  poor  and  ignorant  laborer  of  the 


536  ENGLAND 

southern  agricultural  districts  to  self-supporting  employment  in 
the  North  brought  with  it  increase  of  self-respect,  a  fact  of  enor- 
mous importance  in  any  sociological  consideration.  The  mental 
friction  of  the  factory  cannot  be  denied ;  neither  can  it  be  reasonably 
claimed  that  the  minds  and  skill  of  the  workers  have  been  dwarfed, 
or  that  factory  labor  has  degraded  the  skilled  individual  worker. 
With  the  many  evils  of  the  system,  a  just  view  of  the  economic  and 
sociological  advance  to  which  it  has  so  largely  contributed  must 
invariably  be  taken. 


PART  X 

THE  CONFLICT  WITH  DEMOCRACY 

1789—1827 


Chapter  LI 

ENGLAND  AND  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.     1789— 1795 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  George  III.,  A.D.  1760-1820 — Meeting  of  the  States- 
General  AT  Versailles,  May  5,  1789 — Declaration  of  War  Betw-een 
France  and  the  King  of  Hungary  and  His  Allies,  April  20,  1792 — 
Proclamation  of  the  French  Republic,  Sept.  22,  1792 — Execution  of 
Louis  XVI.,  Jan.  21,  1793 — Declaration  of  War  Between  France 
and  England,  Feb.  i,  1793 — Battle  of  the  First  of  June,  June  i, 
1794 — End  of  the  Reign  of  Terror,  July  28,  1794 — Establishment 
of  the  Directory,  Oct.  27,  1795 

THE  spread  of  manufacturing  industry  did  much  to 
strengthen  Pitt's  government,  because  the  weahhy  manu- 
facturers were  jealous  of  the  landed  aristocracy,  and, 
therefore,  supported  him  against  the  great  Whig  families.  In  the 
beginning  of  1789  there  seemed  to  be  every  prospect  that  Pitt's 
tenure  of  office  would  continue  to  be  distinguished  by  a  long  series 
of  gradual  reforms,  carried  out  just  so  far  as  Pitt  could  induce 
the  nation  to  follow  him.  Before  long,  however,  events  took  place 
in  France  which  shocked  the  English  nation,  and  produced  a  temper 
hostile  to  reform. 

The  form  of  government  in  France  had  long  been  an  absolute 
monarchy;  the  nobles  had  no  political  power,  but  had  privileges 
injurious  to  the  rest  of  the  community,  and  were  accordingly  hated. 
Voltaire  and  Rousseau  had  prepared  the  minds  of  the  people.  The 
weak  king,  Louis  XVI.,  finding  himself  bankrupt  and  helpless,  sum- 
moned the  States  General  in  1789,  a  body  something  like  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament,  but  which  had  not  met  for  a  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  years.  When  it  came  together  the  Third  Estate  resolved  itself 
into  the  National  Assembly,  assumed  the  right  of  making  a  consti- 
tution, and  swept  away  all  the  special  privileges  of  the  two  privi- 
leged orders,  nobles  and  clergy,  forming  the  first  two  estates. 

At  first  the  Revolution  in  France  was  generally  welcomed  in 
England.  Englishmen  thouglit  that  they  had  before  them  a  mere 
repetition  of  the  English  Revolution  of  1688,  and  that  a  Parlia- 

539 


540  ENGLAND 

1789-1791 

mentary  Government  was  about  to  be  set  up  in  France  similar  to 
that  which  existed  in  England.  It  w^as  a  complete  mistake.  The 
English  Revolution  had  been  directed  to  limit  the  power  of  the 
king.  The  French  Revolution  was  directed  to  overthrow  the 
privileges  of  an  aristocracy. 

In  England  each  of  the  great  statesmen  then  living  had  his 
own  way  of  regarding  the  events  passing  in  France.  Fox,  en- 
thusiastic and  impulsive,  gave  to  the  Revolution  unstinted  praise. 
"  How  much,"  he  wrote,  on  hearing  of  the  capture  of  the  Bastille, 
"  the  greatest  event  it  is  that  ever  happened  in  the  world ;  and  how 
much  the  best !  "  Burke,  on  the  other  hand,  regarded  with  dis- 
favor, soon  passing  into  hatred,  the  destruction  of  old  institutions 
and  the  foundation  of  new  ones  on  general  principles.  Being  un- 
able to  perceive  how  impossible  it  was,  in  the  existing  circumstances 
of  France,  to  found  a  government  on  those  old  institutions  which 
had  so  completely  broken  down,  he  reviled  the  National  Assembly 
with  all  the  wealth  of  argument  and  rhetoric  at  his  command. 
Towards  the  end  of  1790  he  published  his  "  Reflections  on  the 
French  Revolution,"  in  which  he  pointed  out,  with  great  sagacity, 
the  danger  of  all  attempts  to  alter  suddenly  the  habits  and  insti- 
tutions of  nations,  though  he  failed  entirely  to  suggest  any  practi- 
cable remedy  for  the  evils  which  existed  in  France.  On  May  6, 
1 79 1,  there  was  a  complete  breach  between  him  and  Fox.  His 
dying  words,  he  said,  would  be.  "  Fly  from  the  French  Revo- 
lution !  "  Pitt  agreed  with  Burke  rather  than  with  Fox ;  but  he 
held  that  his  business  was  to  govern  England  rather  than  to  de- 
nounce France,  and  lie  contented  himself  with  hoping  that  the 
disorders  in  France,  l)y  weakening  that  country  for  a  long  time, 
wrnild  make  the  preservation  f)f  peace  easier. 

Cautions  as  Pitt  was.  he  shared  in  some  of  the  generous  hopes 
which  fille<l  the  mind  of  I' ox.  In  1772  Lord  Mansfield  laid  down 
tlic  law  tb.at  a  slave  imported  into  England  becomes  free;  but  the 
merchants  ot  Bristol  and  Liverpool  were  at  this  time  carrying  some 
iiity  thousanrl  negroes  a  year  to  slavery  in  the  West  Indies.  On 
their  way  across  the  Atlantic  the  poor  wretches  suffered  horrible 
torments,  so  that  large  numbers  died  on  the  way.  In  1783  a  young 
man  named  CJarksrm  gained  a  prize  at  Cambridge  for  an  essay 
on  the  (juc^tion  whether  it  was  right  to  make  slaves  of  others,  and 
resolved  tr)  devote  his  life  to  tlie  abolition  of  the  slave  trade.  In 
1788  he  won  to  Ins  sick'  some  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends. 


FRENCH    REVOLUTION  541 

1788-1793 

and  published  the  evidence  which  he  had  gathered.  Wilberforce, 
the  member  for  Yorkshire,  one  of  the  most  pious  and  disinterested 
of  men,  took  up  the  cause,  and  Wilberforce  influenced  Pitt. 

In  1788  a  bill  was  brought  in  by  which  means  were  to  be 
taken  for  improving  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  vessels  carrying 
slaves.  The  bill  passed  the  Commons,  but  the  Lords  so  changed 
it  as  to  make  it  useless.  In  1789  and  1790  Wilberforce  urged  the 
Commons  to  abolish  the  wicked  slave  trade  entirely,  and  in  1792 
Pitt  spoke  vehemently  in  support  of  the  proposal,  but  the  House 
of  Commons  refused  to  accept  it.  The  men  of  property  of  whom 
it  was  composed  thought  that  the  first  duty  of  legislators  was  to 
protect  property,  whether  it  was  property  in  human  beings  or 
in  houses  and  goods. 

In  September,  1791,  the  National  Assembly  in  France  finished 
its  work  on  the  constitution  and  the  Legislative  Assembly.  i\Iany 
causes  contributed  to  create  a  warlike  feeling.  The  French  nobles, 
or  emigres,  who  had  left  the  country,  and  the  anti-monarchists  in 
the  Assembly  wanted  war,  and  on  April  20,  1792,  it  was  declared 
against  Austria  and  her  allies.  Burke  would  have  gladly  seen  Eng- 
land allying  itself  with  Austria  and  Prussia  in  the  work  of  crushing 
French  revolutionary  principles.  Pitt  refused  to  depart  from  his 
policy  of  peace.  The  allies  invaded  France,  and  after  a  course 
marked  by  vacillation  on  the  king's  part,  and  massacres  by  the 
leaders  of  the  mob,  the  king  was  deposed  and  a  republic  declared. 
The  September  massacres  made  Pitt's  policy  of  peace  almost  hope- 
less, by  the  shock  which  they  gave  to  English  public  opinion.  The 
subsequent  proceedings  of  the  French  Revolutionists  drove  Pitt 
himself  into  a  policy  of  war.  A\'hile  the  feelings  on  both  sides 
were  growing  in  hostility,  the  French  Convention  condemned  Louis 
XVI.  to  death,  and,  on  January  21.  1793,  sent  him  to  the  scaffold. 
A  thrill  of  horror  ran  through  England,  and  on  February  i  the 
Convention,  knowing  that  peace  could  not  be  maintained,  and  being- 
resolved  to  pursue  its  attack  on  the  Dutch  Republic,  took  the 
initiative  in  declaring  war  against  England  and  the  Dutch. 

When  the  campaign  of  1793  opened,  a  comljined  army  of 
Austrians  and  Prussians,  advancing  in  overwhelming  numbers, 
drove  the  French  out  of  the  Austrian  Netherlands.  A  force  of 
10,000  British  soldiers,  under  the  king's  second  son,  the  Duke  of 
York,  joined  the  victorious  allies.  At  Paris  a  party  known  as 
that  of  the  Jacobins  rose  to  power.     In  July  France  was  in  des- 


542  ENGLAND 

1793 

perate  case.  The  Jacobins  had  to  deal  with  insurrection  at  home 
as  well  as  with  invasion  from  abroad.  They  met  foreign  and 
domestic  enemies  on  the  one  hand  by  calling  to  arms  all  the  patri- 
otic youth  of  the  country,  and  on  the  other  hand  by  a  savage 
system  of  executions  by  the  guillotine.  The  Reign  of  Terror,  as 
it  is  called,  began  with  the  execution  of  the  queen,  on  October  i6. 
For  months  afterwards  blood — for  the  most  part  innocent  blood — 
was  mercilessly  shed  on  the  scaffold. 

It  was  not  the  Reign  of  Terror,  but  the  devotion  of  her  sons, 
which  saved  France.  Moreover,  these  were  successes  due  as  much 
to  the  divisions  of  the  allies  as  to  French  valor  and  conduct.  Pitt's 
mistake  had  been  in  thinking  that  he  could  take  part  in  a  great  strug- 
gle of  principles  as  though  it  were  merely  a  struggle  for  the  proper 
delimitation  of  states.  The  French  had  on  their  side  enthusiasm, 
not  only  for  their  country,  but  for  their  own  conception  of  the  wel- 
fare of  humanity.  The  Governments  of  Prussia  and  Austria  had 
no  enthusiasm  for  the  old  order  of  things  which  they  professed  to 
support.  Even  Pitt  himself  was  an  example  of  the  impossibility 
of  treating  the  danger  from  France  as  merely  territorial.  Seeing 
clearly  the  evil  of  the  French  aggression  and  the  cruelty  of  the 
Reign  of  Terror,  he  grew  to  hate  the  French  revolutionary  spirit 
almost  as  strongly  as  Burke.  It  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at  that 
it  was  so.  The  tyranny  of  the  Reign  of  Terror  became  worse  and 
worse.     The  dominant  parties  turned  upon  one  another. 

In  his  growing  detestation  of  these  horrors  Pitt  was  sup- 
ported by  the  great  mass  of  Englishmen.  In  1792  he  refused  to 
accept  a  proposal  for  Parliamentary  reform,  urged  in  the  House 
of  Commons  by  a  young  member,  ^Ir.  Grey,  on  the  ground  that 
it  was  not  a  fitting  time  to  alter  the  Constitution.  In  1793  he  was 
friglit^encd  lest  the  French  revolutionary  spirit  should  find  its  way 
nUo  England,  because  a  certain  number  of  persons,  regretting  their 
exclusion  fiv.m  all  part  in  parliamentary  elections,  joined  clubs 
which  loudly  expressed  their  sympathy  with  the  French  innova- 
tions. 1  he  danger  from  such  clubs  was  excessively  small,  but 
Pitt  and  well-nigh  the  whole  of  the  propertied  classes  dreaded  the 
establishment  of  a  reign  of  violence  in  England.  In  the  bednnino- 
ot  1793  an^  Act  was  passed  authorizing  the  Government  to  remove 
suspected  foreigners,  and  late  in  the  year  a  Treasonable  Cor- 
respondence Act  was  passed  to  thnnv 'obstacles  in  the  way  of 
persons  seeking  u,  give  assistance  to  the  French,  with  whom  Eng- 


FRENCH    REVOLUTION  543 

1793-1794 

land  was  by  that  time  at  war.  No  exception  can  be  taken  to  these 
measures.  It  was,  however,  unjustifiable  that  the  Government, 
fully  supported  by  judges  and  juries,  should  authorize  not  only  the 
prosecution,  but  the  harshest  punishment  of  persons  guilty  merely 
of  using  strong  language  against  the  king  or  the  institutions  of 
the  realm.  Among  the  sufferers  was  a  bill-sticker  who  was 
imprisoned  for  six  months  for  posting  up  an  address  asking  for 
Parliamentary  reform,  and  a  man  named  Hudson,  who  was  sen- 
tenced to  a  fine  of  200/.  and  two  years'  imprisonment  for  proposing 
a  toast  to  "  The  French  Republic."  In  Scotland  Thomas  Muir  was 
sent  to  transportation  for  fourteen  years  for  exciting  to  sedition 
and  joining  an  association  for  obtaining  universal  suffrage  and 
annual  parliaments.  "  The  landed  interest,"  said  the  judge  who 
tried  the  case,  "  alone  has  a  right  to  be  represented;  the  rabble  has 
nothing  but  personal  property;  and  what  hold  has  the  nation  on 
them?" 

On  July  28  the  Reign  of  Terror  in  France  came  suddenly 
to  an  end  by  the  execution  of  Robespierre.  The  course  of  the  war 
in  the  spring  of  1794  had  been  wholly  in  favor  of  France  on  land, 
and  on  June  26  a  great  French  victory  over  the  Austrians  at 
Fleurus  was  followed  by  the  complete  evacuation  of  the  Austrian 
Netherlands  by  the  allies.  It  was  little  to  counterbalance  this  that 
Lord  Howe  gained  a  victory,  usually  known  as  the  Battle  of  the 
First  of  June,  over  a  French  fleet  near  the  mouth  of  the  Channel. 
France  was  no  longer  in  danger,  and  France  being  safe,  it  was 
impossible  for  the  Terrorists  again  to  acquire  control  over  the 
Government. 

In  England  one  effect  of  the  Reign  of  Terror  had  been  to 
sweep  away  the  differences  betwen  Pitt  and  the  majority  of  the 
Whigs.  Following  Burke,  the  latter  had  for  some  time  been  vot- 
ing with  Pitt,  and  in  1794  their  leaders,  the  Duke  of  Portland, 
Lord  Fitzwilliam,  and  Mr.  Windham,  entered  Pitt's  Cabinet.  k\ix 
and  Grey  with  a  scanty  following  continued  in  opposition,  partly 
because,  though  they  loathed  the  bloody  scenes  in  l^-ance,  they 
thought  that  England  ought  to  remain  at  peace;  partly  because 
they  held  that  the  best  way  to  meet  French  revolutionary  ideas  in 
England  was  to  push  on  internal  reforms.  Before  the  end  of  the 
year  the  violent  proceedings  in  the  English  law-courts  received  a 
check  by  the  refusal  of  juries  to  convict  Home  Tooke.  Hardy,  and 
Thelwall,  who  were  accused  of  seditious  practices.     They  were  no 


544  ENGLAND 

1794-1795 

doubt  acquitted  because  ordinary  Englishmen  resumed  their  usual 
habit  of  distrusting  government  interference,  as  soon  as  the  irrita- 
tion caused  by  the  Reign  of  Terror  was  at  an  end.  Pitt  failed  to 
appreciate  the  real  difficulties  of  the  war  on  which  he  had  embarked. 
In  spite  of  all  the  atrocities  of  the  Terror,  the  feeling  in  France 
was  so  strong  against  any  reaction  in  favor  of  the  old  nobility  that 
there  was  not  the  slightest  chance  of  overthrowing  the  Republican 
government  by  giving  aid  to  the  French  emigrants.  The  Count  of 
Puisaye,  an  emigrant  royalist,  persuaded  Pitt  to  disembark  him  and 
a  number  of  other  emigrants  in  Quiberon  Bay,  in  the  belief  that 
the  country  round  would  take  up  the  royalist  cause.  The  expedition 
ended  in  failure.  In  October,  1795.  a  new  constitution  was  estab- 
lished by  the  Convention.  The  legislature  consisted  of  two  coun- 
cils, and  the  executive  of  a  body  of  five  Directors.  The  violent 
stage  of  the  French  Revolution  had  come  to  an  end,  and  there 
were  many  in  England  who  thought  that  it  would  be  desirable 
to  make  peace  with  a  government  which  gave  some  hopes  of 
moderation  and  stability,  especially  as  the  burden  of  the  war  had 
given  rise  to  grave  discontent  in  England.  When  George  III. 
drove  through  the  streets  on  October  29  to  open  Parliament  he 
was  surrounded  by  a  hooting  mob.  A  bullet  pierced  one  of  his 
carriage  v/indows. 

Pitt  could  see  nothing  but  revolutionary  violence  in  this  out- 
burst. He  carried  through  Parliament  two  bills,  one  declaring 
the  mere  writing,  preaching,  or  speaking  words  against  the  king's 
authority  to  be  treason,  and  the  stirring  up  hatred  against  the 
king's  person  or  the  established  government  and  constitution  to  be 
a  punishable  misdemeanor;  the  other  forbidding  all  political  meet- 
ings unless  advertised  beforehand,  and  permitting  any  two  justices 
to  disperse  them  if  they  th.ought  them  dangerous.  Against  these 
bills  hex  spoke  with  extreme  vehemence;  but  Pitt's  supporters  did 
him  more  liarm  than  his  opponents.  "  The  people,"  said  Bishop 
Horslcy,  "had  nothing  to  do  with  the  laws  but  to  obey  them." 
Ihc  two  bills  became  law,  but  public  feeling  was  so  set  against 
them  that  they  were  never  put  into  operation. 


Chaptei    LII 

THE    UNION    WITH    IRELAND   AND   TROUBLE 
WITH   FRANCE.     1795— 1804 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  George  III.,  A.D.  1760-1820 — Lord  Fitzwilliam  in  Ireland, 
1795 — Pitt's  First  Negotiation  with  the  Directory,  1796 — Battles 
OF  St.  Vincent  and  Camperdovvn,  1796 — Pitt's  Second  Negotiation 
with  the  Directory,  1797 — The  Battle  of  the  Nile,  1798 — The 
Irish  Union,  1800 — Pitt  Succeeded  ey  Addington,  1801 — Peace  of 
Amiens,  March  28,  1802 — Rupture  of  the  Treaty  of  Amiens,  1803 — 
Resignation  of  Addington,  May  io,  1804 

IN  1785,  when  Pitt  was  aiming-  at  a  cominercial  union  with 
Ireland,  he  had  expressed  a  desire  to  make  "  England  and 
Ireland  one  country  in  effect,  though  for  local  concerns  under 
distinct  legislatures."  The  difficulty,  however,  lay  in  the  unfit- 
ness of  the  Parliament  at  Dublin  to  play  the  part  of  a  legislature. 
It  was  not  representative  of  the  people,  for  the  Catholics  were  ex- 
cluded, nor  even  of  the  remaining  Protestants,  and  it  was  unusually 
corrupt.  Nowhere  were  the  objections  to  this  state  of  things 
felt  more  strongly  than  among  the  Presbyterians  of  Ulster,  and  in 
October,  1791,  the  Society  of  United  Irishmen  was  founded  at  Bel- 
fast by  Wolfe  Tone,  himself  a  Presbyterian.  Its  object  was  to 
unite  Catholics  and  Protestants  by  widening  the  franchise  and  by 
opening  office  and  Parliament  to  all  without  distinction  of  creed. 
Pitt  took  alarm,  but  the  reforms  gained  were  illusor}^  Lord  Fitz- 
william was  sent  to  Ireland  as  Lord-Lieutenant,  but  although  he 
was  favorable  to  the  Catholics,  the  Irish  office-holders  persuaded 
the  king  that  his  ministers,  in  favoring  Catholic  emancipation,  were 
leading  him  to  a  breach  of  tlie  oath  which  he  had  taken  at  his 
coronation  to  defend  the  Protestant  religion,  and  the  king  gave 
Pitt  to  understand  that  he  would  never  consen.t  to  such  a  measure. 
Pitt  under  pressure  at  home  recalled  Fitzwilliam,  and  began  to 
look  for  the  best  remedy  for  Irish  difticulties  in  the  constitution  of 
a  common  Parliament  for  the  two  countries,  as  tliere  iiad  been  a 
common  Parliament  for  England  and  Scotland  since   1707.     The 


546  ENGLAND 

1791-1797 

evils  were  too  provocative  to  remain  long  unassailed.  A  bill  for 
Catholic  Emancipation  was  rejected,  Lord  Fitzwilliam's  recall  was 
followed  by  an  outburst  of  violence,  the  payment  of  tithes  weighed 
heavy,  the  subletting  of  land  made  rents  exhorbitant,  and  in  the 
lower  classes  the  bitterness  of  religious  animosity  had  never  been 
extinguished  and  blazed  up  into  fierce  hatred.  Violence  and 
illegality  appeared  on  both  sides.  The  United  Irishmen  took  up 
the  cause  of  the  Catholics,  and  early  in  1796  sent  Wolfe  Tone  to 
France  to  urge  the  Directory  to  invade  Ireland  and  to  establish  a 
republic. 

On  October  22,  1796,  a  British  ambassador,  Lord  Malmes- 
bury,  reached  Paris  to  negotiate  a  peace.  He  asked  that  France 
should  abandon  the  Austrian  Netherlands,  and  should  withdraw 
from  Italy.  As  Pitt  ought  to  have  foreseen,  if  he  did  not  actually 
foresee,  the  Directory  repelled  such  overtures  with  scorn.  Believ- 
ing that  they  had  England  at  their  mercy,  they  struck  at  Ireland. 
On  December  17  a  great  fleet  carrying  an  army  of  20,000  men 
sailed  from  Brest  under  the  command  of  Hoche,  one  of  the  ablest 
of  the  French  generals,  who  had  set  his  heart  on  winning  Ireland 
from  the  English.  It  was,  however,  dispersed  at  sea,  and  only 
some  of  its  vessels  reached  Bantry  Bay,  out  of  which  they  were 
driven  by  a  violent  storm  before  a  landing  could  be  effected.  The 
most  satisfactory  thing  about  this  expedition,  from  the  British 
point  of  view,  was  that  the  Irish  themselves  had  shown  no  signs 
of  welcoming  the  invaders. 

Pitt  was  too  exclusively  an  English  minister  to  appreciate  the 
real  state  of  things  either  in  Ireland  or  on  the  Continent.  His 
treatment  of  Ireland  was  not  such  as  to  secure  the  internal  peace 
of  that  country,  and  his  treatment  of  France  gave  him  neither 
peace  nor  vict(M-y.  His  main  support  lay  in  the  extraordinary 
financial  resources  supplied  by  ihe  rapidly  increasing  manufactures 
of  England.  Yet  even  on  this  ground  he  did  not  escape  difficulties. 
In  addition  to  the  military  and  naval  expenses  incurred  by  his  own 
country,  lie  spent  large  sums  upon  its  allies,  and  in  the  year  1796 
sent  no  less  tiian  4.000,000/.  to  Austria.  Early  in  1797  the  Bank 
of  luigl.-iiKl  ran  short  of  g.ild,  and  was  authorized  by  the  Govern- 
ment, anrl  sul)scf|uenlly  Iry-  Parliament,  to  suspend  cash  payments. 
1-or  t\vent_\-h)ur  years  banknotes  passed  from  hand  to  hand,  though 
those  wl;.)  Im.  ,k  them  knew  that  it  would  be  a  long  time  before  the 
Bank  would  he  again  able  to  exchange  them  for  gold. 


I/IRII  IKiRATKj  NKr.SdX 
(Ttcrn  i7?S.  Die, I  iS^O 
Paiiitii:s    hv    L.    F.    ,]'•'.  ':!: 


IRELAND    AND    FRANCE  547 

1797 

Success  in  Italy  emboldened  France  in  1797  to  attempt  a  great 
naval  attack  on  Great  Britain.  The  Batavian  Republic — by  which 
title  the  Dutch  Netherlands  were  now  known — had  since  1795  been 
a  dependent  ally  of  France,  and  since  October  6,  1796,  France  had 
been  allied  with  Spain.  If  the  French  and  Spanish  fleets  could 
effect  a  junction,  they  would  be  able  to  bring  an  overwhelming 
force  into  the  English  Channel,  while  the  Dutch  fleet  was  to  be 
employed  to  convey  to  Ireland  an  army  of  14,000  men.  To  pre- 
vent this.  Admiral  Sir  John  Jervis,  on  February  16,  attacked  the 
Spanish  fleet  off  Cape  St.  Vincent.  His  ships  were  fewer  and 
smaller  than  those  of  the  Spaniards,  but  they  were  better  equipped 
and  better  manned.  Commodore  Nelson,  disobeying  orders, 
dashed  with  his  own  and  one  other  ship  into  the  midst  of  the 
enemy's  fleet.  Two  other  ships  followed  him  after  a  while,  but 
still  the  chances  of  war  seemed  to  be  against  him.  Yet  he 
boarded  and  captured,  first  the  San  Nicolas  of  80  guns,  and  then 
the  San  Josef,  the  flagship  of  the  Spanish  admiral,  of  112.  As 
the  swords  of  the  Spanish  officers  who  surrendered  were  too  many 
for  him  to  hold,  he  gave  them  to  one  of  his  bargemen,  who  coolly 
tucked  them  in  a  bundle  under  his  arm.  Jervis  was  made  Earl 
St.  Vincent  for  the  victory;  but  he  was  so  nettled  at  Nelson's  dis- 
obedience that  he  did  not  mention  his  name  in  the  dispatch  which 
was  published  in  the  Gazette.  Nearer  home  the  main  business 
of  the  British  fleet  was  to  prevent  a  junction  between  the  French 
and  the  Dutch.  Admiral  Duncan  was  sent  to  blockade  the  Dutch 
in  the  Texel,  while  Lord  Bridport,  at  the  head  of  the  fleet  at  Spit- 
head,  was  expected  to  look  after  the  French. 

The  plans  of  the  Government  were  nearly  upset  by  an  unex- 
pected mutiny  in  the  fleet.  The  sailors  were  paid  at  a  rate  settled 
in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  though  the  price  of  clothes  and  pro- 
visions had  risen  considerably.  They  were  badly  fed,  and  when 
they  were  sick  or  even  wounded  their  pay  was  stopped.  Order 
was  kept  by  constant  flogging,  often  administered  for  slight 
offenses.  The  sailors  at  Spithead  finding,  after  petitioning  the 
Admiralty  for  redress  of  grie\'ances,  that  no  notice  was  taken  of 
their  petition,  refused  to  go  to  sea.  On  this  the  Lords  of  the 
Admiralty  instructed  Lord  Howe  to  assure  tlicm  that  justice  should 
be  done.  Howe  was  a  favorite  among  them,  and  they  agreed  to 
return  to  their  duty.  A  short  while  afterwards,  suspecting  the 
Admiralty  of  a  design  to  break  the  promise  given  to  them,  they 


548  ENGLAND 

1797 

again  broke  out  into  mutiny;  but  subsequently  abandoned  their 
hostile  attitude  on  discovering  that  the  Admirahy  had  no  intention 
of  deahng  unfairly  with  them. 

A  more  serious  mutiny  broke  out  in  the  fleet  stationed  at  the 
Nore  to  guard  the  mouth  of  the  Thames,  where  the  sailors  asked 
not  merely  to  have  actual  grievances  redressed,  but  to  vote  on  the 
movements  of  their  own  ships  even  in  the  presence  of  an  enemy, 
and  blockaded  the  mouth  of  the  Thames  to  enforce  their  demands. 
The  mutiny  spread  to  Duncan's  ships  off  the  Texel,  the  greater 
number  of  which  sailed  to  join  the  fleet  at  the  Nore.  At  one  time 
Duncan  was  left  to  blockade  the  Dutch  with  only  one  ship  besides 
his  own.  With  this  one  ship  he  kept  the  Dutch  in  port,  by  con- 
stantly running  up  flags  to  make  them  think  that  he  was  signaling  to 
the  rest  of  his  fleet,  which  they  imagined  to  be  just  out  of  sight. 
In  the  meanwhile  the  Government  at  home  got  the  better  of  the 
mutineers.  Parker,  the  chief  leader  of  the  revolt,  was  hanged, 
with  seventeen  others,  and  the  crews  submitted  to  their  ofiicers  and 
did  good  service  afterwards. 

Soon  after  the  submission  of  the  fleet  at  the  Nore  Pitt  made 
one  more  effort  to  obtain  peace.  Negotiations  were  held  at  Lille, 
but  they  broke  down  as  completelv  as  the  negotiations  in  the  pre- 
ceding year.  Austria  had  alreadv  signed  preliminaries  of  peace 
with  France  at  Leoben,  and  as  Austria  then  engaged  to  abandon 
its  possessions  in  the  Netherlands.  Pitt  agreed  to  leave  them  under 
French  dominion.  He  was  also  prepared  to  surrender  some  West 
Indian  islands  which  British  fleets  had  conquered  from  France,  but 
he  would  not  give  up  Trinidad,  v/hich  tliey  had  taken  from  Spain, 
or  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  which  thev  had  taken  from  the  Dutch. 
On  his  refusal  the  negotiations  were  Ijroken  oft'  by  the  Directory. 
England  had  the  mastery  by  sea.  and  France  by  land.  On  October 
II  Duncan  defeated  tlie  Dutch  fleet  oft'  Camperdown.  on  the  coast 
of  Hollar.d.  tlms  putting  an  end  to  the  projected  invasion  of 
Ireland:  and  on  October  iS  Bonaparte  signed  peace  with  Austria 
at  Campo-Formio. 

When  Bonaparte  returned  to  France  the  Directory  urged  him 
to  conquer  England,  but  he  preferred  to  go  to  Egypt.  He  hoped 
by  the  conquest  of  Egypt  to  found  an  empire  in  the  East,  from 
which  he  could  hold  out  a  hand  to  the  native  rulers  of  Endia  who 
were  struggling  against  British  autliorlty.  On  I\Iay  19.  1798. 
Bonaparte  with  a  large  fleet  and  army  sailed  from  Toulon,  seizing 


IRELAND    AND    FRANCE  549 

1798-1800 

Malta  on  his  way  from  the  Knights  of  St.  John.  On  his  arrival  in 
Egypt  he  marched  against  the  Mamelukes,  defeating  them  at  the 
Battle  of  the  Pyramids. 

On  August  I  Nelson — now  an  admiral — found  the  French 
fleet  which  had  conveyed  Bonaparte  anchored  in  Aboukir  Bay. 
Instead  of  following  the  old  fashion  of  fighting  in  which  the  hostile 
fleets  engaged  one  another  in  parallel  lines,  he  improved  upon  the 
example  of  breaking  the  line  set  by  Rodney  in  1782.  Sending 
half  his  fleet  through  the  middle  of  the  enemy's  line,  he  made  it 
take  up  a  position  between  half  of  the  French  ships  and  the  shore, 
while  the  other  half  of  his  own  ships  placed  themselves  outside  the 
same  part  of  the  enemy's  line.  He  thus  crushed  part  of  the 
enemy's  fleet  by  placing  it  between  two  fires  before  the  other  part 
had  time  to  weigh  anchor  and  to  come  up.  The  battle  raged  far 
into  the  night.  Nelson  himself  was  wounded,  and  carried  below. 
A  surgeon  ran  up  to  attend  on  him.  "  No,"  he  said,  "  I  will  take 
my  turn  with  my  brave  fellows."  Before  long  he  heard  a  cry  that 
the  French  admiral's  ship  was  on  fire.  Hurrying  on  deck,  he  gave 
orders  to  send  boats  to  help  the  French  who  threw  themselves  into 
the  sea  to  escape  the  flames.  The  Battle  of  the  Nile  ended  in  a 
complete  British  victory,  which,  by  cutting  off  Bonaparte's  army 
from  France,  threw  insuperable  difficulties  in  the  way  of  his  scheme 
for  the  establishment  of  a  French  empire  in  the  East. 

Bonaparte,  however,  refused  to  abandon  the  hopes  which  he 
had  formed.  So  startling  was  the  news  he  heard  that  on  August 
22,  1799,  he  sailed  for  France,  leaving  his  army  in  Egypt  to  its  fate. 
What  Bonaparte  learned  from  the  newspapers  was  that  a  new 
coaliton  had  been  formed  against  France,  this  time  between  Eng- 
land, Austria  and  Russia.  When  Bonaparte  landed  in  France  he 
made  himself  master  of  the  country  by  military  violence,  on  the 
plea  that  it  was  necessary  to  revise  the  Constitution.  In  1800  he 
was  named  First  Consul,  under  which  title  he  exercised  absolute 
authority,  though  he  was  still  nominally  only  the  first  magistrate 
of  the  Republic.  The  French  armies  in  Germany  had  been  driven 
across  the  Rhine,  and  those  in  Italy  had  been  beaten  in  two  great 
battles. 

One  of  Bonaparte's  first  acts  after  thrusting  the  Directory 
from  power  was  to  offer  peace  to  England,  but  his  oiTer  was 
repelled  vvilh  scorn.  Lord  Grenville,  the  Foreign  Secretary,  in  his 
reply,  even  went  so  far  as  to  suggest  that  the  best  security  which 


550  ENGLAND 

1798-1800 

the  French  could  give  for  peace  was  the  recalhng  of  the  Bourbons 
to  the  throne.  Yet,  whatever  the  Government  might  say,  the 
country  longed  for  peace.  In  1798  Pitt  had  added  to  its  burdens 
an  income-tax  of  10  per  cent.,  and  if  the  war  was  to  go  on  till 
the  Bourbons  were  recalled  the  prospect  before  the  nation  was 
indeed  dreary. 

At  the  end  of  1799  Pitt  cherished  the  hope  that  the  recent 
successes  of  the  coalition  against  France  would  be  continued.  In 
1800  this  hope  was  dashed  to  the  ground.  The  Coalition  itself 
broke  up.  Russia  withdrew  and  Austria  was  disastrously  defeated 
and  sued  for  peace.  The  cry  for  peace  increased  in  England. 
The  harvest  of  1800  was  a  bad  one,  and  in  that  year  in  the  follow- 
ing spring  the  price  of  corn  rose  till  it  reached  156.?.  a  quarter.  If 
peace  was  to  be  had,  Pitt  was  hardly  the  man  to  negotiate  it,  as  he 
was  regarded  in  France  as  the  most  violent  enemy  of  that  country, 
where  every  evil  from  which  it  suffered  was  popularly  attributed 
to  "  the  gold  of  Pitt."  It  happened,  however,  that  before  any  fresh 
negotiation  was  opened,  Pitt  resigned  office  from  causes  entirely 
disconnected  with  the  affairs  of  the  Continent. 

Hoche's  failure  in  1797  had  not  been  followed  by  any  abate- 
ment of  violence  in  Ireland.  The  so-called  Protestant  militia  and 
yeomanry,  under  pretense  of  repressing  insurrection  and  outrage, 
themselves  committed  outrages  with  impunity,  and  the  regular 
soldiers  even  learned  to  follow  their  evil  example.  The  Catholics 
subject  to  outrage  joined  the  Society  of  United  Irishmen  in  thou- 
sands, and  the  United  Irishmen  at  once  made  preparations  for  an 
insurrection.  The  secret  was  betrayed  to  the  Government  and  the 
leaders  arrested.  In  August  a  French  force  of  iioo  landed  at 
Kilala  Bay.  The  French  were,  however,  too  few  to  make  a  long 
resistance,  and  on  September  9  tliey  surrendered,  thus  bringing  to 
an  end  all  chance  of  successful  resistance  to  English  authority  in 
Ireland.  The  Irish  Parliament  could  hardly  be  left  as  it  was.  In 
1795  it  might  have  been  possible  to  reform  it;  in  1799,  when  the 
country  was  torn  asunder  by  bitter  hatred,  it  was  no  longer  possible. 
The  easy  way  of  putting  an  end  to  the  difficulty  by  uniting  the  Brit- 
ish and  Irish  Parliaments  more  and  more  commended  itself  to 
Pitt.  The  majority  in  the  Irish  Parliament  was  venal,  and  Pitt, 
through  the  medium  of  a  young  Irish  official.  Lord  Castlereagh, 
secured  a  majority  in  it,  not  indeed  by  paying  money  directly  for 
votes,  but  by  agreeing  to  compensate  the  owners  of  boroughs  at 


IRELAND    AND    FRANCE  551 

1801 

the  rate  of  15,000/.  a  seat,  and  by  granting  peerages  and  lavishly 
dispensing  patronage  as  a  reward  for  Parliamentary  support.  But 
the  Act  of  Union  received  the  assent  of  the  Parliament  at  Dublin 
as  well  as  of  the  Parliament  at  Westminster,  and  after  January  i, 
180 1,  there  was  but  one  Parliament  for  the  two  countries. 

Pitt  no  doubt  had  the  most  generous  intentions.  He  imagined 
that  the  United  Parliament  would  judge  fairly  and  justly  between 
the  two  hostile  Irish  parties,  and  he  wished  it  to  win  over  the 
sympathies  of  Irish  Catholics  by  offering  a  State  maintenance  to 
their  priests,  by  improving  the  existing  system  of  the  payment  of 
tithes,  and,  above  all,  by  admitting  Catholics  to  ofHce  and  to  seats 
in  Parliament.  Having  little  doubt  that  he  would  be  able  to  accom- 
plish this,  he  had  allowed  it  to  be  understood  in  Ireland  that  he 
would  support  a  measure  of  Catholic  emancipation.  He  soon, 
however,  found  that  the  king  would  not  hear  of  this  proposal,  and 
behind  the  king  was  the  British  nation.  On  this,  he  resigned  office, 
and  indeed  he  could  hardly  do  less.  Pitt,  however,  though  he  was 
himself  out  of  office,  offered  his  assistance  in  the  formation  of  a 
ministry  hostile  to  the  Catholic  claims,  over  which  his  influence 
might  be  felt,  and  he  probably  expected  at  the  time  that  this 
arrangement  would  be  of  long  continuance. 

At  the  head  of  the  new  ministry  was  Addington,  who  had 
been  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  a  well-meaning,  inefficient 
man,  strongly  hostile  to  Catholic  emancipation,  and  warmly 
attached  to  Pitt.  Before  Addington  could  settle  himself  in  office, 
the  king's  mind,  shaken  by  the  excitement  of  recent  events,  once 
more  gave  way.  This  time,  however,  the  attack  was  of  short 
duration,  and,  as  soon  as  recovery  was  complete,  Pitt  assured  him 
that  he  would  never  again  propose  Catholic  emancipation  during 
his  reign.  There  are  reasons  for  supposing  that  Pitt  would  at 
this  time  willingly  have  returned  to  office,  but  the  king  had  already 
engaged  himself  to  the  new  Ministers,  and  Addington  had  to  try 
his  hand  at  governing  the  country. 

As  far  as  the  war  was  concerned  the  arrangements  made  by 
Pitt  before  his  resignation  were  crowned  with  success.  After  a 
long  siege,  ]\lalta  surrendered  in  1800,  and  on  March  8,  1801,  an 
expedition  under  Sir  Ralph  Abercrom1)y  landed  in  Egypt  to  drive 
out  the  French  army  which  had  been  left  there  by  Bonaparte. 
Abercromby  was  killed,  but  his  troops,  after  a  series  of  successful 
operations,  finally  reduced  Alexandria  to  surrender  on  August  30, 


55^  ENGLAND 

1801-1802 

when  it  was  agreed  that  the  whole  of  the  French  army  should  evacu- 
ate Egypt.  The  Egyptian  campaign  was  memorable,  as  showing, 
for  the  first  time  since  the  French  Revolution  that  British  soldiers 
were  still  capable  of  defeating  the  French, 

In  the  North  the  British  Government  was  no  less  successful, 
A  Northern  Confederacy  had  been  formed  between  Russia,  Sweden 
and  Denmark  which,  though  it  did  not  declare  itself  directly  hostile 
to  England,  was  intended  to  resist,  as  in  the  days  of  the  American 
War,  the  pretensions  of  British  ships  to  search  neutral  vessels  in 
order  to  take  out  of  them  French  goods.  The  Government  sent 
a  fleet  to  break  up  the  confederacy,  but  appointed  Nelson 
only  second  in  command  under  Sir  Hyde  Parker,  who  was  of  no 
note  as  a  sailor.  Parker  sent  Nelson  to  attack  Copenhagen.  On 
April  2  Nelson  opened  fire  upon  the  heavy  batteries  which  defended 
the  city.  After  the  battle  had  raged  for  some  time,  Parker,  believ- 
ing Nelson  to  be  in  danger  of  defeat,  hoisted  a  signal  ordering  him 
to  draw  off.  Nelson,  who  some  years  before  had  lost  the  sight  of 
an  eye  in  action,  put  his  telescope  to  his  blind  eye,  and,  declaring 
that  he  could  not  see  the  signal  of  recall,  kept  his  own  signal  for 
close  action  flying.  In  the  end  the  Danish  batteries  were  silenced. 
Nelson  sent  ashore  the  wounded  Danes,  and  when  he  landed  was 
received  with  shouts  by  the  people  in  appreciation  of  his  kindness  to 
the  sufferers.  Nelson  assured  the  Crown  Prince,  who  acted  as 
Regent  in  his  father's  place,  that  he  wished  to  treat  the  Danes  as 
the  brothers  of  the  English,  and  an  armistice  was  concluded.  Not 
long  afterwards  the  war  in  the  North  came  to  an  end  through  the 
murder  of  the  Czar  Paul.  His  son  and  successor,  Alexander  I., 
made  on  June  17  a  treaty  with  England,  in  which  he  and  his  allies 
abandoned  their  claim  that  the  neutral  flag  should  protect  enemies' 
goods,  thus  admitting  the  right  of  search  claimed  by  the  British 
Government. 

Negotiations  with  France  were  in  the  meanwhile  pushed 
rapidly  forward.  Preliminaries  of  peace  were  signed  in  London 
on  October  i,  1801,  and  a  definitive  treaty  at  Amiens  on  ]\Iarch 
28,  1802.  Great  Britain  abandoned  all  her  conquests  beyond 
the  seas  except  Ceylon  and  Trinidad,  and  agreed  to  restore  Malta 
to  the  Knights,  if  its  possession  by  them  were  guaranteed  by 
the  great  Powers.  "  It  was  a  peace  which,"  as  Sheridan,  the  wit  of 
the  Opposition,  declared,  "  everybody  would  be  glad  of,  but  which 
nobody  would  be  proud  of."     The  broad  fact  of  the  situation  was 


IRELAND    AND    FRANCE  553 

1802-1803 

that  France  was  strong  enough  to  retain  her  conquests  in  Europe; 
and  that  the  enthusiasm  wliich  would  alone  enable  those  who  had 
suffered  from  her  aggression  to  wrest  her  gains  from  her  was 
entirely  lacking  both  in  England  and  on  the  Continent,  Pitt  may 
have  been  right  in  holding  that  England  ought  not  to  allow  France 
to  possess  herself  of  the  Netherlands ;  but  he  had  totally  failed  in 
preventing  her  from  doing  it,  and  in  1802  there  did  not  appear  to 
be  the  remotest  chance  that  he  or  any  other  minister  would  succeed 
better  in  the  future.  In  Parliament  and  out  of  Parliament  the 
peace  was  welcomed  with  joy.  George  III.,  when  the  preliminaries 
of  peace  were  signed  in  1801,  had  taken  the  opportunity  to  abandon 
the  empty  title  of  king  of  France,  which  had  been  borne  by  his 
predecessors  since  the  time  of  Edward  III.,  and  to  omit  the  French 
lilies  from  the  royal  arms. 

The  Treaty  of  Amiens  had  scarcely  been  signed  before  the 
English  Ministers  began  to  fear  that  Bonaparte  was  about  to  employ 
the  time  of  peace  merely  to  strengthen  himself  for  further  attacks 
upon  their  own  and  other  countries.  He  annexed  Piedmont  and 
occupied  Switzerland.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  these'  things 
would  have  been  passed  over  in  England,  if  the  Ministry  had  not 
conceived  suspicions  that  he  inteiidcd  to  reoccupy  Egypt.  They 
therefore  refused  to  give  up  Malta  to  the  Knights  as  they  were 
bound  by  the  treaty  to  do,  first  on  the  ground  that  no  guarantee  of 
its  independence  could  be  obtained  from  the  great  Powers, 
and  then  on  the  ground  that,  whatever  they  might  be  bound 
to  by  treaty,  they  needed  r\Ialta  as  a  security  against  the  danger  of 
a  French  conquest  of  Egypt.  Bonaparte  claimed  the  execution  of 
the  treaty,  and  on  one  occasion  used  most  violent  language  to  Lord 
\Miitworth.  the  English  ambassador.  He  was  himself  irritated, 
n(jt  merely  on  the  subject  of  Malta,  but  because  the  English  ]\Iinis- 
ters  refused  to  suppress  without  trial  the  virulent  attacks  on  himself 
which  were  published  by  the  French  refugees  in  England.  One  of 
these,  named  Peltier,  was  indeed  convicted  of  libel  by  a  jury,  but  he 
escaped  punishment  because  France  and  England  were  again  at 
war  before  judgment  was  proncninced  against  him.  As  no  com- 
promise about  Alalta  acceptable  to  both  sides  could  be  found,  war 
was  recommenced  before  the  end  of  May,   1803. 

On  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  Bonaparte  gave  reasonable 
offense  to  the  British  nation  by  throwing  into  prison  about  10,000 
British   travelers,   though  it  had  alwavs  been  the  custom  to  give 


554  ENGLAND 

1804 

time  to  such  persons  to  leave  the  country  after  a  declaration  of  war. 
As  he  had  no  other  war  on  his  hands  than  that  with  Great  Britain, 
he  seized  Hanover  and  assembled  a  large  army  at  Boulogne  to 
invade  England.  At  once  a  volunteer  army  stepped  forward  to  aid 
the  regular  army  in  the  defense  of  the  country.  From  one  end  of 
the  country  to  the  other  some  300,000  volunteers  of  all  classes  were 
busily  drilling.  Public  opinion  soon  demanded  a  stronger  ministry 
than  the  existing  one.  On  May  10,  1804,  Addington  resigned. 
General  opinion  called  for  Pitt  as  Prime  Minister  at  the  head  of 
a  ministry  taken  from  both  parties,  so  that  all  disposable  talent 
might  be  employed  in  the  defense  of  the  nation.  The  king  insisted 
that  Pitt  should  promise  never  to  support  Catholic  Emancipation, 
and  should  exclude  Fox  from  the  new  ministry.  Fox  at  once 
consented  to  be  passed  over,  but  Lord  Grenville  refused  to  join  if 
Fox  was  excluded.  "  I  will  teach  that  proud  man,"  said  Pitt,  "  that 
I  can  do  without  him,"  and  on  May  18  Pitt  again  became  Prime 
Minister,  though  with  but  a  poor  staff  of  ministers  to  support  him. 


Chapter   LIII 

THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  NAPOLEON.     1804— 1807 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  George  III.,  A.D.  1760-18  20— Pitt's  Second  Prime 
Ministership;  Napoleon  Declared  Emperor  of  the  French,  May  18, 
1804 — Battle  of  Trafalgar,  Oct.  21,  1805 — Battle  of  Austerlitz, 
Dec.  2,  1805 — Death  of  Pitt,  Jan.  23,  1806 — Death  of  Fox,  Sept.  13, 
1806 — The  Berlin  Decree,  Nov.  21,  1806 — Treaty  of  Tilsit,  July 
7,  1807 — Orders  in  Council,  Nov.  ii,  1807 — The  Milan  Decree, 
Dec.  17,  1807 

THERE  was  scarcely  an  Englishman  living  in  1804  who  did 
not  regard  Napoleon  as  a  wicked  and  unprincipled  villain 
whom  it  was  the  duty  of  every  honest  man  to  resist  to  the 
death.  This  conception  of  his  character  was  certainly  not  without 
foundation,  yet  he  gave  to  France  an  excellent  administration,  and 
also  gave  his  sanction  to  the  code  of  law  drawn  up  by  the  jurists 
of  the  Republic,  which  was  now  to  be  known  as  the  Code  Napoleon. 
He  also  took  care  that  there  should  be  good  justice  in  his  courts 
between  man  and  man.  Hence,  exasperating  as  his  annexations 
were  to  the  great  sovereigns  of  Europe,  they  were  not  popular 
grievances.  A  country  annexed  to  France,  or  even  merely  brought, 
as  most  of  the  German  states  now  were,  under  the  influence  of 
France,  found  its  gain  in  being  better  governed.  On  May  18 
Napoleon  was  declared  hereditary  Emperor  of  the  French.  Flis 
power  was  neither  more  nor  less  absolute  than  it  had  been  before. 

Neither  the  French  Revolution  nor  the  French  Empire  was  to 
be  resisted  by  governments  acting  without  a  popular  force  behind 
them;  and  in  1804  it  was  only  in  England  that  the  government  had 
a  popular  force  behind  it,  and  could  therefore  oppose  to  Napoleon 
a  national  resistance.  Every  day  tliat  saw  a  French  army  encamped 
at  Boulogne  strengthened  that  resistance.  Napoleon  was,  indeed, 
so  certain  of  success  that  he  ordered  the  preparation  of  a  medal 
falsely  stating  itself  to  have  been  struck  in  London,  as  if  the  con- 
quest of  England  had  been  already  effected.  Strong  as  Pitt  became 
in  the  country,  he  was  weak  in  Parliament.     Before  the  end  a^ 

66S 


556  ENGLAND 

1804-1805 

1804  he  was  reconciled  to  Addington,  who  entered  the  ministry  as 
Viscount  Sidmouth.  On  April  6  a  vote  was  carried  which  led 
to  the  impeachment,  on  a  charge  of  peculation,  of  his  old  friend 
Henry  Dundas,  now  Lord  Melville  and  First  Lord  of  the  Admir- 
alty. Ultimately  Melville  was  acquitted,  and  there  is  no  reason  to 
think  that  he  was  guilty  of  more  than  neglect  of  the  forms  needed 
for  guarding  against  embezzlement;  but  Melville's  necessary  resig- 
nation was  a  sad  blow  to  Pitt. 

Napoleon's  plan  for  the  invasion  of  England  was  most  skillful. 
He  was  aware  that  boats  laden  with  troops  could  not  cross  the 
Channel  unless  their  passage  could  be  guarded  against  British  ships 
of  war,  but  as  the  king  of  Spain  was  now  on  his  side  against  Eng- 
land, he  had  three  fleets  at  his  disposal,  two  French  ones  at  Toulon 
and  Brest,  and  a  Spanish  one  at  Cadiz.  He  thought  that,  though 
not  one  of  these  was  separately  a  match  for  a  British  fleet,  yet  that 
the  three  combined  would  at  least  be  strong  enough  to  hold  the 
Channel  long  enougli  to  enable  him  to  get  his  army  across.  Con- 
sequently the  Toulon  fleet,  escaping  by  his  orders  from  that  port, 
made  its  way  to  Cadiz,  and  picking  up  the  Spanish  fleet  there,  sailed 
along  with  it  to  the  West  Indies.  As  Napoleon  expected.  Nelson, 
who  commanded  the  British  Mediterranean  fleet,  sailed  to  the 
West  Indies  in  pursuit  of  the  French  and  Spanish  fleets.  While 
Nelson  was  searching  for  tliem,  they,  in  accordance  with  Napoleon's 
instructions,  were  already  on  their  way  back  to  Europe,  where 
they  were  to  drive  off  the  British  squadron  blockading  Brest,  and 
then,  combining  with  the  French  fleet  which  had  been  shut  up  there, 
to  make  their  way  up  the  Channel  and  hold  the  Straits  of  Dover 
in  irresistible  force  in  Nelson's  al)sence.  Part  of  Napoleon's 
expectation  was  fulfilled.  Nelson  indeed  sailed  to  the  West  Indies 
with  thirteen  ships  after  the  enemy's  fleet,  which  numbered  thirty. 
Not  finding  them  there,  he  sailed  back  in  pursuit.  They,  however, 
reached  the  Bay  of  Biscay  before  him,  and  were  there  attacked  by 
Sir  Robert  Calder,  who  happened  to  meet  them  with  fifteen  British 
ships.  Two  Spanish  ships  were  taken,  and  the  rest  of  the  fleet 
was  so  terrified  that  it  betook  itself  to  Cadiz. 

England  was  saved  from  invasion,  but  it  was  Napoleon's  pride 
which  completed  her  triumph.  Though  the  French  sailors  had  been 
too  long  blockaded  in  various  ports  to  be  eflicient  seamen,  he  insisted 
on  his  admiral's  putting  again  to  sea.  With  a  heavy  heart  the 
admiral  obeyed,  and  on  October  21,  1805,  Nelson  fell  in  with  him 


<f 

3^. 

t 

'■*^ 

^'.■: 

^ 

% 

:<^:, 

".t>^  - 

•*■' 

t- 

¥ 

*fH 

'iS« 

P 

■  r-* 

5>-' 


Q   ^ 


g 

CO 

bi 


NAPOLEON  557 

1805-1806 

off  Cape  Trafalgar.  Nelson  gave  the  signal  of  "  England  expects 
every  man  to  do  his  duty."  In  the  battle  which  followed  the 
French  and  Spanish  fleets  were  almost  entirely  destroyed,  but 
Nelson  fell  mortally  wounded  by  a  shot  from  a  French  ship.  Never 
again  during  the  war  did  a  French  or  Spanish  fleet  venture  to  put 
out  from  harbor,  or  had  a  British  navy  to  contend  for  the  mastery 
over  the  sea.  Yet  so  deeply  was  Nelson  honored  in  England  that 
when  the  news  of  the  triumph  arrived  it  was  doubtful  whether  joy 
for  the  victory  or  sorrow  for  the  loss  was  the  greater. 

In  1805  there  was  strife  on  land  as  well  as  at  sea.  In  April 
the  foundations  of  a  third  coalition  against  France  were  laid  by  an 
alliance  between  England  and  Russia.  Austria  joined  the  coalition, 
and  in  August  Napoleon,  knowing  that  by  Caldei^'s  victory  his 
scheme  for  the  invasion  of  England  had  failed,  marched  his  army 
off  from  Boulogne  to  attack  Austria  and  Russia.  His  enemies  had 
no  time  to  combine  against  him.  On  October  14  Napoleon  com- 
pelled the  Austrians  at  Ulm  to  capitulate.  On  November  11  he 
entered  Vienna,  the  Austrian  army  having  retreated  to  join  the 
Russian.  On  December  2  he  signally  defeated  the  two  armies  at 
Austerlitz.  The  Russians  fell  back  on  their  own  countr}'.  On 
December  6  the  Emperor  Francis  signed  the  Treaty  of  Pressburg. 

Pitt,  worn  out  with  work  and  anxiety,  did  not  recover  the 
blow.  "  How  I  leave  my  country!  "  were  the  last  words  spoken  by 
him.  On  January  23,  1806,  he  died.  In  modern  times  he  is  chiefly 
respected  as  the  enlightened  financier  and  statesman  of  the  years  of 
peace.  His  resistance  to  France,  it  is  thought,  was  weakly  planned, 
and  his  management  of  the  war  disastrous.  In  his  own  time  he 
was  regarded  as  "  The  Pilot  that  weathered  the  storm."  If  he 
failed  in  his  military  efforts  against  France  on  the  Continent,  where 
he  had  but  governments  to  oppose  to  a  nation,  he  made  England 
safe  by  the  impulse  which  he  gave  to  her  power  at  sea.  "  Eng- 
land," he  once  said  in  replying  to  a  toast  at  the  Guildhall,  "  has 
saved  herself  by  her  exertions,  and  will  save  Europe  by  her  exam- 
ple." Such  words  form  Pitt's  best  epitaph.  He  showed  what 
could  be  done  by  a  nation  conscious  of  its  strength,  and  resolute 
not  to  bow  to  the  dictates  of  a  despotic  conqueror. 

Pitt's  death  left  the  king  no  choice  but  to  take  Fox  as  a  minis- 
ter. A  ministry  known  as  the  Ministry  of  A.11  the  Talents  was 
formed  out  of  various  parties.  Lord  Grenville,  who  had  been 
Foreign  Secretary  at  the  end  of  Pitt's  first  ministry,  became  Prime 


558  ENGLAND 

1806 

Minister,  bringing  with  him  an  air  of  respectabihty  of  which  the 
Whigs  were  in  want,  while  Fox  was  Foreign  Secretary,  and  a 
place  was  even  found  for  Sidmouth,  the  leader  of  the  stiffest  Tories. 
Fox  did  his  best  to  bring  the  war  to  an  end  by  opening  a  negotiation 
with  France,  taking  advantage  of  the  confession  of  a  man,  in  all 
probability  an  agent  of  Napoleon  himself,  that  he  intended  to 
murder  the  Emperor  of  the  French.  Fox,  however,  soon  dis- 
covered that  Napoleon  was  too  slippery  to  be  bound  by  treaties. 
At  one  time  the  French  Emperor  offered  to  restore  Hanover  to 
the  king  of  England,  and  at  another  time  he  drew  back  and 
offered  it  to  Prussia.  Even  Fox  became  convinced  that  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  war  was  unavoidable.  He  was  himself  suffering 
from  dropsy,  and  had  not  many  weeks  to  live ;  but,  though  unable 
to  give  peace  to  his  country,  he  had  time  to  signalize  the  close  of 
his  career  by  moving  a  resolution  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade,  as  far  as  British  ships  and  colonies  were  concerned.  Fox 
died  on  September  13;  and  though  the  slave  trade  was  not 
abolished  by  law  till  after  his  death,  he  lived  to  know  that  all  real 
difficulties  had  been  surmounted.  Whether,  if  he  had  held  office 
for  a  longer  term,  he  would  have  been  distinguished  among  prac- 
tical statesmen,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  It  is  true  that  he  was  not  an 
originator  of  new  schemes  of  policy ;  but  a  minister  may  be  none 
the  worse  for  that,  if  he  has  the  tact  and  skill  to  secure  the  accept- 
ance of  the  schemes  of  others.  Fox's  main  defect  was  his  want  of 
power  to  forecast  the  temper  with  which  his  words  and  acts  would 
be  received,  and  he  thus  frequently,  as  in  the  cases  of  the  coalition 
with  Lord  North  and  of  the  Regency  Bill,  made  himself  unpopular, 
much  to  his  own  surprise.  The  generous  warmth  of  his  disposi- 
tion, and  his  hopeful  sympathy  with  all  good  and  great  causes,  give 
him  a  high  place  among  British  statesmen. 

The  spring  and  summer  of  1806  had  been  spent  by  Napoleon 
in  remodeling  Germany.  Neither  in  Italy  nor  in  the  smaller  states 
of  Germany  was  there  any  feeling  of  offended  nationality  goading 
on  the  populations  to  resist  changes  which  brought  with  them  more 
active  government  and  better  administration.  The  long  patience 
of  the  king  of  Prussia  was  finally  exhausted.  War  between  Prus- 
sia and  France  was  declared ;  but  the  Prussian  state  and  army 
were  both  completely  inefficient,  and  before  the  end  of  November 
Napoleon  was  in  military  possession  of  the  greater  part  of  Prussia. 

Russia  came  to  the  aid  of  the  now  diminished  Prussia.     The 


NAPOLEON  559 

1807 

Czar  Alexander  I.  anxiously  looked  to  England  for  aid,  thinking 
that  if  an  English  army  were  landed  on  the  coast  of  the  Baltic, 
Napoleon  would  be  obliged  to  detach  part  of  his  forces  to  watch  it, 
and  would  thereby  be  weakened  in  his  struggle  with  Russia.  The 
Ministry  of  All  the  Talents,  however,  had  no  capacity  for  war. 
They  frittered  away  their  strength  by  sending  useless  expeditions 
to  the  Dardanelles,  to  Egypt,  and  to  Buenos  Ayres,  leaving  them- 
selves no  troops  for  the  decisive  struggle  nearer  home.  On  March 
24  they  were  expelled  from  office  by  the  king,  because,  though  they 
agreed  to  relinquish  a  project  which  they  had  formed  for  allowing 
Catholics  to  serve  as  officers  in  the  army  and  navy,  they  refused 
to  promise  that  they  would  never  under  any  circumstances  propose 
any  measure  of  concession  to  the  Catholics.  On  March  25,  the 
day  after  their  resignation,  the  royal  assent  was  given  to  a  bill  for 
the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade.  The  new  Prime  Minister  was  the 
inefficient  Duke  of  Portland,  who  had  been  the  nominal  head  of  the 
Coalition  Ministry  in  1783.  The  ablest  members  of  the  new  Cabi- 
net were  Lord  Castlereagh,  who  had  managed  the  Irish  Parliament 
at  the  time  of  the  Union,  and  the  brilliant  George  Canning,  who  had 
been  one  of  the  staunchest  of  the  followers  of  Pitt.  The  remainder 
of  Portland's  colleagues  were  narrow  in  their  views,  and  all  were 
pledged  to  resist  Catholic  emancipation.  A  dissDiution  of  Parlia- 
ment took  place  before  long,  and  it  vv^as  found  that  the  constituencies 
supported  the  king  and  the  new  ministry.  The  reaction  against 
the  principles  of  the  French  revolutionists  was  still  so  strong  that 
it  was  difficult  to  obtain  a  hearing  even  for  the  most  necessary  plan 
of  reform. 

Canning,  who  was  Foreign  Secretary,  would  readily  have  sent 
to  the  Baltic  the  forces  which  his  predecessor  had  refused  to  the 
Czar.  Before,  however,  they  could  be  got  ready.  Napoleon  defeated 
the  Russians  at  Friedland  on  June  14,  and  on  the  25th  he  held  an 
interview  with  the  Czar  on  a  raft  on  the  Niemen.  Alexander  was 
vexed  at  the  delay  of  the  English,  and  the  first  words  he  uttered  to 
Napoleon  were,  "  I  hate  the  English  as  much  as  you  do."  The 
Treaty  of  Tilsit,  signed  between  France  and  Russia  on  July  7,  was 
the  result  of  the  conference  by  which  they  divided  Europe  between 
them  for  conquest. 

While  Napoleon  was  establishing  a  dominion  over  the  western 
and  central  part  of  the  European  Continent,  Great  Britain  made 
use  of  her  dominion  of  the  sea  to  enlarge  her  colonial  possessions. 


560  ENGLAND 

1807 

No  one  at  that  time  thought  much  of  the  estabHshment  in  1788  of 
a  settlement  of  convicts  in  Botany  Bay,  or  what  afterwards  came 
to  be  known  as  New  South  Wales.  The  two  points  at  which 
British  ambition  aimed  were  the  security  of  the  sea  route  to  India 
and  the  extension  of  the  production  of  sugar  in  the  West  Indies. 
The  first  design  was  satisfied  in  1806,  by  a  second  and  permanent 
occupation  of  the  Dutch  territory  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope ;  the 
second,  in  1804,  by  the  taking  from  the  Dutch  of  the  territory  on 
the  mainland  of  South  America,  afterwards  known  as  British 
Guiana,  and  by  the  capture  of  West  Indian  islands  which  had 
hitherto  been  held  by  the  French  and  Dutch.  In  India  the  Mahrat- 
tas  were  overthrown  by  Arthur  Wellesley. 

In  the  meanwhile  Napoleon,  hopeless  of  overpowering  Britain 
at  sea,  attempted  to  subjugate  her  in  another  way.  On  November 
21,  1806,  soon  after  his  victory  at  Jena,  he  issued  the  Berlin  Decree, 
closing  all  European  ports  under  his  influence — that  is  to  say, 
almost  all  the  ports  from  the  Vistula  to  the  Adriatic — against 
British  commerce.  All  British  ports  were  declared  in  a  state  of 
blockade,  though  Napoleon  could  not  watch  any  one  of  them  with 
a  single  vessel,  and  all  goods  coming  from  Great  Britain  or  her 
colonies  were  to  be  destroyed.  On  Novemiber  11,  1807,  Great 
Britain  retaliated  by  Orders  in  Council  declaring  all  ports  of  France 
and  her  allies  to  be  in  a  state  of  blockade,  and  all  vessels  good 
prize  which  attempted  to  enter  them  unless  they  had  previously 
touched  at  a  British  harbor.  To  this,  on  December  17,  1807,  Napo- 
leon replied  by  the  Milan  Decree,  declaring  all  neutral  vessels  liable 
to  seizure  if  they  touched  at  any  British  ports  before  attempting  to 
land  their  cargoes  in  any  part  of  Europe  under  the  control  of 
France.  The  Berlin  and  ]\Iilan  Decrees  together  established  what 
is  known  as  Napoleon's  Continental  System. 

Ultimately  the  effects  of  the  Continental  System  were  most 
injurious  to  Napoleon.  As  the  British  fleet  controlled  the  sea,  no 
colonial  goods  could  be  obtained  except  through  British  vessels. 
A  gigantic  system  of  smuggling  sprang  up,  and  the  seizure  and 
destruction  of  British  goods  only  served  to  raise  the  price  of  those 
which  escaped.  Sugar,  coffee,  and  calico  grew  dear,  and  the  laborer 
soon  discovered  that,  in  consequence  of  the  Continental  System,  he 
had  to  pay  more  for  the  coffee  which  he  drank  and  for  the  shirt 
which  he  wore.  A  strong  feeling  opposed  to  Napoleon  manifested 
itself  for  the  first  time  among  the  conquered  populations. 


NAPOLEON  561 

1807 

At  sea  Englishmen  were  almost  as  high-handed  as  Napoleon 
by  land.  They  searched  neutral  vessels  for  goods  destined  for 
France,  confiscating  them  in  accordance  with  decisions  of  their  own 
admiralty  court  in  a  fashion  which  would  not  be  tolerated  now. 
Shortly  after  the  Treaty  of  Tilsit  Canning  learned  that  Napoleon 
meant  to  seize  the  fleet  of  Denmark,  which  was  at  that  time  neutral, 
and  to  employ  it  against  Great  Britain.  A  British  fleet  and  army 
were  sent  to  Copenhagen,  and  the  Crown  Prince  of  Denmark 
was  asked  to  deliver  up  the  Danish  fleet  on  a  promise  that 
it  should  be  restored  at  the  end  of  the  war.  On  his  refusal,  Copen- 
hagen was  bombarded  till  at  last  the  Danes  gave  way.  The  fleet 
was  surrendered,  and  the  British  Government,  on  the  plea  that  it 
had  been  driven  to  use  force,  refused  to  be  bound  by  its  offer  to 
restore  the  ships  ultimately  to  their  owners.  There  were  many  in 
England  who  found  fault  with  the  whole  proceeding,  and  even 
George  III.  seems  to  have  been  very  much  of  their  opinion.  Speak- 
ing to  the  gentleman  who  had  carried  to  the  Crown  Prince  the 
message  asking  him  to  give  up  the  fleet,  the  old  king  asked  whether 
he  found  the  prince  upstairs  or  downstairs.  "  He  was  on  the 
ground  floor,  please  your  Majesty,''  was  the  reply.  "  I  am  glad 
of  it  for  your  sake,"  said  the  king;  "  for  if  he  had  half  my  spirit, 
he  would  have  kicked  you  down  stairs." 


Chapter   LIV 

THE    DOWNFALL    OF    NAPOLEON.     1807— 1814 

LEADING    DATES 

Reign  of  George  III.,  A.D.  1760-1820 — The  Establishment  of  Joseph 
Bonaparte  in  Spain^  1808 — Battle  of  Vimeiro,  Aug.  21,  1808 — Battle 
OF  CoRUNNA,  Jan.  16,  1809 — Napoleon's  War  with  Austria,  1809 — 
Battle  of  Talavera,  July  27-28,  1809 — Defense  of  Torres  Vedras — 
Napoleon's  Invasion  of  Russia,  18 12 — Battle  of  Salamanca,  July 
22,  1812 — Battle  of  Vittoria,  June  21,  1813 — Napoleon  Driven  out 
of  Germany,  1813 — First  Restoration  of  Louis  XVIII. ,  1814 — War 
WITH  America,  1812-1814 — Battle  of  Waterloo,  June  18,  1815 — 
Second  Restoration  of  Louis  XVIIL,  1815 

NAPOLEON  had  been  gradually  maturing  designs  against 
Spain.  Spain,  indeed,  had  been  most  subservient  to 
Napoleon,  and  had  sacrificed  her  fleets  to  him  at  St. 
Vincent  and  Trafalgar,  but  had  received  all  the  loss  and  none  of 
the  advantages  of  the  alliance,  and  began  to  show  signs  of  inde- 
pendence. Napoleon  resolved  to  bring  Spain  entirely  under  his 
control  and  interfered  in  the  dispute  between  Charles  IV.  and  his 
son  Ferdinand  for  the  throne,  and  finally  deposed  them  both 
and  made  his  brother.  Joseph  Bonaparte,  king  of  Spain.  The 
Spanish  people,  town  by  town  and  village  by  village,  rose  in  a 
national  insurrection  against  the  French,  without  any  one  part  of 
the  country  having  previous  communication  with  another.  Except 
in  his  relations  with  England,  Napoleon  had  hitherto  had  to  deal 
with  the  resistance  of  governments  and  armies.  He  had  now  to 
deal  with  a  people  inspired  with  hatred  of  a  foreign  conquest. 

Li  the  preceding  winter  a  French  army  under  Junot  had 
invaded  Portugal.  Portugal  and  England  were  old  allies,  and 
partly  in  order  to  deliver  Portugal,  partly  in  order  to  support  the 
resistance  of  Spain,  the  British  ministry,  urged  on  bv  Canning,  sent 
an  army  to  resist  Junot.  The  British  Government  gave  the  charge 
of  it  t(j  Sir  Artiiur  Wellesley,  the  best  soldier  in  their  service.  On 
August  21  he  ccjmpletely  defeated  Junot  at  Vimeiru,  but  as  tlie 
general  commanding  refused  to  follow  up  the  enemy,  Junot  got 

562 


FALL     OF     NAPOLEON  563 

1808-1809 

safely  into  Lisbon,  and  on  August  30  was  allowed  by  a  convention 
signed  at  Cintra  to  return  with  all  his  army  to  France. 

The  Convention  of  Cintra  had  been  received  with  indignation 
in  England  as  improperly  lenient  to  the  French,  and  Wellesley  and 
his  two  official  superiors  had  been  recalled  to  give  an  account  of 
their  conduct  in  relation  to  it.  Moore,  who  was  an  excellent  gen- 
eral, had  been  ordered  to  advance  to  the  assistance  of  the  Spaniards, 
when  Napoleon  burst  into  the  country.  Moore  was  therefore 
forced  to  retreat.  On  January  16  he  had  to  fight  a  battle  at 
Corunna  to  secure  the  embarkation  of  his  men.  He  was  himself 
killed,  but  his  army  was  completely  victorious,  and  was  brought 
away  in  safety  to  England. 

Napoleon  had  been  recalled  from  Spain  by  news  that  Austria 
was  arming  against  him.  A  war  between  France  and  Austria  was 
the  result,  in  which  Napoleon  was  again  successful.  The  English 
Government  were  not  idle  spectators  of  this  war.  Canning  had 
taken  in  hand  the  war  in  Spain. 

While  the  result  of  the  campaign  in  Austria  was  still  uncer- 
tain, Castlereagh  sent  out  an  expedition  to  seize  Antwerp,  in  the 
hope  that,  if  it  succeeded,  it  would  compel  Napoleon,  who  was  still 
struggling  on  the  Danube,  to  send  part  of  his  army  back.  Unfor- 
tunately, the  command  of  the  land  forces  sent  out  was  given  to 
Lord  Chatham,  the  eldest  son  of  the  great  Chatham,  who  had  noth- 
ing but  his  birth  to  recommend  him,  and  the  command  of  the  fleet 
to  Sir  Richard  Strachan,  an  officer  of  no  great  distinction.  The 
commanders,  however,  took  Flushing  and  did  no  more.  Time 
was  frittered  away  in  senseless  disputes  between  the  general  and 
the  admiral.  While  admiral  and  general  were  hesitating,  a  fever 
broke  out  which  swept  away  thousands.  When  the  news  of  failure 
reached  England,  Canning  threw  all  the  blame  on  Castlereagh. 
The  two  ministers  both  resigned  oltice  and  then  fought  a  duel. 
The  Duke  of  Portland,  the  Prime  Alinister.  broken  in  health,  also 
resigned,  and  died  shortly  afterwards,  lie  was  succeeded  by  Per- 
ceval, a  conscientious  but  narrow-minded  man.  Wellesley  was  sent 
l)ack  to  Portugal.  Me  drove  Soult  from  Oporto.  At  Talavera  he 
met  a  French  army,  and  though  tlie  Spanish  general  gave  him  no 
assistance,  he  comp^letely  defeated  tlie  j-'rcnch  on  July  2/-2S.  Other 
French  generals  threatened  to  cut  off  his  retreat,  and  he  was  obliged 
to  fall  back  on  Portugal.  Wellesley  had  indeed  learned  the  lesson 
that  Spanish  armies  could  not  be  depended  on,  but  otherwise  he 


564  ENGLAND 

1810-1811 

had  gained  nothing  by  his  victory.  The  French  forces  in  the  Pen- 
insula were  too  overwhehning  to  be  overpowered  as  yet.  Welles- 
ley  was  rewarded  for  his  skill  with  the  title  of  Viscount  Wellington. 

In  1810  Napoleon  made  a  great  effort  to  drive  the  English 
out  of  Portugal.  Though  he  did  not  go  himself  into  the  Peninsula, 
he  sent  his  best  general.  Marshal  Massena.  Wellington's  force  was 
too  small  to  meet  Massena  in  the  field,  and,  in  order  to  have  in 
reserve  a  defensible  position,  he  threw  up  three  lines  of  earthworks 
across  the  peninsula  which  lies  beween  the  Tagus  and  the  sea,  and 
there  drew  back  slov/ly  as  Massena  advanced.  Massena's  army 
was  accordingly  half-starved  before  the  lines  of  "  Torres  Vedras  " 
were  reached,  and  so  he  did  not  even  attempt  to  storm,  while  his 
own  army  was  gradually  wasted  by  starvation  and  disease.  More 
than  30,000  French  soldiers  perished,  though  not  a  single  pitched 
battle  had  been  fought.  At  last  INIassena  ordered  a  retreat.  Wel- 
lington cautiously  followed,  and  by  the  spring  of  181 1  not  a 
Frenchman  remained  in  Portugal. 

While  Wellington  was  struggling  with  the  French,  old  George 
III.  ceased  to  have  further  knowledge  of  joy  or  sorrow.  The 
madness  with  which  he  had  from  time  to  time  been  afflicted  settled 
down  on  him  in  181 1.  The  selfish  and  unprincipled  Prince  of 
Wales  took  his  place  as  Regent,  at  first  under  some  restrictions,  but 
after  a  year  had  elapsed  without  any  prospect  of  the  king's  recovery, 
with  the  full  powers  of  a  sovereign.  It  was  expected  by  some  that 
he  would  place  his  old  friends  the  Whigs  in  office ;  but  he  had  no 
gratitude  in  his  nature,  and  the  current  of  feeling  against  reform 
of  any  kind  was  now  so  strong  that  he  could  hardly  have  maintained 
the  Whigs  in  power  even  if  he  had  wished  to  do  so.  Perceval  was 
well  suited  for  the  Prime  Ministership  at  such  a  time,  being  as 
strongly  in  favor  of  maintaining  the  existing  state  of  things  as  the 
dullest  member  of  Parliament  could  possibly  be.  His  ministry, 
however,  was  not  a  long  one.  In  18 12  he  was  shot  dead  by  a 
lunatic  as  he  stepped  into  the  House  of  Commons.  Flis  successor 
was  Lord  Li\erpool. 

In  the  meantime  Napoleon  had  been  proceeding  from  one 
annexation  to  another.  In  3*Iay,  1809,  he  annexed  the  Papal  States; 
in  July,  1810,  the  kingdom  of  Holland;  in  November,  1810,  the 
Valais;  and  in  December,  1810,  the  coast  of  Germany  as  far  as 
Hamburg.  The  motive  which  impelled  him  to  these  extravagant 
resolutions  was  his  determination  to  enforce  the  Continental  Svs- 


FALL     OF     NAPOLEON  565 

1810-1813 

tem  in  order  to  ruin  England.  England  was  not  ruined,  but  the 
rise  of  prices  caused  by  Napoleon's  ineffectual  attempts  to  ruin  her 
increased  the  ill-will  of  the  populations  of  the  continent,  and 
strengthened  the  popular  resistance  to  which  he  ultimately  fell  a 
victim. 

It  was  upon  the  certainty  of  a  general  resistance  to  what  had 
now  become  a  real  tyranny  that  Wellington  mainly  calculated. 
Wellington  had,  however,  on  his  side  other  elements  of  success. 
His  English  troops  had  proved  superior  to  more  than  equal  num- 
bers of  Frenchmen,  not  because  they  were  braver,  but  because  they 
had  more  coolness.  Moreover,  as  the  French  generals  were  in  the 
habit  of  quarreling  with  one  another,  it  was  possible  to  defeat  one 
before  another  could  make  up  his  mind  to  bring  up  his  forces  to 
the  help  of  his  rival.  The  Spaniards,  too,  though  their  armies  were 
bad,  made  excellent  guerrillas,  shooting  down  French  stragglers  and 
taking  every  advantage  of  the  ground. 

In  spite  of  these  advantages  the  difference  of  numbers  against 
Wellington  was  still  very  great.  Yet  he  held  his  own  until  Mar- 
mont  and  Soult  joined  to  resist  the  English  and  Wellington  was 
obliged  to  retire  to  Portugal.  Before  long,  however,  the  two  mar- 
shals having  separated,  Wellington  attacked  the  two  strong  for- 
tresses of  Badajoz  and  Ciudad  Rodrigo  which  barred  his  way  into 
Spain.  The  capture  of  these  two  fortresses  not  only  secured  Por- 
tugal against  invasion,  but  also  made  it  possible  for  Wellington 
to  conduct  offensive  operations  in  Spain. 

Wellington's  task  after  the  capture  of  Badajoz  was  lightened 
by  the  withdrawal  of  some  of  the  best  of  the  French  regiments  from 
the  Peninsula  for  the  war  with  Russia.  On  July  22  Wellington 
completely  defeated  Marmont  at  Salamanca,  after  which  he  entered 
Madrid  in  triumph.  He  pushed  on  to  besiege  Burgos,  but  the 
French  armies  from  the  south  of  Spain  gathered  thickly  round  him 
before  he  could  take  it,  and  he  was  compelled  again  to  return  to 
Portugal.  The  campaign,  however,  had  not  been  in  vain,  as  the 
French,  in  order  to  secure  the  north  against  Wellington,  had  been 
obliged  to  abandon  the  south  to  the  Spaniards. 

The  Russian  invasion  of  1812  by  Napoleon  was  a  miserable 
failure,  ending  in  the  disastrous  retreat  from  Moscow.  In  18 13, 
Prussia,  hitherto  crushed  by  French  exactions,  sprang  to  arms,  and 
allied  herself  with  Russia.  Napoleon,  despite  the  growing  exhaus- 
tion of  France,  won  successes  until  Austria  joined  the  Allies,  and  he 


566  ENGLAND 

1807-1812 

was  crushed  at  Leipzig.  In  Spain  Wellington  was  no  less  suc- 
cessful and  overthrew  the  king  and  drove  out  the  remains  of  the 
French  army.  When  the  Allies  entered  Paris  Napoleon  abdicated 
and  retired  to  Elba,  and  Louis  XVIIL  became  king  of  France. 

The  position  of  England  was  now  exceedingly  strong.  Not 
only  had  her  wealth,  acquired  by  her  manufactures,  enabled  her  to 
supply  the  continental  governments  with  vast  sums  of  money,  with- 
out which  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  them  to  carry  on  the 
struggle,  but  her  own  army  in  Spain  had  powerfully  contributed  to 
the  success  of  the  allies,  by  keeping  no  less  than  300,000  French 
soldiers  away  from  the  decisive  conflict  in  Germany  and  the  north- 
east of  France.  That  she  was  able  to  accomplish  this  had  been, 
to  a  great  extent,  owing  to  her  supremacy  at  sea.  Wellington's 
troops  were  well  supplied,  because  vessels  from  all  parts  of  the 
globe  could  arrive  safely  in  the  Peninsula  with  provisions  for  them, 
while  the  French  had  to  rely  on  stores  conveyed  with  difficulty 
across  hostile  territory.  England's  mastery  over  the  sea  enabled 
her  to  make  good  her  claims  to  the  retention  of  most  of  the  colonies 
which  she  had  acquired  during  the  war.  though  she  abandoned  Java 
and  the  Spice  Islands  to  the  Dutch,  and  some  of  the  West  Indian 
islands  to  the  French.  This  time,  however,  there  was  no  talk  of 
abandoning  the  Cape  of  Good  Flope.  which  was  an  admirable  naval 
station  on  the  way  to  India  and  tlie  East. 

Too  much  power  is  never  good  for  man  or  nation,  and  just 
as  Napoleon  provoked  enemies  by  his  Continental  System,  so  did 
England  provoke  enemies  by  her  Orders  in  Council.  The  United 
States  as  a  neutral  nation  was  aggrieved  bv  the  action  of  the 
British  Government  in  stopping  American  vessels  from  trading  with 
the  continent,  unless  they  first  put  into  British  ports,  and  also  by  the 
search  exercised  on  board  them  by  British  cruisers,  and  by  the  drag- 
ging out  of  deserters  wlio  had  forsaken  tlie  British  for  American 
service.  In  181 2,  indeed,  the  Orders  in  Council  v;ere  repealed,  but 
it  was  then  too  late  to  avert  war,  which  had  already  been  declared 
by  the  United  States.  The  American  navy  was  composed  of  very 
few  ships,  Ijut  these  were  larg'er  and  better  armed  than  British  ships 
nominally  of  the  same  class.  British  captains  were  so  certain  that 
they  could  take  whaiever  lliey  tried  to  take  that  they  laid  their 
ships  alongside  (>i  American  vessels  n.iuch  PiK  .re  powerful  than  their 
own.  The  result  v;as  ihat  one  British  sliip  after  another  was  cap- 
tured.    The  operations  on  land  made  no  real  impression  on  the 


FALL     OF     NAPOLEON  567 

1814-1815 

vast  American  continent.  There  was  much  fighting-  on  the  Can- 
adian frontier,  and  in  1814  a  large  number  of  the  soldiers  from  the 
late  Peninsular  army — an  army,  which,  according  to  Wellington, 
could  go  anywhere  and  do  anything — were  sent  out  to  America. 
Washington  was  taken,  and  the  Capitol  and  other  public  buildings 
destroyed — contrary  to  the  usual  practice  of  civilized  warfare — in 
revenge  for  similar  burnings  on  a  smaller  scale  by  the  Americans 
in  Canada.  The  Americans  were  merely  stung  to  more  vigorous 
resistance,  and  the  British  troops  were  compelled  to  retreat,  A 
British  flotilla  on  Lake  Champlain  was  overpowered.  An  attack 
on  New  Orleans  was  baffled.  On  December  14,  1814,  a  peace  was 
signed  at  Ghent,  putting  an  end  to  this  unhappy  war. 

It  was  a  hard  matter  to  settle  anew  the  boundaries  of  European 
states  after  the  disturbances  caused  by  French  annexations.  In 
18 14  a  Congress  met  at  Vienna  to  decide  such  questions.  So  far 
as  its  decisions  were  influenced  by  any  principle  at  all,  they  rested 
on  the  ground  that  a  strong  barrier  must  be  set  up  against  a  renewal 
of  French  aggression.  Not  only  was  the  frontier  of  France  driven 
back  almost  to  that  which  had  existed  in  1792,  but  the  old  territories 
of  the  Dutch  Republic  and  the  Austrian  Netherlands  were  united 
under  the  Prince  of  Orange  as  king  of  the  Netherlands.  Prussia, 
Russia,  and  Austria  each  received  territory,  while  Italy  was  divided. 

In  France  the  restored  Bourboii  monarchy  soon  gave  deep 
offense.  Louis  XVIII.  became  widely  unpopular.  Napoleon 
watched  the  movement  with  pleasure,  and,  escaping  from  Elba, 
landed  on  the  coast  of  France.  The  soldiers  sent  to  capture  him 
went  over  to  his  side,  and  on  March  21  he  reached  Paris  and  was 
again  emperor  of  the  French.  The  short  reign  which  followed  is 
known  as  "  The  Hundred  Days."  He  offered  to  the  allies  to  remain 
at  peace,  but  they  refused  to  listen  to  him,  believing  that  he  only 
wanted  to  prepare  for  war,  and  that  the  longer  they  waited  the  more 
difficult  it  would  be  to  suppress  him.  All  four  Powers,  therefore, 
England,  Prussia,  Austria,  and  Russia,  prepared  for  a  fresh  strug- 
gle, but  Austria  and  Russia  were  far  off,  and  an  English  army  under 
Wellington  and  a  Prussian  army  under  Bliicher  were  in  the  Nether- 
lands before  the  other  tv/o  allied  armies  were  ready.  The  English 
occupied  the  right  and  the  Prussians  the  left  of  a  long  line  in  front 
of  Brussels, 

On  June  15  Napoleon  crossed  the  frontier.  His  plan  was  to 
beat  the  Prussians  first,  and  then,  driving  them  off  towards  Ger- 


568  ENGLAND 

1815-1821 

many,  to  turn  against  the  English  and  to  overwhelm  them  with 
superior  numbers.  On  the  i6th,  while  he  sent  Ney  to  keep  in  check 
the  English  at  Ouartre  Bras,  he  defeated  the  Prussians  at  Ligny, 
and  detached  Grouchy  to  follow  them  up,  so  as  to  keep  them  from 
coming  to  the  help  of  Wellington.  On  the  i8th  he  attacked  Wel- 
lington himself  at  \\'aterloo.  Wellington,  knowing  that  the 
Prussians  intended,  in  spite  of  Grouchy's  pursuit,  to  come  to  his 
help,  and  that  his  own  numbers  were  inferior  to  those  of  Napoleon, 
had  to  hold  out  against  all  attacks  during  the  early  part  of  the  day, 
without  attempting  to  deliver  any  in  return.  He  was  well  served 
by  the  tenacity  of  his  mixed  army,  in  which  British  soldiers  fought 
side  by  side  with  Netherlanders,  Hanoverians,  and  Brunswickers. 
The  farm  of  Hougoumont.  in  advance  of  Wellington's  right  center, 
was  heroically  defended.  In  vain  the  French  columns  charged 
upon  the  British  squares,  and  the  French  artillery  slaughtered  the 
men  as  they  stood.  In  vain,  too,  the  French  cavalry  dashed 
against  them.  As  the  men  dropped  their  comrades  closed  their 
ranks,  fighting  on  with  sadly  diminished  numbers.  At  last  a  black 
line  was  seen  on  the  horizon,  and  that  black  line  was  the  Prussian 
army.  Napoleon,  taken  in  flank  by  the  Prussians,  made  one  last 
desperate  charge  on  the  English  squares.  Then  Wellington  gave 
the  order  to  advance.  The  French  army,  crushed  between  two 
forces,  dissolved  into  a  flying  mob. 

The  allies  followed  hard  upon  the  beaten  enemy  and  entered 
Paris  in  triumph.  Napoleon  took  refuge  in  the  BcUcrophon,  an 
English  ship  of  war.  By  the  decision  of  the  four  great  Powers  he 
was  removed  to  St.  Helena,  where  he  was  guarded  by  the  English 
till  his  death  in  1821.  Louis  X\TII.  was  restored  to  the  throne  of 
France,  and  Europe  at  last  enjoyed  the  peace  which  it  had  longed 
for.  The  French  territory  was  restricted  to  the  limits  of  1792. 
A  heavy  fine  was  also  imposed  upon  France,  troops  belonging  to 
each  of  the  four  Powers  being  left  in  occupation  of  French  for- 
tresses till  the  money  was  paid. 


Chapter    LV 

ENGLAND   AFTER   WATERLOO.     1815— 1827 

LEADING   DATES 

Reign  of  George  III.,  A.D.  1 760-1 820 — Reign  of  George  IV.,  A.D. 
1820-1830 — Abolition  of  the  Income  Tax,  1816 — Suspension  of  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act,  1817 — The  "Manchester  Massacre"  and  the 
Six  Acts,  1819 — Death  of  George  III.  and  Ascension  of  George  IV., 
Jan.  29,  1820 — Peel  Home  Secretary,  1821 — Canning  Foreign  Sec- 
retary, 1822 — End  of  Liverpool's  Prime  Ministership,  Feb.  17,  1827 

WHEN  the  war  came  to  an  end  there  was  a  general  expec- 
tation in  England  that  peace  and  plenty  would  flourish 
together.  Contrary  to  expectation,  the  first  years  of 
peace  were  marked  by  deep  agricultural  and  manufacturing  dis- 
tress. In  181 5  Parliament,  at  that  time  almost  entirely  filled  with 
landowners,  passed  a  corn-law  forbidding  the  importation  of  for- 
eign corn,  unless  the  price  of  wheat  reached  80s.  a  quarter.  The 
law  was,  however,  inoperative,  because  the  price  of  wheat,  instead 
of  reaching  80^.,  fell  steadily.  The  cessation  of  expenditure  upon 
war  had  thrown  large  numbers  of  men  out  of  employment,  and  there 
was,  consequently,  less  money  spent  in  the  purchase  of  food.  The 
fall  in  the  price  of  corn  injured  landowners  the  more  because  it  had 
been  excessively  high  in  the  last  years  of  the  war,  and  they  had  con- 
sequently spent  money  in  reclaiming  from  the  waste  a  great  extent 
of  land  just  good  enough  to  produce  sufficient  corn  to  pay  expenses 
when  corn  was  very  dear,  but  not  good  enough  to  produce  sufficient 
corn  to  pay  expenses  when  corn  was  cheap.  In  18 16  a  bad  harvest 
came,  which  added  to  the  losses  of  the  agriculturists.  In  such  a 
time  of  distress  the  burden  of  the  war  taxes  was  sorely  felt,  and  in 
1 816  the  House  of  Commons  insisted  on  the  abolition  of  the  income- 
tax,  which  had  been  imposed  by  Pitt  only  for  the  duration  of  tlie 
war,  and  the  government  was  obliged,  much  against  its  will,  to 
abandon  it. 

In  1 816  the  bad  harvest  sent  up  the  price  of  corn,  but  did  not 
improve  the  condition  of  agriculturists,  as  they  had  but  little 
corn  to  sell.     The  return  of  high  prices  for  food  seriously  affected 

569 


570  ENGLAND 

1816-1817 

the  condition  of  the  artisans  in  the  manufactories,  who  were  at  this 
time  suffering  from  other  causes  as  well.  In  the  war  time  England 
had  had  almost  a  monopoly  on  the  Continent  for  its  wares  because 
few  men  cared  to  build  factories  for  the  production  of  wares  when 
they  might  at  any  time  be  burned  or  destroyed  by  a  hostile  army. 
This  danger  was  now  at  an  end,  and  as  foreign  nations  began  to 
increase  their  own  produce,  the  demand  for  English  goods  dimin- 
ished. The  want  of  employment  for  labor  which  had  diminished 
the  demand  at  home  for  food  also  diminished  the  demand  at  home 
for  manufactures.  In  1816,  accordingly,  there  was  widely  spread 
manufacturing  distress  in  England.  Bankruptcies  were  frequent, 
and  thousands  of  workmen  lost  their  employment. 

There  was  no  public  system  of  education  for  the  poor,  and  the 
artisans  had  no  means  of  learning  what  were  the  real  causes  of  their 
misery.  The  factory-system,  which  had  grown  up  since  the  intro- 
duction of  improved  machinery,  had  spread  discontent  among  the 
workers.  Manufacturers,  anxious  only  to  make  money,  were  care- 
less of  the  lives  and  health  of  their  workers,  and  there  was  no  law 
intervening  to  secure  more  humane  action. 

London  parishes  often  sent  pauper  children  to  the  mills  in 
Yorkshire  and  Lancashire  to  relieve  the  expense  of  maintaining 
them.  Grown-up  men  and  women  found  work  taken  from  them 
by  the  labor  of  these  children,  who  were  practically  slaves,  and  they 
themselves,  if  they  got  work  at  all,  had  to  labor  for  exceedingly 
long  hours  for  exceedingly  small  wages.  Wlien,  as  in  1816,  large 
numbers  failed  to  get  any  work  whatever,  the  starving  multitude 
threw  all  the  blame  on  the  employers. 

Towards  the  end  of  18 16  riots  broke  out  in  many  places,  which 
were  only  put  down  by  soldiers.  In  many  places  the  rioters  di- 
rected their  violence  against  machinery,  to  the  existence  of  which 
they  attributed  their  misery.  Some  men  of  better  education  laid 
all  the  blame  upon  the  existing  political  system  which  placed  power 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  rich,  and  called  for  complete  and  "  rad- 
ical "  reform,  sometimes  asking  that  it  should  be  effected  by  violence. 
These  men  were,  in  consequence,  styled  ''  Radicals,"  and  were  looked 
upon  as  inspired — as  indeed  they  were — with  the  ideas  of  the  French 
Revolutionists.  In  December,  18 16,  there  was  in  London  a  riot, 
known  as  the  "  Spafields  riot,"  which  was,  however,  repressed  with- 
out difficulty.  In  the  beginning  of  181 7  a  number  of  secret  com- 
mittees were  formed,  and  the  most  extensive  changes  demanded. 


CEORGE    III 

Painting    by   A.    Zoffnm 


AFTER     WATERLOO  571 

1816-1820 

The  government  was  frightened.  Its  leading  members  were 
Lord  Liverpool,  the  Prime  Minister ;  Lord  Castlereagh,  the  Foreign 
Secretary,  and  Lord  Sidmouth,  the  Home  Secretary,  who  had  been 
formerly  Prime  Minister  as  Mr.  Addington.  They  had  all 
been  engaged  in  combating  the  French  Revolutionary  ideas,  and, 
when  they  saw  these  ideas  making  head  in  England  they  could 
not  think  of  any  way  to  deal  with  them  other  than  forcible  repres- 
sion. They  had  sufficient  influence  to  carry  through  Parliament 
bills  for  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  till  the  following 
year,  and  for  the  prevention  of  seditious  meetings,  the  penalty  of 
death  being  imposed  on  those  who  being  engaged  in  such  a  meeting 
refused  to  disperse.  The  government  ignored  the  part  which 
physical  distress  played  in  promoting  disturbances.  In  Manchester, 
indeed,  the  dissatisfied  workmen  contented  themselves  with  the  sim- 
ple expedient  of  marching  in  a  body  on  foot  to  present  a  petition 
to  the  Regent,  and  as  each  petitioner  took  with  him  a  blanket  to 
keep  himself  warm,  the  expedition  has  been  known  as  the  "  March 
of  the  Blanketeers."  The  Blanketeers  were,  however,  stopped  on 
the  way,  and  never  even  approached  the  Regent.  There  was  a  talk 
afterwards  of  a  rising  in  arms,  but  such  designs,  whatever  they  may 
really  have  been,  were  frustrated  by  the  arrest  of  the  ringleaders. 
Only  in  Nottinghamshire  did  they  actually  lead  to  violence.  Hap- 
pily in  1817  there  was  a  better  harvest.  The  price  of  corn  fell,  and 
trade  revived.  Work  was  again  to  be  had,  and  the  spirit  of  insub- 
ordination was  quieted  for  a  time.  On  March  i,  1818,  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act  again  came  into  force,  and  has  never  since  been  sus- 
pended in  England.  In  England,  in  1819,  ]Mr.  Peel,  a  rising  mem- 
ber of  Parliament  on  the  Tory  side,  recommended  the  resumption 
of  cash  payments  by  the  Bank  of  England,  and  so  much  improved 
was  the  financial  position  of  the  Government,  that  a  bill  embodying 
his  suggestions  was  carried,  and  in  1821  the  Bank  of  England  ceased 
to  refuse  to  change  its  notes  for  gold. 

The  prosperity  of  1818  had  given  rise  to  speculative  over- 
production of  manufactures,  with  tlie  result  that  more  goods  were 
produced  than  were  needed  by  consumers.  Production  was  there- 
fore limited  in  18 19,  and  there  was  again  great  distress  among 
the  artisans.  Larsre  numbers  of  those  who  suft'ered  had  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  their  condition  would  never  be  improved  till 
power  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  masses  by  a  sweeping  measure 
of  Parliamentary-  reform.     Their  cause  had  been  advocated  in  the 


572  ENGLAND 

1819 

press  by  Cobbett,  the  author  of  hard-hitting-,  plain-spoken  pam- 
phlets, calhng  for  a  complete  transference  of  political  power  from  the 
landowners  to  the  masses.  This  remedy  for  the  evils  of  the  time 
was  advocated  on  the  platform  by  Hunt,  but  with  few  supporters. 

To  advance  these  views  a  vast  meeting  of  at  least  50,000  gath- 
ered on  August  16,  1819,  in  St.  Peter's  Field  in  Manchester,  where 
an  address  was  to  be  delivered  by  Hunt.  The  magistrates  ordered 
the  arrest  of  Hunt  in  the  midst  of  the  vast  crowd  of  his  adherents. 
A  party  of  mounted  Yeomanry,  attempting  to  effect  his  capture, 
was  soon  broken  up.  The  magistrates  then  sent  Hussars  to  support 
the  Yeomanry.  The  Hussars  charged.  Five  or  six  deaths  were 
the  result,  and  the  number  of  wounded  was  considerable.  The 
"  Manchester  Massacre,"  as  it  was  calle'd,  opened  the  eyes  of  many 
whose  hearts  had  hitherto  been  callous  to  the  sufferings  of  the  dis- 
contented artisans.  Men  hitherto  content  to  argue  that  social  and 
economical  difficulties  could  not  be  solved  by  giving  power  to  the 
ignorant  masses  liegan  to  criticise  tlie  ine])titude  of  the  magistrates, 
who  might  have  avoided  all  violence  by  arresting  Hunt  either 
before  or  after  the  meeting,  and  to  ask  themselves  whether  a  system 
could  be  justihed  which  led  to  the  dispersal  of  meetings  of  peaceable 
citizens  by  armed  soldiers. 

T!ie  Government,  on  the  other  hand,  took  a  harsh  view  of  the 
conduct,  not  of  the  magistrates,  but  of  the  crowd.  "Every  meet- 
ing for  Radical  reform,"  wrote' a  distinguished  lawyer,  "was  not 
merely  a  seditious  attem])t  to  undermine  the  existing  constitution 
and  (iovernment  by  hrinoing  it  into  contempt,  but  it  was  an  overt 
act  of  treasonable  consi)iracy  against  that  constitution  of  Govern- 
ment, including  tlic  king  as  its  head  and  bound  by  his  coronation 
oath  to  mainiani  it.""  Lord  KIdon.  the  Lor<l  Chancellor,  and  Lord 
SuIniMutli.  the  Ih.mc  Secretary,  warmly  supported  this  view,  and, 
as  s..f,i,  as  rariiament  met.  six  measures,  usually  known  as  "The 
•^!"<  -y;-'.  _  wn-e  rapidly  ]):\^>c^\.  Of  tlicse  some  were  harmless  or 
^■ve;;  hcMefK-al.  The  harsliest  was  the  one  directed  against  public 
meetnigs.  W  nh  ihe  excepti.  ,11  ,  ,1  .uch  as  were  summoned  by  official 
V^^-^"''^-  ";'ll  mee;iii;;.  i- .r  1  iie  e-u^iderat ion  of  grievances  in  Church 
"'"'  •^■•''^'-  '"■  i'"'  '''^  i'uri>,:s,-  (,!"  i.reparing  netilic^ns      .  ex- 

^■^■1'^  "^  'i'^:  i';'  '^''^  •  •  ■  ^-KT.-  the  Indi.aluais  usually  reside," 
''■'■''''  ''"''^'l'''"-  l->inv\eni  anyattempi  to  iiUn .rhice  inflammatory 
■TP^'^'I-  '•■'■">  '■'-•"atoi  ,.erM„i.  lu.s^ghi  to.in  ;>  distance,  the  pres- 
eiue  01  >iranger~  .:.  the-e  I,.ai  nieela,-.  was  prohibited. 


AFTER     WATERLOO  573 

1795-1821 

On  January  29,  1820,  George  III.  died.  As  the  new  king,  his 
son  George  IV.,  had  for  many  years  been  acting  as  Regent,  the 
change  was  merely  nominal.  The  same  ministers  remained  in  of- 
fice, and  the  same  policy  was  pursued.  The  attempt  to  make  dif- 
ficult the  free  expression  of  opinion  gave  rise  to  secret  conspiracies, 
and  there  were  undoubtedly  many  discontented  persons  in  the  coun- 
try ready  to  use  violence  to  gain  their  ends.  A  certain  Thistlewood, 
with  about  thirty  other  persons,  proposed  to  murder  the  whole 
Cabinet  when  assembled  at  dinner  on  February  23.  The  conspiracy 
was  betrayed,  and  tlie  conspirators,  who  met  in  a  loft  in  Cato  Street, 
were  seized,  and  their  leaders  executed.  For  a  time  the  "  Man- 
chester Massacre  "  was  forgotten,  and  many  who  had  felt  for  the 
victims  of  the  soldiery  now  execrated  all  reformers  as  supporters 
of  assassins. 

In  1795  George  IV.  had  married  Caroline  of  Brunswick.  From 
the  beginning  he  had  treated  her  shamefully,  and  the  pair  were  sep- 
arated after  the  birth  of  an  only  child,  the  Princess  Charlotte.  In 
1816  this  princess,  the  heiress  to  the  throne,  was  married  to  Prince 
Leopold  of  Saxe-Coburg,  and  in  1817  she  died  in  child-bed.  She 
had  been  very  popular,  and  hopes  had  been  entertained  that  when 
she  came  to  reign  she  would  establish  at  court  a  purer  life.  Her 
death  accordingly  caused  a  general  gloom.  When  George  IV. 
came  to  the  throne  attention  was  publicly  called  to  his  degrading 
vices.  To  his  wife,  who  had  been  leading  an  indiscreet  and  prob- 
ably a  discreditable  life  on  the  continent,  he  refused  to  allow  the 
position  or  even  the  title  of  a  queen.  In  1820,  when  she  returned 
to  meet  any  charges  ttiat  might  be  brought  against  her,  she  received 
a  most  enthusiastic  greeting  from  the  populace,  the  general  feeling 
being  that,  even  if  her  conduct  had  been  as  bad  as  her  husband  said, 
his  own  had  been  so  base  that  he  had  no  right  to  call  her  in  question. 
The  ministers,  indeed,  introduced  into  the  liousc  of  Lords  a  bill  to 
dissolve  her  marriage  and  to  deprive  her  of  the  title  of  queen,  but 
the  majority  in  its  favor  was  so  small  that  they  had  to  abandon  it. 
The  queen's  popularity,  however,  deserted  her  when  she  accepted  a 
grant  of  money  from  the  ministers  who  had  attacked  her,  and  in 
1 82 1  she  died. 

Castlereagh,  the  English  Foreign  Secretary,  did  not  live  to 
work  out  the  policy  which  he  had  aiinouriccd  in  regard  to  the  demo- 
cratic revolutions  in  Europe.  In  1822.  in  a  moment  of  insanity,  he 
committed  suicide.     His  successor  was   George  Canning.     There 


674  ENGLAND 

1821-1826 

was  no  great  difference  in  the  substance  of  the  pohcy  of  the  two 
men.  Both  hatl  supported  the  doctrine  of  national  independence 
against  Napoleon,  and  both  were  ready  to  support  it  against  the 
allied  powers  whose  union  was  popularly,  though  incorrectly,  known 
as  the  Holy  Alliance.  Castlereagh,  however,  was  anxious  to  con- 
ciliate the  great  Powers  as  much  as  possible,  and  confined  his  pro- 
tests to  written  dispatches,  which  were  kept  secret;  whereas  Can- 
ning took  pleasure  in  defying  Metternich  and  openly  turned  him 
into  ridicule  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  Castlereagh  was  accordingly 
detested  in  England  as  tli^  supporter  of  the  Holy  Alliance,  whereas 
Canning  soon  became  popular  as  its  opponent.  He  allowed,  indeed, 
the  French  army  to  enter  Spain  in  1823.  and  had  no  thought  of 
dragging  England  into  a  war ;  but  in  1824  he  acknowledged  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Spanish  colonies  in  America,  after  it  had  practically 
been  accomplished  by  the  exertions  of  the  colonists.  "  I  have 
called,"  he  said  boastfully.  "  a  new  world  into  existence  to  redress 
the  balance  of  the  old.*'  Such  claptrap  revealed  the  lower  side  of 
his  character;  but  in  1826  he  showed  that  he  could  act  promptly  as 
well  as  speak  foolishly.  A  constitutional  government  having  been 
established  in  Portugal.  Spain,  backed  by  France,  threatened  to  in- 
vade Portugal.  Canning  at  once  sent  British  troops  to  secure  Por- 
tugal, and  the  danger  wa-s  averted. 

The  object  of  tlie  revolutionists  in  Spain  and  Italy  had  been 
constitutional  cliange.  An  almost  simultaneous  rising  in  Greece 
aimed  at  national  indcpendejice.  The  Turkish  government  was  a 
cruel  despotism  and  was  merciless  in  putting  down  the  insurrection. 
Canning  liad  all  along  sympathized  with  the  Greeks,  but  :Metternich, 
the  Austrian  minister,  ojjposcd  him  in  all  directions.  Canning  ac- 
cordingly turned  to  Russia,  where  Nicholas  had  succeeded  his 
bn^ther.  Alexander  I.,  in  1825.  and  in  1826  he  and  the  new  Czar 
came  to  an  agreement  that  Greece  should  be  free  from  the  direct 
government  of  the  sultan,  but  should  l^e  required  to  pay  him  a 
tribute. 

\\  hilc  Canning  w  ai  credit  fw  the  ministry  bv  a  popular  direc- 
tion of  foreign  arfair>,  ] 'ccl— whcj  had  succeeded  s'idmouth  as  Home 
Secretary  in  iSj  i_\vun  credit  for  it  by  liis  mode  of  dealing  with 
domestic  ditticnhic-.  Wlicn  he  came  in/.o  ofiice  a  deep  feeling  of 
dl^tru^t  cxi.^ted  betueen  t!ie  rich  and  the  p-Kjr.  The  rich  were  in  a 
state  of  i.anic,  fe^irin.g  every  p..litica]  movement  among  the  mass  of 
then-  lellow-countryinen  as  hkely  to  pro(hice  a  renewal  in  Encrland 


AFTER     WATERLOO  575 

1323-1824 

of  the  horrors  of  the  French  Revolution.  The  poor,  on  the  other 
hand,  attributed  the  misery  resuhing  from  economic  causes,  or  even 
from  the  badness  of  the  weather,  to  the  dehberate  machinations  of 
the  rich.  What  was  wanted  at  that  time  was,  not  to  bring  classes 
into  more  violent  collision  by  attempting  to  reform  Parliament  in  a 
democratic  direction,  but  to  soften  down  the  irritation  between  them 
by  a  series  of  administrative  and  economic  reforms,  which  should 
present  Parliament  as  a  helper  rather  than  as  a  contriver  of  fresh 
methods  of  repression.  Peel  was,  of  all  men,  the  best  fitted  to  take 
the  lead  in  such  a  work.  He  had  no  sympathy  with  hasty  and 
sweeping  change,  but  he  had  an  open  mind  for  all  practical  improve- 
ments. Sooner  or  later  the  force  of  reasoning  made  an  impression 
on  him,  and  he  was  never  above  avowing — what  with  some  people 
is  the  most  terrible  of  confessions — that  he  had  changed  his  mind. 

The  reform  of  the  criminal  law  had  long  been  advocated  in 
vain  by  two  large-minded  members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  Sir 
Samuel  Romilly  and  Sir  James  Mackintosh.  As  the  law  stood  at 
the  beginning  of  the  century  no  less  than  two  hundred  crimes  were 
punishable  by  death.  Sometimes  these  harsh  laws  were  put  in  force, 
but  more  often  juries  refused  to  convict  even  the  guilty,  preferring 
rather  to  perjure  themselves  by  delivering  a  \-erdict  which  they 
knew  to  be  untrue  than  to  send  to  death  a  person  who  had 
merely  committed  a  trivial  offense.  Again  and  again  the  House  of 
Commons  had  voted  for  an  alteration  of  the  law,  but  the  House  of 
Lords  had  obstinately  refused  to  pass  the  bills  sfent  up  to  them  with 
this  object.  In  1823  Peel  brought  in  bills  for  the  abolition  of  the 
death  penalty  for  about  a  hundred  crimes,  and  the  House  of  Lords 
at  last  gave  way,  now  that  the  abolition  was  recommended  by  a 
minister. 

Reforms  were  the  more  easily  made  because  the  distress  which 
had  prevailed  earlier  was  now  at  an  end.  In  182 1  a  revival  of 
commerce  began,  and  in  1824  and  1825  there  was  great  prosperity. 
In  the  struggle  which  had  long  continued  between  master-manu- 
facturers and  their  workmen,  the  workmen  had  frequently  combined 
together  in  trades-unions  to  impose  terms  upon  the  masters,  and  had 
attempted  to  enforce  their  demands  by  striking  work.  Combina- 
tions between  workmen  were,  however,  illegal  till  in  1824,  with  the 
warm  support  of  Huskisson,  the  President  u\  the  Board  of  Trade, 
the  laws  against  combinations  were  re])eale(l,  tliough  in  1825,  in 
consequence  of  acts  of  violence  done  by  tlic  workmen  against  unpop- 


576  ENGLAND 

1825-1827 

ular  masters,  a  further  act  was  passed  making  legal  all  combinations 
both  of  masters  and  men.  if  entered  on  for  the  purpose  of  fixing 
wages,  but  illegal  if  entered  on  for  any  other  purpose. 

This  attempt  to  give  freedom  to  labor  was  accompanied  by 
steps  in  the  direction  of  freedom  of  trade.  Robinson,  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  supported  by  Huskisson,  employed  the  surplus 
given  him  by  the  prosperity  of  the  country  to  reduce  the  duties  on 
some  imports.  It  was  but  little  that  was  done,  but  it  was  the  first 
time  since  Pitt's  commercial  treaty  with  France  that  a  government 
showed  any  signs  of  perceiving  that  Englishmen  would  be  better  off 
by  the  removal  of  artificial  difficulties  in  the  way  of  their  trade  with 
other  nations. 

Though  the  ministry  was  in  name  a  Tory  ministry,  it  was  far 
from  being  united  on  any  subject.  Some  of  its  members,  like  the 
Chancellor,  Lord  Eldon,  continued  to  detest  all  reforms,  thinking 
that  they  must  ultimately  lead  to  a  catastrophe ;  whilst  other  minis- 
ters, like  Canning.  Peel,  and  Huskisson,  were  in  favor  of  gradual 
reforms,  though  there  were  some  particular  questions  on  which 
even  the  reformers  were  not  in  agreement.  So  discordant  a  min- 
istry could  hardly  have  been  kept  together  but  for  the  tact  and  easy 
nature  of  its  head,  the  Earl  of  Liverpool,  who  allowed  the  ministers 
to  argue  against  one  another  in  Parliament  even  on  important  sub- 
jects. On  February  17.  1827,  Li\erpool  was  incapacitated  from 
public  senice  by  a  stroke  of  apoplexy,  and  it  was  by  that  time  evi- 
dent that  the  two  sections  of  the  Cabinet  would  not  be  able  to  serve 
together  under  any  other  leader.  Whatever  differences  there  might 
be  about  details,  the  main  difference  between  the  two  sections  can 
be  easily  described.  On  tlie  (ine  hand,  the  unprogressive  section 
not  only  disliked  tb.e  idea  of  ciianging  institutions  which  had  proved 
themselves  useful  in  past  linies.  but  also  slirank  from  giving  way 
to  increased  jMjjular  control  oxer  I'arliament,  or  to  any  violent  pop- 
ular demand  f^ -r  legislation.  On  the  otlier  hand,  the  progressive 
section,  thongli  l.aidly  prepr.red  to  allow  tlic  decisions  of  Parliament 
to  be  in!hienre<l  by  p-jjular  pressure,  was  yet  in.  some  sympathy  with 
the  popular  feeling  mh  ^nhjccis  ri])e  for  ]egislati(-)n. 

-X-  u^nally  l.rq.ijens.  tlie  srrong  r.pinions  which  prevailed 
anioiiL:;  p.  .::o<-:vi-;  v.aT(.  reiie'-lid  in  ipc  literature  of  the  time, 
r.urn.-.  iiie  .\yr-!::re  i)'M\vnian,  whose  in-^t  verses  were  written  in 
1775.  w.'!-'  \\\  hill  aeeor^lance  wit'i  tlie  ])reeursors  of  the  French 
Revolut'oii  ni  li!<  1,\l-  ..f  nature  and  b.is  revolt  a"-ainst  traditional 


AFTER     WATERLOO  577 

1775-1824 

custom,  and  too  often  in  his  revolt  against  traditional  morality.  The 
often-quoted  lines — 

"  The  rank  is  but  the  guinea's  stamp, 
The  man's  the  gowd  for  a'  that." 

show  the  same  contempt  for  class  distinctions  as  inspired  the  writings 
of  Rousseau.  While,  however,  Rousseau  looked  to  the  good- 
sense  of  the  masses  to  remedy  the  evils  of  the  time.  Bums  turned 
hopefully  to  the  work  and  sturdiness  of  individual  men  to  heal  the 
evils  caused  by  the  inordinate  value  placed  on  social  rank.  Byron, 
whose  first  poems  were  printed  in  1806,  but  whose  first  great  work 
— ^the  first  two  cantos  of  "  Childe  Harold  " — appeared  in  1812.  em- 
bodied this  form  of  revolt  in  his  works  as  well  as  in  his  life  in  a  very 
different  fashion  from  that  of  Burns.  Breaking  loose  himself  from 
moral  restraints,  he  loved  to  glorify  the  characters  of  those  who  set 
at  defiance  the  order  of  civilized  life.  In  1824  he  died  of  fever  at 
Missolonghi,  fighting  for  Greek  independence.  Shelley,  whose 
poems  range  from  1808  to  his  early  death  by  drowning  in  1822, 
had  a  gentler  spirit.  All  human  law  and  discipline  seemed  to  him 
to  be  the  mere  invention  of  tyrants,  by  which  the  instinctive  craving 
of  the  soul  for  beauty  of  form  and  nobility  of  life  was  repressed. 
On  the  other  hand,  two  great  poets,  Scott  and  Wordsworth, 
upheld  the  traditions  of  the  ancient  order  of  society.  Scott's  first 
great  poem,  "  The  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,"  appeared  in  1805.  In 
1814  he  deserted  poetry  for  the  writing  of  the  W\averley  Novels. 
His  mind  was  filled  with  reverence  for  tlie  past  life  of  his  country, 
and  this  he  set  forth  in  verse  and  prose  as  no  other  writer  has  done. 
Yet  Scott's  works  may  be  quoted  in  support  of  the  doctrine  that  no 
considerable  movement  of  thought  can  leave  its  greatest  opponents 
unaffected,  and  the  better  side  of  the  revolutionary  upturning,  its 
preference  of  the  natural  to  the  artificial,  and  of  the  humble  to  the 
exalted,  inspired  the  best  work  of  Scott.  His  imaginative  love  for 
the  heath-clad  mountains  of  his  country,  and  his  skill  in  depicting 
the  pathos  and  the  humor  of  tlie  lowlv,  stood  him  in  better  stead  than 
his  skill  in  bringing  before  his  readers  the  chi\-alry  and  the  pa- 
geantry of  the  past.  As  it  was  with  Scott,  so  it  was  with  Words- 
worth, whose  first  poetry  was  published  in  1793.  The  early  promise 
of  the  Frencli  Revolution  filled  him  with  enthusiasm,  but  its  ex- 
cesses disgusted  him,  and  he  soon  became  an  attached  admirer  of  the 
institutions    of    his    country.     It    was    not    this   adnnration,    how- 


578  ENGLAND 

1776-1832 

ever,  which  put  the  stamp  of  greatness  on  his  work,  but  his  open 
eye  fixed,  even  more  clearly  than  Scott's,  upon  the  influences  of 
nature  upon  the  human  soul,  and  a  loving  sympathy  with  the  lives 
of  the  poor. 

In  politics  and  in  law  the  same  influences  were  felt  as  in  litera- 
ture. As  the  horror  caused  by  the  French  Revolution  cleared  away, 
there  arose  a  general  dissatisfaction  with  the  existing  tendency  to 
uphold  what  exists  merely  because  it  exists.  The  dissatisfaction 
thus  caused  found  support  in  the  writings  of  Jeremy  Bentham,  who 
busied  himself  from  1776  to  his  death  in  1832  with  suggestions  of 
legal  and  political  reform.  Like  Voltaire  and  the  French  encyclo- 
pedists, he  asked  that  legislation  might  be  rational,  and  he  sought  a 
basis  for  rational  legislation  in  the  doctrine  of  utility.  The  object 
which  Bentham  desired,  therefore,  has  been  summed  up  in  the 
phrase  "  the  greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest  number."  It  was  in 
a  kindred  spirit  that  Romilly,  Mackintosh,  and  Peel  urged  on  the 
modification  of  the  criminal  law,  and  it  was  hardly  likely  that  a 
movement  of  this  kind,  when  once  begun,  would  be  soon  arrested. 


PART  XI 

THE  GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY 


Chapter   LVI 


FIRST    REFORM    BILL.     CATHOLIC    EMANCIPA- 
TION  AND   PARLIAMENTARY   REFORM 
1827 — 1832 

LEADING   DATES 

Reign  of  George  IV.,  A.D.  1820-1830 — Reign  of  William  IV.,  A.D. 
1830-1837 — Canning  Prime  Minister,  April  10,  1827 — Goderich 
Prime  Minister,  Aug.  8,  1827 — Battle  of  Navarino,  Oct.  20,  1827 — 
Wellington  Prime  Minister,  Jan.  9,  1828 — Repeal  of  the  Test  and 
Corporation  Acts,  1828 — Catholic  Emancipation  Act,  1829 — Death 
of  George  IV.,  and  Accession  of  William  IV.,  1830 — Lord  Grey's 
Ministry,  1830 — Introduction  of  the  Reform  Bill,  March  i,  1831 — 
The  Reform  Act  Becomes  Law,  Jan.  7,  1832 

DURING  the  latter  years  of  Liverpool's  Prime  Ministership 
two  questions  had  been  coming  into  prominence :  the  one 
that  of  Catholic  emancipation  by  the  admission  of  Cath- 
olics to  Parliament  and  to  offices  of  state ;  the  other  that  of  Parlia- 
mentary reform,  with  a  view  to  diminish  the  power  of  the  land- 
owners over  elections  to  the  House  of  Commons,  and  to  transfer 
at  least  part  of  their  power  to  enlarged  constituencies.  Of  the  lead- 
ing statesmen  Wellington  and  Peel  were  opposed  to  both  the  pro- 
posed changes ;  Canning  was  in  favor  of  Catholic  emancipation, 
but  opposed  to  Parliamentary  reform ;  while  tlie  Whigs,  the  most 
noteworthy  of  whom  were  Earl  Grey  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
Lord  Althorp  and  Lord  John  Russell  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
were  favorable  to  both. 

Before  Liverpool  left  office  a  resolution  in  favor  of  Catholic 
emancipation  was  defeated  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  the  slight 
majority  of  four,  and  almost  immediately  afterwards  Canning,  who 
had  spoken  and  voted  for  it,  was  appointed  Prime  Minister.  Seven 
of  the  former  ministers,  including  Wellington  and  Peel,  refused  to 
serve  under  liim.  On  tlic  other  IkuuI  he  obtained  the  support  of 
the  Whigs,  to  a  few  of  whom  othce  was  sb.ortly  afterwards  given. 
The  Whigs  had  been  long  un]:)0])ular.  on  account  of  the  opposition 
wiiich  they  had  offered  to  the  war  with  l-'rance  even  while  Welling- 
ton v.-as  conducting  his  great  campaign:;  in  the  Peninsula;  but  they 


582  ENGLAND 

1827-1828 

had  now  a  chance  of  recovering  pubhc  favor  by  associating  them- 
selves with  domestic  reforms.  There  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that 
Canning's  ministry,  if  it  had  lasted,  conld  only  have  maintained 
itself  by  a  more  extended  admission  of  the  Whigs  to  power.  Can- 
ning's health  was,  however,  failing,  and  on  August  8  he  died, 
having  been  Prime  Minister  for  less  than  four  months. 

Canning  was  succeeded  by  Goderich,  who  had  formerly,  as 
Mr.  Robinson,  been  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  His  colleagues 
quarreled  with  one  another,  and  Goderich  was  too  weak  a  man  to 
settle  their  disputes.  Before  the  end  of  the  year  news  arrived 
which  increased  their  differences.  On  July  6,  while  Canning  still 
lived,  a  treaty  had  been  signed  in  London  between  England,  France, 
and  Russia,  binding  the  three  Powers  to  offer  mediation  between 
the  Turks  and  the  Greeks,  and,  in  the  event  of  either  party  reject- 
ing their  mediation,  to  put  an  end  by  force  to  the  struggle  which 
was  going  on.  The  fleets  of  the  allies  arrived  later.  The  combined 
fleet  compelled  the  Turkish  and  Egyptian  fleet  to  remain  inactive. 
On  land,  however,  Ibrahim,  who  commanded  the  army,  transported 
in  it  from  Egy-pt,  proceeded  deliberately  to  turn  the  soil  of  Pelo- 
ponnesus into  a  desert,  slaying  and  wasting  as  he  moved.  On 
October  20  the  allied  admirals  entered  the  Bay  of  Navarino.  A 
battle  ensued  in  which  half  of  the  Egyptian  fleet  was  destroyed, 
and  the  remainder  submitted.  The  victory  made  Greek  independ- 
ence possible.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Canning,  if  he  had 
lived,  would  have  been  overjoyed  at  the  result.  Goderich  and  his 
colleagues  in  the  ministry  could  not  agree  whether  the  English 
admiral  deserved  praise  or  blame.  There  were  fresh  quarrels 
among  them,  and  on  January  9,  1828,  Goderich  formally  re- 
signed. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  became  Prime  Minister,  and  Peel 
again  became  Home  Secretary  and  the  leading  minister  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  The  new  ministry,  from  which  the  Whigs 
were  rigorously  excluded,  was  to  be  like  Lord  Liverpool's,  one  in 
which  Catholic  emancipation  was  to  be  an  open  question,  each 
minister  being  at  liberty  to  speak  and  vote  on  it  as  he  thought  fit. 
Those  who  supported  it,  of  whom  Huskisson  was  one,  were  now 
known  as  Canningites.  from  their  attachment  to  the  principles  of 
that  minister.  It  was.  however,  unlikely  that  the  two  sections  of 
the  mmistn,'  would  long  hold  together,  especially  as  the  question  of 
Parliamentary  reform  was  now  rising  into  importance,   and  the 


FIRST     REFORM     BILL  583 

1819-1828 

Canningites  showed  a  disposition  to  break  away  on  this  point  from 
Wellington  and  Peel,  who  were  strongly  opposed  to  any  change  in 
the  constitution  of  Parliament. 

The  cause  of  Parliamentary  reform  had  suffered  much  from 
the  sweeping  nature  of  the  proposals  made  after  the  great  war  by 
Hunt  and  Sir  Francis  Burdett.  In  1819  the  question  was  taken 
up  by  a  young  Whig  member,  Lord  John  Russell,  who  perceived 
that  the  only  chance  of  prevailing  with  the  House  of  Commons 
was  to  ask  it  to  accept  much  smaller  changes.  In  18 19  he  drew 
attention  to  the  subject,  and  in  1820  asked  for  the  disfranchise- 
ment, at  the  next  election,  of  four  places  in  Devon  and  Cornwall, 
in  which  corruption  notoriously  prevailed.  His  proposal,  accepted 
by  the  Commons,  was  rejected  by  the  Lords.  In  a  new  Parliament 
which  met  later  in  the  same  year  Lord  John  proposed  to  disfran- 
chise Grampound  and  to  transfer  its  members  to  Leeds,  thus  touch- 
ing one  of  the  great  political  grievances  of  the  day,  the  possession 
of  the  right  of  returning  members  by  small  villages,  while  it  was 
refused  to  large  communities  like  Birmingham  and  Leeds.  The 
House  was,  however,  frightened  at  the  idea  of  giving  power  to 
populous  towns,  and  in  1821,  when  the  Bill  for  Disfranchising 
Grampound  was  actually  passed,  its  members  were  transferred, 
not  to  Leeds  but  to  Yorkshire,  which  thus  came  to  return  four 
members  instead  of  two.  A  first  step  had  thus  been  taken  in  the 
direction  of  reform,  and  Lord  John  Russell  from  time  to  time  at- 
tempted to  obtain  the  assent  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  a  pro- 
posal to  take  into  consideration  the  whole  subject.  Time  after 
time,  however,  his  motions  w'ere  rejected,  and  in  1827  Lord  John 
fell  back  on  his  former  plan  of  separately  attacking  corrupt 
boroughs.  In  1827  Penryn  and  East  Retford  having  been  found 
guilty  of  corruption,  he  obtained  a  vote  in  the  Commons  for  the 
disfranchisement  of  Penryn,  while  the  disfranchisement  of  East 
Retford  was  favorably  considered,  and  it  was  understood  that  Lord 
John  would  make  fresh  proposals  in  the  following  year. 

In  1828,  after  the  formation  of  the  Wellington  Ministry,  be- 
fore the  question  of  the  corrupt  boroughs  was  discussed,  Russell 
was  successful  in  removing  another  grievance.  He  proposed  to 
repeal  the  Corporation  Act,  and  the  Test  Act,  so  far  as  it  compelled 
all  applicants  for  office  and  for  scats  in  Parliament  to  receive  the 
Communion  in  the  Church  of  England.  By  this  means  relief 
would  be  given  to  Dissenters,  while  Roman  Catholics  would  still 


584  ENGLAND 

1823-1829 

be  excluded  by  the  clause  which  required  a  declaration  against 
transubstantiation  and  which  Russell  did  not  propose  to  repeal. 
Russell's  scheme  was  resisted  by  the  ministers  but  accepted  by  the 
House,  and  it  finally  became  law,  passing  the  House  of  Lords  upon 
the  addition  of  a  clause  suggested  by  Peel,  requiring  a  declaration 
from  Dissenters  claiming  to  hold  office  or  to  sit  in  Parliament  or  in 
municipal  corporations  that  they  would  not  use  their  power  "  to 
injure  or  subvert  the  Established  Church."  It  was  thus  made  evi- 
dent that  Peel  could  not  be  counted  on  to  resist  change  as  abso- 
lutely as  Sidmouth  could  have  been  calculated  on  when  the  reaction 
against  the  French  Revolution  was  at  its  height.  He  was  practical 
and  cautious,  not  easily  caught  by  new  ideas,  but  prompt  to  dis- 
cover when  resistance  became  more  dangerous  than  concession,  and 
resolutely  determined  to  follow  honestly  his  intellectual  convictions. 

The  ministry  had  been  distracted  by  constant  squabbles,  and 
at  last,  in  May,  1828,  Huskisson  and  the  other  Canningites  resigned 
and  it  was  reconstructed  on  purely  Tory  lines.  The  Tories  w'ere  in 
ecstasies,  forgetting  that  their  leaders.  Wellington  and  Peel,  were 
too  sensible  to  pursue  a  policy  of  mere  resistance. 

The  main  question  on  which  the  Tories  took  one  side  and  the 
Whigs  and  Canningites  the  otlier,  was  that  of  Catholic  emancipa- 
tion. That  question  now  assumed  a  new  prominence.  In  Ireland 
it  was  advocated  by  Daniel  O'Connell,  leader  of  a  great  society,  the 
Catholic  Association,  which  had  been  formed  in  1823  to  support 
Catholic  emancipation. 

In  1828  Vesey  Fitzgerald,  member  for  the  County  of  Clare, 
was  promoted  to  an  office  previously  held  by  one  of  the  Can- 
ningites, and  liad.  cijnsequently.  to  present  himself  for  re-election. 
O'Connell  st(jo(l  in  opposition  to  him  for  the  vacant  seat.  All 
the  intluence  of  tlie  priests  was  thrown  on  his  side,  and  he  was 
triumpliantly  returned,  tiiough  it  was  known  that  he  would  refuse 
to  declare  against  transuljstantiation,  and  would  thus  be  prevented 
by  the  unrcpca.Ied  clause  of  tiie  Test  Act  from  taking  his  seat  in  the 
House  of  Ci  'mnions. 

When  Parliament  met  in  1829  it  was  discovered  that  the 
Government  intended  to  grant  Catholic  emancipation,  to  which  it 
had  hitherto  been  bitterly  opjjosed.  Wellington  looked  at  the  mat- 
t^T  with  a  soldier's  eye.  He  did  ncjt  like  to  admit  the  Catholics, 
and  liad  liel-l  the  jxi-^ition  again,-,!  them  as  long  as  it  was  tenable, 
it  was  now,  ni  hi.>  opini,,,!,  untenable,  because  to  rciect  the  Catholic 


FIRST     REFORM     BILL  585 

1789-1830 

claims  would  bring  about  a  civil  war,  and  a  civil  war  was  worse 
than  the  proposed  legislation.  He  felt  it,  therefore,  to  be  his  duty 
to  retreat  to  another  position,  from  which  civil  order  could  be 
better  defended.  Peel's  mind  moved  slowly,  but  it  moved  certainly, 
and  he  now  appeared  as  a  defender  of  Catholic  relief  on  principle. 
A  bill,  giving  effect  to  the  intentions  of  the  Government,  was 
brought  in.  The  anger  of  the  Tories  was  exceedingly  great.  The 
king  resisted,  but  the  resistance  of  George  IV.,  now  a  weak  old 
voluptuary,  was  easily  beaten  down.  The  Commons  passed  the 
bill,  throwing  open  Parliament,  and  all  offices  except  a  few  of 
special  importance,  to  the  Roman  Catholics,  after  which  the  House 
of  Lords,  under  Wellington's  influence,  accepted  it.  The  bill 
therefore  became  law,  accompanied  by  another  for  disfranchising 
forty-shilling  freeholders  in  Ireland.  These  freeholders  had  been 
allowed  to  vote  as  long  as  their  votes  were  given  to  the  landlords; 
their  votes  were  taken  from  them  now  that  they  were  given  to  the 
candidates  supported  by  the  priests. 

Catholic  emancipation  was  the  result  of  the  spread  of  one  of 
the  principles  which  had  actuated  the  French  Revolutionists  in 
1789,  the  principle  that  religious  opinions  ought  not  to  be  a  bar 
to  the  exercise  of  civil  or  political  rights.  It  was — as  far,  at  least, 
as  Great  Britain  was  concernei — not  the  result  of  any  democratic 
movement.  The  mass  of  Englishmen  and  Scotchmen  still  enter- 
tained a  strong  dislike  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  it  has  often 
been  said,  perhaps  with  truth,  that  if  Parliament  had  been  reformed 
in  1829,  the  Emancipation  Bill  would  have  been  rejected.  The 
position  of  the  ministers  in  the  House  of  Commons  was  weakened 
in  consequence  of  the  enmity  of  many  of  their  old  supporters, 
while  the  opposition,  composed  of  Whigs  and  Canningiles,  was 
not  likely  to  give  them  constant  support.  In  the  course  of  1830 
the  Whigs  chose  Lord  Althorp  as  their  leader,  who,  though  he  had 
no  commanding  genius,  inspired  confidence  by  his  thorough 
honesty.  Before  the  effect  of  this  change  appeared  George  IV. 
(lied,  unregretted,  on  June  26. 

The  eldest  surviving  brother  of  the  late  king  succeeded  as 
William  IV.  He  was  eccentric,  and  courted  popularity  by  walking 
about  the  streets,  and  allowed  himself  to  be  treated  with  the  ut- 
most familiarity  by  his  subjects.  Some  people  thought  that,  like 
his  father,  he  would  be  a  lunatic  before  he  died.  A  new  Parlia- 
ment was  elected  in  which  tlie  Tories,  though  they  lost  many  seats, 


586  ENGLAND 

1829-1830 

Still  had  a  majority;  but  it  was  a  majority  divided  against  itself. 
Events  occurred  on  the  continent  which  tended  to  weaken  still 
further  the  Wellington  ministry.  A  popular  democratic  revolu- 
tion in  France  overthrew  Charles  X.  in  1830  and  placed 
his  distant  cousin,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  on  the  throne  as 
a  constitutional  monarch.  Such  a  movement  in  a  neighboring 
nation  could  not  fail  to  influence  Englishmen,  especially  as 
there  was  a  feeling  now  spreading  in  England  in  some 
respects  analogous  to  that  which  existed  in  France.  Charles  X, 
had  been  deposed  not  merely  because  he  claimed  absolute  power, 
but  because  he  did  so  in  the  interests  of  the  aristocracy  as  opposed 
to  those  of  the  middle  class,  and  in  England,  too,  the  middle  class 
was  striving  to  assert  itself  against  the  landowners  who  almost  ex- 
clusively filled  the  two  Houses.  The  lead  was  taken  by  the  Bir- 
mingham Political  Union,  and  all  over  the  country  demands  were 
made  for  Parliamentary  reform. 

In  the  House  of  Lords,  when  a  new  Parliament  was  opened 
in  November,  Lord  Grey — who  as  Mr.  Grey  had  urged  the  neces- 
sity of  reforming  Parliament  in  the  early  days  of  the  great  French 
Revolution — suggested  to  Wellington  that  it  would  be  well  to 
bring  in  such  a  measure  now.  Wellington  not  only  refused,  but 
added  that  if  he  had  to  form  for  the  first  time  a  legislature  for  the 
country  he  did  not  mean  to  assert  that  he  could  form  such  a  legis- 
lature as  they  possessed  now,  for  the  nature  of  man  was  in- 
capable of  reaching  such  excellence  at  once;  but  his  great  endeavor 
would  be  to  form  some  description  of  legislature  which  would  pro- 
duce the  same  results.  After  this  his  ministry  was  doomed.  On 
Xi)venil)er  15  it  was  defeated  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  a  com- 
biii.-uicii  'ooiween  the  opposition  and  dissatisfied  Tories,  and  Well- 
ingUi-  at  once  resigned.  He  had  done  good  service  to  the  state, 
having  practiced  econoniy  and  maintained  efficiency.  In  London 
his  ministry  made  its  mark  by  the  introduction,  in  1829.  of  a  new 
l)()l:cc,  in  the  place  of  the  old  useless  constables  who  allowed  thieves 
to  escape  instead  of  catching  them.  Tlie  nicknames  of  "  Bobby  " 
and  '•J'et'Icr"  wliich  long  attached  tlicmsclves  to  policemen  had 
their  origin  in  the  name  of  Robert  Peel.  Ijy  whom  the  force  was 
(irgani/c'l. 

Lord  ( ircy  became  the  head  of  a  ministry  composed  of  Whigs 
and  Canin'ni^ite-^.  Among  the  former  were  Lord  John  Russell. 
Lord   Akhorp,    who   led   the  House   of   Commons,   and   Viscount 


FIRST     REFORM     BILL  587 

1830-1831 

Melbourne,  a  man  of  great  abilities  and  great  indolence  of  tempera- 
ment, of  whom  it  was  said  that  his  usual  answer  to  proposals  of 
reform  was,  "Can't  you  let  it  alone?"  Among  the  latter  was 
Lord  Palmerston,  another  Canningite,  who  had  long  been  known  as 
a  painstaking  official  of  considerable  powers,  but  who  now  for  the 
first  time  found  a  position  worthy  of  him  by  becoming  Secretary 
for  Foreign  Affairs.  Brougham,  a  stirring  but  eccentric  orator, 
was  made  Lord  Chancellor  to  keep  him  from  being  troublesome  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  To  Lord  John  Russell  an  inferior  office 
was  assigned,  and  he  was  not  made  a  member  of  the  Cabinet,  but, 
in  consequence  of  the  services  which  he  had  rendered  to  the  cause 
of  Parliamentary  reform,  he  was  entrusted  with  the  task  of  bring- 
ing before  the  House  of  Commons  the  bill  which  the  new  Govern- 
ment proposed  to  introduce  on  that  subject. 

The  Reform  Bill  was  brought  in  by  Russell  on  March  i,  1831. 
He  had  an  easy  task  in  exposing  the  faults  of  the  old  system.  Old 
Sarum,  which  returned  two  members,  was  only  a  green  mound, 
without  a  habitation  upon  it.  Gatton,  which  also  returned  two 
members,  was  only  a  ruined  wall,  while  vast  communities  like 
Birmingham  and  Manchester  were  totally  unrepresented.  The 
proposal  of  the  ministry  was  to  sweep  away  sixty  small  boroughs 
returning  1 19  members,  and  to  give  only  one  member  apiece  in- 
stead of  two  to  forty-six  other  boroughs  nearly  as  small.  Most  of 
the  seats  thus  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  ministry  were  to  be 
given,  in  almost  equal  proportions,  to  the  counties  and  the  great 
towns  of  England,  a  few  being  reserved  for  Scotland  and  Ireland. 
In  the  counties,  the  franchise  or  right  of  voting  which  had  hitherto 
been  confined  to  the  possessors  of  a  freehold  worth  40s.  a  year,  was 
conferred  also  on  persons  holding  land  worth  10/.  a  year  by  copy- 
hold, or  50/.  a  year  by  lease.^  In  the  boroughs  a  uniform  franchise 
was  given  to  all  householders  paying  rent  of  10/.  a  year. 

The  Tories  were  numerous  in  tb.e  House  of  Commons,  and 
opposed  the  bill  as  revolutionary.  Many  of  them  shared  the 
opinion  of  Wellington,  who  believed  that  if  it  passed  the  poor 
would  seize  the  property  of  the  rich  and  divide  it  among  them- 
selves. In  reality,  the  character  of  the  voters  in  the  counties  would 
be  much  the  same  as  it  had  been  before,  while  the  majority  oi  ilic 

^  The  copyhold  is  so  called  because  it  is  a  tenure  of  which  the  only  evidence  is 
a  copy  of  the  Court  Roll  of  a  Manor.  It  is  a  perpetual  holding  subject  to  certain 
payments.     Leasehold  is  a  tenure  for  a  term  of  years  by  lease. 


588  ENGLAND 

1831 

voters  in  the  boroughs  would  be  the  smaller  shopkeepers,  who  were 
not  in  the  least  likely  to  attack  property.  The  second  reading  of 
the  bill,  however,  only  passed  by  a  majority  of  one,  and  a  hostile 
amendment  to  one  of  its  clauses  having  been  carried,  the  Govern- 
ment withdrew  the  bill  and  dissolved  Parliament  in  order  that  the 
question  might  be  referred  to  the  electors. 

In  times  of  excitement  the  electors  contrived  to  impress  their 
feelings  on  Parliament,  even  under  the  old  system  of  voting.  From 
one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other  a  cry  was  heard  of  "  The  Bill, 
the  whole  Bill,  and  nothing  but  the  Bill."  The  new  House  of 
Commons  had  an  enormous  Whig  majority.  The  Reform  Bill, 
slightly  amended,  was  again  brought  in  by  Russell,  to  whom  a 
seat  in  the  Cabinet  had  been  at  last  given.  In  the  course  of  dis- 
cussion in  the  Commons  a  clause,  known  as  the  Chandos  clause, 
from  the  name  of  its  proposer,  was  introduced,  extending  the  fran- 
chise in  counties  to  50/.  tenants  at  will.  As  these  new  voters 
would  be  afraid  to  vote  against  their  landlords  for  fear  of  being 
turned  out  of  their  farms,  the  change  was  satisfactory  to  the 
Tories.  Yet,  after  the  bill  thus  altered  had  passed  the  House  of 
Commons,  it  was.  on  October  8,  rejected  by  the  House  of  Lords. 

The  news  of  the  rejection  of  the  bill  was  received  with  a 
torrent  of  indignation.  Meetings  were  everywhere  held  in  sup- 
port of  the  Government.  In  the  House  of  Commons  ]\Iacaulay 
urged  the  ministry  to  persist  in  its  course.  "  The  public  enthusi- 
asm," he  said,  ''  is  undiminished.  I  know  only  two  ways  in  which 
societies  can  be  governed — by  public  opinion  and  by  the  sword. 
A  government  having  at  its  command  the  armies,  the  fleets,  and  the 
revenues  of  Cireat  Britain  might  possibly  hold  Ireland  by  the 
s^vord ;  .  .  .  but  to  govern  Great  Britain  by  the  sword,  so 
wild  a  lliou'^ht  has  never  occurred  to  any  public  man  of  any  party. 
•  •  •  I-tl  us  say  to  (jur  countrymen  '  W'c  are  your  leaders. 
Our  lawtiil  power  shall  be  firmly  exerted  to  the  utmost  in  your 
cause;  and  ..ui-  lawful  ])o\vcr  is  such  tliat  it  must  finally  prevail.'  "' 
It  was  a  nuiely  warning.  Outside  Parliamen.t  there  were  men  who 
tiiou-lii  iliai  MMtliiug  l)ut  fiMTc  v.ould  l).'ar  down  the  resistance 
(jf  the  Lords.  '\'\]v  liirmingh.am  I'olilical  Union  held  a  meeting 
•''  \'>hi(li  tip.sc  wh'i  were;  present  engaged  to  pay  no  taxes  if  the 
'^^■''"■'"  '■'"  ^^^■'■^'  ■•i.^aui  rejected.  At  Ihastol  there  were  fierce 
r!"ts  in  vJ:-eli  li    ihc  ^  were  I)urne(l  and  men  killed. 

On  Deeen-iher  i  j,   1 S^^  [ .  ihe  Reform  Pill  was  a-ain.  for  a  third 


FIRST     REFORM     BILL  689 

1802-1832 

time,  brought  into  the  House  of  Commons.  On  March  23,  1832, 
it  was  passed,  and  the  Lords  had  then  once  more  to  consider  it. 
On  April  14  they  passed  the  second  reading.  On  May  7,  on  the 
motion  of  Lord  Lyndhurst,  who  had  been  Chancellor  in  Welling- 
ton's ministry,  they  adopted  a  substantial  alteration  in  it.  The 
ministers  at  once  asked  the  king  to  create  fifty  new  peers  to  carry 
the  bill.  The  king,  who  was  getting  frightened  at  the  turmoil  in 
the  country,  refused,  and  ministers  resigned.  Wellington  was  ready 
to  take  office,  giving  his  support  to  a  less  complete  Reform  Bill, 
but  Peel  refused  to  join  him,  and  Lord  Grey's  Government  was 
reinstated,  receiving  from  the  king  a  promise  to  create  peers  if 
necessary.  On  this  Wellington,  unwilling  to  see  the  House  of 
Lords  swamped  by  fresh  creations,  persuaded  many  of  his  friends 
to  abstain  from  voting.  The  bill  met  with  no  further  obstacles, 
and,  on  June  7,  became  an  Act  of  Parliament  by  the  Royal  Assent. 

In  its  final  shape  the  Reform  Act  absolutely  disfranchised 
forty-one  boroughs  and  took  away  one  member  from  thirty  others. 
Thereby,  and  by  its  alteration  of  the  franchise,  it  accomplished  a 
great  transference  of  power,  in  favor  of  the  middle  classes  in  the 
towns.  Though  it  did  not  establish  a  democracy,  it  took  a  long 
step  in  that  direction. 

The  advent  of  the  middle  classes  to  power  was  prepared  by 
a  series  of  material  improvements  by  which  they  were  especially 
benefited.  The  canals  made  in  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of 
George  HL  no  longer  sufficed  to  carry  the  increased  traffic  of 
the  country.  Attention  was  therefore  paid  to  tlie  improvement 
of  the  roads.  Telford,  a  Scotchman,  taught  road-makers  that  it 
was  better  to  go  round  a  hill  than  to  climb  over  it,  and,  beginning 
in  1802,  he  was  employed  for  eighteen  years  in  improving  the 
communications  in  Scotland  and  Wales  by  making  good  roads 
and  iron  bridges.  He  and  another  Scotchman,  Macadam,  also 
improved  the  surface  of  the  roads,  which  had  hitherto  been  made 
of  gravel  or  flint,  thrown  down  at  random.  Telford  ordered  the 
large  stones  to  be  broken  and  mixed  with  fine  gravel,  and  Macadam 
pursued  tlie  same  course  round  Bristol.  Through  these  improve- 
ments tra\'eling  became  more  easy,  and  coaches  flew  about  the 
country  at  what  was  considered  to  be  the  wonderful  rate  of  ten 
miles  an  hour. 

The  first  application  of  steam  to  hjcomotion  was  in  vessels. 
The  first   steamboat   in   Great    Britain,    'riic   Coiiicf,   the   work    of 


590  ENGLAND 

1811-1830 

Henry  Bell,  plied  on  the  Clyde  in  1812,  though  Fulton  in  America 
had  made  a  steamboat  in  1811.^  It  was  not  till  later  that  a  steam- 
engine  was  made  to  draw  travelers  and  goods  by  land.  Of  many 
attempts,  none  succeeded  till  the  matter  was  taken  in  hand  by 
George  Stephenson,  the  son  of  a  poor  collier  in  Northumberland. 
He  had  learned  something  about  machinery  in  the  colliery  in  which 
he  worked  as  a  boy,  and  when  he  grew  up  he  saved  money  to  pay 
for  instruction  in  reading  and  writing.  He  began  as  an  engineer 
by  mending  a  pumping-engine,  and  at  last  attempted  to  construct 
a  locomotive.  His  new  engine,  constructed  in  18 14,  was  not  suc- 
cessful at  first,  and  it  made  such  a  noise  that  it  was  popularly 
known  as  "  Puffing  Billy."  In  1816  he  improved  it  sufficiently  to 
enable  it  to  draw  trucks  of  coal  on  tramlines  from  the  colliery  to 
the  river.  At  last,  in  1825,  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway 
was  opened  for  the  conveyance  of  passengers  as  well  as  goods, 
and  both  the  line  and  the  locomotive  used  on  it  were  constructed 
under  Stephenson's  management.  The  new  engine  was  able  to 
draw  ninety  tons  at  the  rate  of  eight  miles  an  hour. 

In  1825  it  was  resolved  to  make  a  railway  between  Liverpool 
and  Manchester,  and  Stephenson  was  employed  as  the  engineer. 
In  1829,  when  it  was  finished,  the  proprietors  were  frightened  at 
the  idea  of  employing  steam-engines  upon  it,  till  Stephenson  per- 
suaded them  to  offer  a  prize  for  an  improved  locomotive.  Four 
inventors,  of  whom  Stephenson  was  one,  sent  in  engines  to  com- 
pete. Stephenson's,  which  was  called  the  Rocket,  was  the  only 
one  which  would  move,  and  finally  ran  at  the  rate  of  thirty-five 
miles  an  hour.  After  that  there  was  no  doubt  that  Stephenson's 
was  the  only  engine  likely  to  be  of  any  use.  Unfortunately  the 
experiment  cost  the  life  of  a  statesman.  Huskisson,  who  had 
quarreled  with  Wellington  in  1828,  seeing  him  in  a  railway  car- 
nage, stepped  up  to  shake  hands,  when  he  was  himself  run  over 
by  the  Rocket  and  killed. 

Mt  i,  possible  that  Fulton  and  Bell  had  conceived  the  idea  together,  as  they 
nai  l»ccn  co-v,orker». 


Chapter    LVII 

THE    REFORMERS    IN    POWER.      1832— 1841 

LEADING    DATES 

William  IV.,  A.D.  1830-1837 — Victoria,  1837-1901 — Abolition  of 
Slavery,  1833 — The  New  Poor  Law,  1834 — Peel's  First  Ministry, 
1834 — The  Second  Melbourne  Ministry,  1835 — Accession  of  Vic- 
toria, 1837 — Resignation  and  Reinstatement  of  the  Melbourne 
Ministry,  1839 — Final  Resignation  of  the  Melbourne  Ministry, 
1841 

BEFORE  the  end  of  1832  a  Parliament  met,  in  which  the 
House  of  Commons  was  elected  by  the  new  constituencies 
created  by  the  Reform  Act.  The  Ministerialists  were  in  an 
enormous  majority,  all  of  them  anxious  to  make  use  of  their 
victory  by  the  introduction  of  practical  reforms.  There  was,  how- 
ever, considerable  difference  among  them  as  to  the  reforms  desir- 
able, the  Radicals  wishing  to  go  much  farther  than  the  Whigs. 
To  conceal,  as  far  as  possible,  this  difference,  a  new  name — that 
of  Liberals — was  borrowed  from  continental  politicians,  to  cover 
the  whole  party.  Their  opponents,  finding  the  name  of  Tories 
unpopular,  began  to  call  themselves  Conservatives. 

One  of  the  first  difficulties  which  the  Government  had  to  face 
was  that  of  Irish  tithes.  In  183 1  and  1832  the  payment  of  tithes 
was  often  refused,  and  the  collectors  were  sometimes  murdered. 
General  outrages  also  increased.  The  Government  was  divided 
as  to  the  proper  measures  to  be  adopted.  The  Chief  Secretary — 
the  minister  specially  entrusted  with  Irish  affairs — was  Stanley,  a 
man  of  great  abilities  and  a  fiery  temper,  who  wished  to  accompany 
proposals  of  redress  by  strong  measures  for  the  coercion  of  those 
by  whom  the  law  was  resisted.  His  policy  was  described  as  a 
"  quick  alternation  of  kicks  and  kindness."  On  the  other  hand, 
O'Connell  had  begun  to  denounce  the  Union  Ixitween  Ireland  and 
Great  Britain  and  to  ask  for  its  repeal.  In  1833  Stanley  brought 
in  a  bill  for  the  trial  of  offenders  in  disturbed  districts  by  courts- 
martial.  As  soon  as  this  had  been  passed  Althorp  brought  in  an- 
other bill  to  reduce  the  number  of  Irish  bishops. 

591 


592  ENGLAND 

1833-1834 

Stanley  had  made  so  many  enemies  in  Ireland  that  it  was 
thought  advisable  to  remove  him  from  his  post.  He  became 
Colonial  Secretary,  and  was  at  once  confronted  with  the  question 
of  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  British  colonies.  For  some  years 
Sir  Thomas  Fowell  Buxton  and  Zachary  Macaulay  (the  father  of 
Macaulay  the  historian)  had  been  pleading  the  cause  of  the  slave. 
In  the  West  Indies  slaves  were  often  subjected  to  brutal  cruelty. 
When  Stanley  came  into  office,  new  as  he  was  to  the  details  of  the 
subject,  he  mastered  them  in  three  weeks,  and  carried  a  bill  for  the 
complete  abolition  of  slavery,  though  leaving  the  former  slaves 
apprentices  to  their  late  masters  for  twelve  years.  The  purchase- 
money  given  by  Great  Britain  to  the  slave-owners  was  20,000,000/. 
The  apprenticeship  system  was  found  unsatisfactory  and  was  soon 
done  away  with. 

The  abolition  of  negro  slavery  was  accompanied  by  an  effort 
to  lighten  the  sorrows  of  factory  children  who  were  kept  at  work 
in  unwholesome  air  often  for  thirteen  hours  a  day.  Lord  Ashley, 
who  afterwards  became  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  took  up  their  cause, 
and  carried  a  bill  limiting  the  hours  of  labor  for  children  under 
thirteen  years  to  eight  hours  a  da}^,  and  for  children  between 
thirteen  and  eighteen  to  twelve  hours  a  da}^  though  he  would 
himself  have  preferred  a  stronger  measure.  This  law  was  the 
beginning  of  a  factory  legislation  which  has  done  much  to  make 
England  peaceable  and  contented. 

The  session  of  1834  was  occupied  with  a  measure  of  a  different 
kind.  The  Poor  Law,  as  it  existed,  was  a  direct  encouragement 
to  thriftlessness.  Relief  was  given  to  the  poor  at  random,  even 
when  they  were  earning  wages,  so  that  employers  of  labor  pre- 
ferred to  be  served  by  paupers,  because  part  of  the  wages  would 
then  be  paid  out  of  the  rates.  The  more  children  a  poor  man  had 
the  more  he  received  from  the  rates,  and  in  this  and  in  other  ways 
laborers  were  taught  that  they  would  be  better  off  by  being  de- 
pendent on  the  parish  than  by  striving  to  make  their  own  way  in 
the  world.  Tlie  consequent  increase  of  the  rates  had  become 
unbearal^le  to  those  who  had  to  pay  them;  in  one  parish,  for  in- 
stance, rates  which  had  been  less  than  11/.  in  1801  had  risen  to 
367/.  in  1832.  By  the  new  Poor  Law,  passed  in  1834,  workhouses 
were  built  and  no  person  was  to  receive  relief  who  did  not  consent 
to  live  in  one  of  tliem.  The  object  of  this  rule  was  that  no  one 
miglit  claim  lo  be  supported  by  others  who  was  capable  of  support- 


REFORMERS     IN     POWER  593 

1830-1834 

ing  himself,  and  residence  in  the  workhouse,  where  work  would  be 
required,  was  considered  as  the  best  test  of  real  poverty,  because  it 
was  thought  that  no  one  would  consent  to  go  in  unless  he  was 
really  distressed.  Afterwards  it  was  remembered  that  in  some 
cases,  such  as  those  of  old  people  who  could  not  work  even  if  they 
had  the  will,  no  such  test  was  required.  The  strict  rule  of  the 
law  was,  therefore,  subsequently  relaxed,  and  outdoor  relief 
granted  in  certain  cases. 

The  ministry  had  by  this  time  lost  much  of  its  popularity. 
Every  piece  of  successful  legislation  alienated  some  of  its  sup- 
porters, and  the  rapidity  of  the  changes  effected  by  the  reformed 
Parliament  frightened  many  easy-going  people.  Peel,  too,  who 
led  the  Conservatives  in  the  House  of  Commons,  was  growing  in 
favor  by  the  ability,  and  still  more  by  tlie  moderation,  which  he 
displayed.  The  ministers,  too,  disagreed  among  themselves. 
An  open  rupture  occurred  when  Lord  John  Russell  declared  for 
the  right  of  Parliament  to  appropriate  the  misused  revenues  of  the 
Irish  Church  to  other  purposes.  "  Johnny,"  wrote  Stanley  to  Sir 
James  Graham,  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  "  has  upset  the 
coach."  Stanley,  Graham,  and  Lord  Ripon — who  had  formerly 
been  known  as  Lord  Goderich — resigned  together.  Further  mis- 
understandings brought  about  the  resignation  of  Grey,  who  had 
been  an  excellent  Prime  Minister  as  long  as  the  Reform  question 
was  still  unsettled,  but  who  did  not  possess  the  qualities  needed  in 
the  head  of  a  divided  Cabinet.  He  was  succeeded  by  Lord  Alel- 
bourne,  and  Melbourne  contrived  to  keep  his  followers  together 
for  a  few  months.  In  November,  however.  Lord  Althorp,  who 
was  the  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  became  Earl  Spencer 
by  his  father's  death,  and  it  was  therefore  necessary  to  find  a  suc- 
cessor to  him.  The  king,  who  had  long  been  alienated  from  the 
Reformers,  took  advantage  of  the  occasion  to  dismiss  the  ministry. 
It  was  the  last  time  that  a  ministry  was  dismissed  by  a  sovereign. 

While  the  home  policy  of  the  Reform  ministry  had  been 
weakened  by  divisions  in  the  Cabinet,  its  foreign  policy  had  been  in 
the  strong  hands  of  Lord  Palnierston.  In  1830  the  revolution  at 
Paris  had  been  followed  by  a  revolution  at  Brussels,  the  object  of 
which  was  not  to  procure  internal  reforms,  but  to  separate  Belgium 
from  the  kingdom  of  the  Netherlands,  of  which  it  had  formed  a 
part  only  since  1814.  Lord  Palmerston's  policy  was  to  forward 
the  desire  of  the  Belgians  for  independence  and  at  the  same  time 


594  ENGL  A  N  D 

1830-1835 

to  hinder  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  France  to  annex  their  terri- 
tory. In  this,  with  the  assistance  of  Louis  Phihppe,  the  new  king 
of  the  French,  he  completely  succeeded.  The  keystone  of  Palmers- 
ton's  policy  was  an  alliance — not  too  trustful — between  the  con- 
stitutional monarchies  of  England  and  France,  which  was  drawn 
the  more  tightly  because  the  absolute  government  of  Austria 
crushed  all  attempts  at  resistance  in  Italy,  and  the  absolute  govern- 
ment of  Russia  put  down  with  great  harshness  an  attempt  by 
Poland  to  assert  her  independence.  To  these  two  monarchies 
Prussia  was  a  close  ally,  and  Europe  was  thus  divided  into  two 
camps,  the  absolute  and  the  constitutional. 

Sir  Robert  Peel,  having  been  appointed  Prime  Minister  by 
the  king,  dissolved  Parliament.  In  an  address  to  the  electors  of 
Tamworth,  the  borough  for  which  he  stood,  he  threw  off  the 
doctrines  of  the  old  Tories,  professing  himself  to  be  a  moderate 
but  conservative  reformer.  This  "  Tamworth  manifesto,"  as  it  was 
called,  served  his  party  in  good  stead.  The  Conservatives  gained 
seat  after  seat,  and  it  is  probable  that,  if  the  king  had  had  a  little 
more  patience  and  had  allowed  the  ministry  to  fall  to  pieces  of 
itself  instead  of  dismissing  it,  the  Conservatives  would  have  been 
in  a  majority.  As  it  was,  though  they  had  nearly  half  the  House, 
they  were  still  in  a  minority.  When  Parliament  met,  February 
19,  1835,  it  had  some  difficulty  in  finding  temporary  accommoda- 
tion, as  the  old  Houses  of  Parliament,  in  which  the  struggles  of 
nearly  three  centuries  had  been  conducted,  had  been  burned  to  the 
ground  in  the  preceding  October.  Peel  was  outvoted  from  the 
beginning,  but  he  insisted  on  bringing  in  his  measures  before  he 
would  retire,  and,  at  all  events,  had  the  satisfaction  of  showing  that 
he  was  capable  of  preparing  good  laws  as  well  as  of  giving  good 
advice.  The  Liberals,  however,  were  too  angr\^  to  adopt  even 
good  laws  when  proposed  by  a  minister  who  had  risen  to  power 
by  the  use  of  the  king's  prerogative.  Tb.ey  entered  into  an  agree- 
ment with  O'Connell,  knijwn.  from  tlie  place  where  its  terms  were 
settled,  as  the  Liclifield  House  Compact,  and,  having  thus  secured, 
by  the  support  of  tlie  Irish  members,  an  undivided  majority,  they 
insisted  on  the  aj^prr^priation  of  the  surplus  revenues  of  the  Irish 
Church  to  purposes  of  education.  Thev  carried  a  succession  of 
votes  on  this  subject,  and,  on  April  8,  1835.  Peel  resigned.  He  left 
behind  him  a  general  impression  that  he  was  the  first  statesman  in 
the  country. 


VICTORIA    ALEXA.VDKIN  \,    (U   Ih\    OF    CKKAT    I:K1TA1\     AN'D 
1  \I  I'UI  ss    ol      I  Ml!  A 

(  I'.oni     iSio.        I  )ir.l     igni  ) 
I'diiiliiii^    by    1  luimas   Sully 


REFORMERS     IN     POWER  Bdo 

1835-1838 

Melbourne  again  became  Prime  Minister,  and  Russell  Home 
Secretary  and  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons.  The  first  great 
work  of  the  new  ministry  was  the  passing  of  a  Municipal  Corpora- 
tions Bill,  providing  that  corporations  should  be  elected  by  the 
ratepayers,  instead  of  being  self-chosen,  as  they  frequently  were. 
The  Tories  in  the  House  of  Lords,  where  they  had  a  large  majority, 
tried  to  introduce  considerable  alterations  in  it,  but  Peel  threw 
them  over  and  accepted  the  bill  with  a  few  changes,  so  that  it  be- 
came law  without  further  difficulty.  Peel  gained  in  credit  by 
subordinating  the  interests  of  his  party  to  those  of  the  country,  and 
the  ministry  consequently  lost  ground.  Their  weakness  was  ex- 
posed by  the  attitude  which  they  w^ere  obliged  to  assume  towards 
the  Lords  on  another  question.  The  Commons  passed  a  bill  for 
placing  Irish  tithes  upon  the  landlord  instead  of  the  tenant,  adding 
the  Appropriation  Clause  which  they  had  formerly  attempted  to 
attach  to  the  bill  for  the  reduction  of  the  number  of  bishops. 
The  Lords  threw  out  the  clause,  and  the  ministers  then  withdrew 
the  bill.  Attempts  made  in  later  years  to  get  the  bill  passed  with 
the  clause  equally  failed,  and  at  last,  in  1838,  ministers  ignomin- 
iously  dropped  the  clause,  upon  which  they  passed  the  bill  through 
both  Houses.  A  Government  with  the  House  of  Commons  and 
the  nation  at  its  back  can  in  modern  times  defy  the  House  of 
Lords.  Melbourne's  Government  tried  to  defy  it  with  the  sup- 
port of  the  House  of  Commons  but  without  the  support  of  the 
nation.  Consequently,  though  some  useful  measures  were  passed, 
the  Lords  were  able,  in  the  teeth  of  the  Government,  to  reject  any- 
thing they  disliked. 

On  June  20,  1837,  William  IV.  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
niece,  the  Princess  Victoria,  who  was  just  over  eighteen,  the  time 
of  life  at  which  heirs  to  the  throne  come  of  age.  Her  dignity  and 
grace  won  her  general  popularity,  and  the  ministry,  which  she  was 
known  to  favor,  regained  some  popularity,  and,  after  the  new  elec- 
tions had  been  held  in  the  autumn,  it  was,  as  before,  supported  by 
a  small  majority  in  the  Plouse  of  Commons. 

The  state  of  Canada  at  this  time  caused  great  difficulties  to 
the  ministry.  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  were  independent 
colonies,  the  population  of  the  former  being  almost  entirely  British, 
and  the  population  of  the  latter  being  preponderantly  French.  In 
both  there  were  loud  complaints  of  the  jobbery  and  misconduct  of 
the  Home  Government,  but  the    constitutional  arrangements  were 


596  ENGLAND 

1838-1841 

such  that  in  neither  colony  was  the  popularly  elected  Legislative 
Assembly  able  to  influence  the  action  of  the  colonial  government, 
by  which  the  Home  Government  was  represented.  The  feeling  in 
Lower  Canada  was  particularly  bitter,  as  the  French,  who  were 
attached  to  their  own  ways,  resented  the  pushing,  self-satisfied  be- 
havior of  English  settlers  who  came  among  them.  The  Colonial 
Secretary  in  England,  Lord  Glenelg,  was  not  enough  of  a  states- 
man to  find  a  satisfactory  remedy  for  the  grievances  of  the 
colonists,  and  in  1837  a  rebellion  burst  out  which  was,  indeed,  sup- 
pressed, but  which  alarmed  the  Home  Government  sufficiently  to 
induce  it  to  send  Lord  Durham  out  as  Commissioner,  with  full 
powers  to  arrange  all  difficulties,  so  far  as  he  could  do  so  in  accord- 
ance with  the  law.  Lord  Durham  was  the  ablest  man  of  the 
Liberal  party,  but  he  had  no  tact,  and  was  excessively  self-willed. 
On  his  arrival  in  Canada,  in  1838,  he  transported  to  Bermuda  eight 
persons  connected  with  the  rebellion,  and  ordered  that  fifteen  per- 
sons who  had  left  the  colony  should  be  put  to  death  if  they  came 
back.  As  1x)th  these  orders  were  illegal  the  Home  Government 
recalled  him,  but  they  took  his  advice  after  his  return,  and  joined 
together  the  two  colonies,  at  the  same  time  altering  the  constitu- 
tion so  as  to  give  control  over  the  executive  to  the  Legislative  As- 
sembly. The  union  between  the  colonies,  which  was  intended  to 
prevent  the  French  of  Lower  Canada  having  entirely  their  own 
way  in  their  own  colony,  was  proposed  in  1839  and  finally  pro- 
claimed in  1 84 1.  The  new  arrangements  gave  satisfaction  to  both 
colonies  for  the  time. 

The  condition  of  Ireland  under  the  Melbourne  Government 
was  mucli  impro\-ed.  and  its  improvement  was  due  to  the  ability 
and  firmness  of  Thomas  Drummnnd,  the  Under-Secretary.  He  so 
thoroughly  won  for  himself  the  good  will  of  the  Irish  Catholics 
that  O'Connell  laid  aside  for  a  time  the  crv  for  the  repeal  of  the 
union  which  he  liad  raised  under  Lord  Grey's  ministry.  In  1838 
a  Poor  Law  for  Ireland  was  passed,  to  ena])le  ?ome  relief  to  be  given 
to  those  who  were  in  danger  of  starvation,  and.  in  the  same  year, 
a  Tithe  Act  became  law  without  the  Appropriation  Clause,  upon 
which  the  ministers  had  hitherto  insisted,  thus  removing  one  of 
the  chief  causes  of  conflict  in  Ireland  hy  enacting  that  tithes  should 
be  levied  on  the  landrjwner  and  not  on  tlic  tenant. 

Though  Lord  .Melbourne's  Government  had  addressed  itself 
with  ability  to  the  sr^lution  of  most  of  the  (jucstions  of  the  day. 


REFORMERS     IN     POWER  597 

1838-1840 

it  had  no  longer  any  popular  sentiment  behind  it,  and  was  obliged 
to  submit  without  resistance  to  the  mutilation  or  rejection  of  its 
measures  by  the  House  of  Lords.  The  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, Spring  Rice,  who  was  a  poor  financier,  had  to  announce, 
without  venturing  to  provide  a  remedy,  that  the  national  expendi- 
ture was  greater  than  the  national  income.  The  mere  fact  that  the 
Government  found  itself  baffled,  weakened  it  both  in  Parliament 
and  in  the  nation;  and  accordingly,  in  1839,  the  Government  re- 
signed. Though  Peel,  who  was  summoned  to  succeed  Melbourne, 
had  no  difficulty  in  forming  a  ministry,  he  was  afraid  of  the  in- 
fluence which  the  Ladies  of  the  Bedchamber  exercised  over  the 
young  queen,  and  asked  that  the  sisters  and  wives  of  members  of 
the  late  Government  who  held  that  post  should  be  dismissed.  The 
queen,  being  unwilling  to  part  with  her  old  friends,  refused  to 
dismiss  them,  and  Peel  then  declined  to  form  a  ministry.  Mel- 
bourne returned  to  office,  hoping  to  be  more  popular  than  before,  as 
the  sympathy  of  the  country  was  on  the  side  of  the  queen. 

One  piece  of  reform  was  only  unwillingly  accepted  by  the  re- 
instated ministers.  Rowland  Hill,  an  officer  in  the  Post  Office, 
had  pondered  the  defects  and  high  charges  of  the  existing  postal 
system  and  asked  the  Government  to  reduce  the  postage  on  letters 
between  all  places  in  Great  Britain  and  L'eland  to  a  penny.  The 
change,  he  declared,  would  be  a  great  boon  to  the  poor,  and  also 
in  time  increase  instead  of  diminish  the  revenue  of  the  Govern- 
ment, as  the  number  of  letters  written  would  be  enormously  greater 
than  it  had  been  under  the  old  system.  As,  in  consequence  of  the 
large  increase  of  letters  carried,  the  postmen  would  no  longer  have 
time  to  collect  the  pennies  from  the  receivers,  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  charge  them  upon  the  senders,  and  this,  Rowland  Hill 
thought,  could  be  done  most  conveniently  by  making  them  buy 
postage  stamps,  which  had  been  before  unknown.  For  some  time 
the  Post  Office  officials  and  the  ministers  laughed  at  the  scheme,  but 
public  opinion  rose  in  its  favor,  and,  in  1839,  the  adoption  of  the 
new  system  was  ordered,  though  it  did  not  come  into  complete 
force  till  1840,  up  to  which  time  there  was  a  uniform  charge  of 
fourpence.  The  system  of  low  payments  and  postage  stamps  has 
since  been  adopted  by  every  country  in  the  civilized  world. 

/Vt  the  time  of  the  Refurm  Act  general  education  was  at  a 
low  ebb.  In  1833  I'arliament  for  the  tirsl  time  gave  assistance  to 
education  by  granting  20,000/.  annually  towards  the  building  of 


598  ENGLAND 

1839-1840 

schoolhouses.  In  1839  this  grant  was  increased  to  30.000/.,  and 
its  distribution  was  placed  under  the  direction  of  a  Committee  of 
the  Privy  Council,  called  the  "  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council 
on  Education."  in  whose  hands  the  management  of  public  instruc- 
tion has  rested  ever  since. 

In  1840  the  queen  married  her  first  cousin,  Prince  Albert  of 
Saxe-Coburg,  a  man  of  varied  learning  and  accomplishments. 
What  was  of  more  importance,  he  brought  with  him  affectionate 
devotion  to  his  young  wife,  together  with  a  tact  and  refinement 
of  mind  which  made  him  her  wisest  counselor.  Knowing  many 
things  about  which  Englishmen  at  that  time  cared  little,  he  did 
much  towards  the  developement  of  culture  and  art  in  the  country. 

The  policy  of  friendship  between  England  and  France,  which 
had  led  to  the  establishment  of  Belgian  independence,  had  been 
continued  by  Lord  Palmerston  during  the  early  stages  of  the  second 
]Melbourne  Ministry.  In  the  dispute  over  the  Spanish  succession, 
between  the  child  Isabella  and  Don  Carlos,  Louis  Philippe  and 
Palmerston  agreed  to  interfere  indirectly  on  behalf  of  Isabella 
against  the  Carlists.  The  habit  of  interfering  in  Spanish  quarrels 
led  to  a  habit  of  interfering  in  Spanish  politics,  and  as  France  and 
England  often  took  opposite  sides  in  supporting  or  assailing 
Spanish  ministries,  there  gradually  sprang  up  an  unfortunate  cool- 
ness between  the  two. 

The  results  of  the  interference  of  England  in  the  East  were 
more  momentous  than  the  results  of  her  interference  in  Spain. 
The  war  between  Eg}-pt  and  Turkey  led  the  latter  to  seek  aid  from 
her  old  enemy,  Russia,  who  in  return  for  her  support  gained  great 
advantages  in  the  Dardanelles.  France  and  England  were  unable 
to  agree  on  a  policy,  and  when  Russia  renounced  her  advantages 
and  joined  with  the  Great  Powers  except  France,  to  settle  the 
matter,  the  latter  was  deeply  exasperated,  and  made  every  prepara- 
tion for  war.  blatters  were  finally  smoothed  over  and  in  1841  all 
the  Powers,  including  Russia,  made  an  agreement  by  which  the 
Dardanelles  v.as  closed  against  the  warsliips  of  all  nations  unless 
the  Sultan  himself  was  at  war.  Time  was  thus  allowed  to  the 
Turks  to  show  whether  they  were  capable,  as  Palmerston  thought 
they  were,  of  reforming  their  own  go\ernment. 

The  Reform  Act  of  1832  had  brought  into  power  the  middle 
classes,  and  had  been  follc'wed  by  suc!i  legislation  as  was  satis- 
factorv   to   those  classes.     Little  had   been   done   for   the  artisans 


REFORMERS     IN     POWER  599 

1S37-1841 

and  the  poor,  and  their  condition  was  most  deplorable.  A  suc- 
cession of  bad  seasons  raised  the  price  of  wheat  from  a  little  over 
39^".  a  quarter  in  1835  to  a  little  over  yos.  in  1839.  Even  if  food 
had  been  cheap  the  masses  dwelling  in  great  cities  were  exposed  to 
misery  against  which  the  law  afforded  no  protection.  Crowded 
and  dirty  as  many  of  the  dwellings  of  the  poor  are,  their  condition 
was  far  w-orse  early  in  the  reign  of  Victoria.  In  Manchester,  for 
instance,  one-tenth  of  the  population  lived  in  cellars.  Each  of 
these  cellars  was  reached  through  a  small  area,  to  which  steps 
descended  from  a  court  often  flooded  with  stagnating  filth.  The 
cellar  itself  was  dark,  filled  with  a  horrible  stench.  Here  a  whole 
family  lived  in  a  single  room,  the  children  lying  on  the  "  damp, 
nay,  wet  brick  floor  through  which  the  stagnant  moisture  "  oozed 
up.  In  Bethnal  Green  and  other  parts  of  the  east  end  of  London 
things  were  quite  as  bad.  Overcrowding  added  to  the  horrors  of 
such  a  life.  One  small  cellar,  measuring  four  yards  by  five,  con- 
tained two  rooms  and  eight  persons,  sleeping  four  in  a  bed.  In 
some  parts  of  the  country  similar  evils  prevailed.  In  one  parish 
in  Dorset  thirty-six  persons  dwelt,  on  an  average,  in  each  house. 
All  modesty  was  at  an  end  under  these  miserable  conditions.  In 
one  case — and  the  case  was  common  enough — a  father  and  mother, 
with  their  married  daughter  and  her  husband,  a  baby,  a  boy  of 
sixteen,  and  two  girls,  all  slept  in  a  single  room.  People  living  in 
such  a  way  w^ere  sure  to  be  ignorant  and  vicious.  They  were  badly 
paid,  and  even  for  their  low  wages  were  very  much  at  the  mercy 
of  their  employers.  In  spite  of  the  law  against  "  truck,''  as  it  was 
called,  employers  often  persisted  in  paying  their  men  in  goods 
charged  above  their  real  prices  instead  of  in  money.  In  one  instance 
a  man  was  obliged  to  take  a  piece  of  cloth  worth  only  i  is.  in  pay- 
ment of  his  v/ages  of  35,?. 

Many  remedies  were  proposed  for  these  evils,  but  the  one 
which  caught  the  imagination  of  the  workmen  themselves  was  the 
People's  Charter.  The  six  points  of  the  charter  were  ( i )  annual 
Parliaments,  (2)  manhood  suffrage,  (3)  vote  by  ballot,  (4)  equal 
electoral  districts,  (5)  abolition  of  the  property  qualification  for 
entering  Parliament,  and  (6)  payment  for  members  of  the  House 
of  Commons.  Those  who  supported  the  charter  thought  that,  as 
the  acquisition  of  political  power  had  enabled  the  middle  classes 
to  redress  their  grievances,  the  working  class  would  in  like  way  be 
able  to  redress  theirs.     They  did  not  recognize  the  unfortunate 


600  ENGLAND 

1837-1840 

truth  that  the  working  class  still  needed  the  political  education 
without  which  political  power  is  dangerous  even  to  those  who  exer- 
cise it.  In  1839  large  meetings  were  held  in  support  of  the  charter, 
and  at  these  threats  of  appealing  to  violence,  if  no  gentler  means 
availed,  were  freely  used.  In  1839  a  so-called  "  National  Conven- 
tion," composed  of  delegates  from  the  workers  of  the  large  towns 
and  led  by  Feargus  O'Conner,  a  newspaper  owner,  and  Ernest 
Jones,  a  barrister,  sent  a  monster  petition  to  Parliament.  Parlia- 
ment refused  even  to  take  it  into  consideration,  and  an  increased 
bitterness  of  feeling  was  the  result.  A  riot  occurred  at  Birming- 
ham; houses  and  shops  were  sacked,  as  if  Birmingham  had  been  a 
town  taken  by  storm.  The  Government  repressed  these  acts  of 
violence  by  the  operation  of  the  ordinary  law,  without  having  re- 
course to  those  exceptional  measures  on  which  Sidmouth  had 
fallen  back  thirty  years  before.  The  last  deed  of  violence  was 
an  armed  attack  on  Newport  in  ^Monmouthshire.  Soldiers, 
brought  to  defend  the  place,  fired  upon  the  mob,  and  killed  and 
wounded  many.  In  1840  the  ringleaders  were  tried  and  con- 
demned to  death,  though  the  Government  commuted  the  sentence 
into  transportation  for  life. 

The  middle  classes  were  not  likely  to  be  tolerant  of  violence 
and  disorder,  but  there  was  one  point  on  which  their  interests  coin- 
cided with  those  of  the  workingmen.  The  high  price  of  corn  not 
only  caused  sufferings  among  the  poor,  but  also  injured  trade. 
Thic  high  price  was  to  a  great  extent  owing  to  the  Corn  Law, 
which  bad  been  amended  from  time  to  time  since  it  was  passed 
in  181 5,  and  which  continued  to  make  corn  dear  by  im- 
posing heavy  duties  on  imported  corn  whenever  there  was  a  good 
harvest  in  England,  with  the  view  of  protecting  the  agriculturists 
against  low  prices.  In  1838  an  Anti-Corn-Law  League  was  formed 
at  Manchester  in  which  the  leading  men  were  Richard  Cobden,  a 
master  of  clear  and  popular  reasoning,  whose  knowledge  of  facts 
relating  to  the  question  was  exhaustive,  and  John  Bright,  whose 
simple  diction  and  stirring  eloquence  appealed  to  the  feelings  and 
the  morality  of  his  audience.  In  1839  Charles  Villiers,  who  took 
the  lead  of  the  Corn  Law  repealers  hi  the  House  of  Commons, 
was  beaten  by  342  votes  to  195,  but  he  had  among  his  supporters 
Russell,  Palmerston,  and  most  of  the  promiiient  members  of  the 
Government.  It  was  evident,  however,  that  some  time  must  elapse 
before  a  change  so  great  could  be  accomplished,  a?  the  proposal 


REFORMERS     IN     POWER  601 

1840-1841 

was  offensive  to  the  agriculturists,  who  formed  the  main  strength 
of  the  Conservative  party.  Moreover,  the  proposal  to  put  an  end 
to  the  Corn  Law  had  still  to  make  its  way,  by  dint  of  argument, 
with  the  trading  and  working  classes  who  were  interested  in  its 
abolition. 

The  middle  classes  had  grievances  of  their  own  against  the 
ministry.  They  disliked  financial  disorder  as  well  as  physical 
violence,  and,  though  the  ministry  had  put  down  the  latter,  they 
had  encouraged  the  former.  Every  year  showed  a  deficit,  and 
while  the  produce  of  the  taxes  was  falling,  the  expenditure  was  in- 
creasing. In  1 84 1  the  ministry  made  an  heroic  effort  to  deal  with 
the  mischief  by  a  movement  in  the  direction  of  freedom  of  trade, 
proposing  that  there  should  be  a  fixed  8^.  duty  on  every  quarter  of 
imported  corn,  whatever  its  price  in  England  might  be,  in  the  place 
of  the  sliding  scale  varying  with  the  price  which  had  been  adopted  in 
1822.  Peel  opposed  them  on  the  ground  that  they  had  shown 
themselves  too  incompetent  as  financiers  to  be  entrusted  with  the 
working  of  so  large  a  scheme.  The  ministry  was  defeated  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and,  after  a  dissolution,  a  new  House  was 
returned  in  which  the  Conservatives  were  in  a  majority  of  ninety- 
one.  The  discredited  [Melbourne  Ministry  resigned,  and  Peel  had 
no  difficulty  in  forming  a  new  ministry.  There  was  no  longer  any 
difficulty  about  the  Ladies  of  the  Bedchamber.  Now  that  the 
queen  was  married  and  in  full  enjoyment  of  the  society  of  a  hus- 
band, whom  she  loved  and  trusted,  she  no  longer  objected  to 
abandon  the  company  of  the  Whig  ladies  whom,  in  1839,  she  had 
refused  to  dismiss. 


Chapter  LVIII 

FREE  TRADE.     1841— 1852 

LEADING    DATES 

Peel's  Second  Ministry,  1841-184.6 — Peei/s  First  Free  Trade  Budget, 
1842 — Peel's  Second  Free-Trade  Budget,  1845 — Repeal  of  the  Corn 
Law,  1846 — The  Russell  Ministry,  1846-1852 — European  Revolu- 
tions, 1848 — The  First  Derby  Ministry,  1852 

IN  his  new  Ministry  Peel  found  room  not  only  for  leading  Con- 
servatives, but  also  for  Stanley.  Graham,  and  Ripon,  who  had 
left  the  Whigs  in  1834,  and  had  since  then  voted  with  the  Con- 
servatives. Stanley — now  Lord  Stanley — and  Graham  were 
among  the  ablest  of  the  ministers  who  formed  the  Cabinet ;  though 
the  help  of  a  young  minister,  Gladstone,  who  was  not  a  member  of 
the  Cabinet,  was  especially  valuable  on  account  of  his  grasp  of 
economical  truths,  and  of  the  clearness  with  which  his  opinions  were 
set  forth. 

Peel's  first  great  budget  was  that  of  1842,  He  put  an  end  to 
the  deficit  by  carrying  a  measure  reimposing,  for  three  years,  an 
income-tax  similar  to  that  which  Pitt  had  imposed  to  carry  on  the 
great  war  with  France.  Pie  justified  his  action  on  the  plea  that  it 
was  necessary,  in  the  first  place,  to  stop  the  constantly  recurring 
deficit;  and,  in  the  second  place,  to  effect  financial  reforms  which 
would  enlarge  the  resources  of  the  Government.  He  consequently 
lowered  many  duties  the  main  object  of  which  had  been  the  pro- 
tection of  home  manufactures  or  agriculture.  So  far  as  the  corn 
duties  were  concerned,  he  modified  the  sliding  scale,  but  refused  to 
effect  any  distinct  reduction.  The  advocates  of  free  trade  thought 
he  had  done  too  little,  and  those  of  protection  thought  he  had  done 
too  much. 

During  the  next  two  years,  1843  and  1844,  Peel's  budgets  were 
not  remarkable,  as  he  did  not  wish  to  take  any  further  step  of  im- 
portance till  he  had  had  time  to  watch  the  result  of  the  budget  of 
1842.  The  experience  gained  at  the  end  of  three  years  was  in  every 
way  favorable,  as   it  showed  that  manufactures   really  flourished 

602 


FREETRADE  603 

1842-1847 

more  now  that  they  had  to  face  competition  than  they  had  done  in 
its  absence.  No  doubt  the  return  of  prosperity  was  partly  owing  to 
the  good  harvests  which  followed  Peel's  accession  to  power,  but  it 
was  also  in  a  great  measure  owing  to  his  policy. 

It  would  be  of  little  worth  to  encourage  manufactures  if  those 
by  whose  labor  they  were  produced  were  to  be  a  miserable,  vicious, 
and  stunted  population.  In  1842  a  commission,  appointed  to 
examine  into  the  condition  of  mines,  reported  that  women  and  even 
young  children  were  forced  to  drag  heavy  trucks  underground, 
sometimes  for  twelve  hours  a  day.  Lord  Ashley,  foremost  in  every 
good  work,  and  who  had  already  alleviated  the  lot  of  factory 
children,  induced  Parliament  to  pass  a  bill,  which  was  not 
all  that  he  wished,  but  which  enacted  that  no  woman,  or  child 
under  ten,  should  be  employed  underground,  and  that  no  child 
between  ten  and  thirteen  should  be  employed  for  more  than  three 
days  a  week.  In  1844  Graham  passed  an  act  prohibiting  the 
employment  of  children  under  nine  in  cotton  and  silk  mills;  but  it 
was  not  till  1847  that,  after  a  long  struggle  conducted  by  Lord 
Ashley,  an  act  was  passed  prohibiting  tlie  employment  of  women 
and  children  in  all  factories  for  more  than  ten  hours  a  day.  The 
arguments  employed  in  favor  of  confining  these  restrictions  to 
women  and  children  were  that  they  could  not  take  care  of  them- 
selves as  well  as  men,  and  also  that  injuries  done  by  overwork  to 
the  health  of  mothers  and  of  young  people  seriously  affect  the 
health  and  strength  of  future  generations. 

The  fall  of  the  [Melbourne  Ministry  had  been  caused  nearly 
as  much  by  its  too  assertive  foreign  as  by  its  weak  domestic  policy. 
Peel's  foreign  minister,  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  was  always  ready 
to  give  up  something  in  order  to  secure  the  blessing  of  peace.  In 
1842  he  put  an  end  to  a  long  dispute  with  the  United  States  about 
the  frontier  between  the  Englisli  colonies  and  the  State  of  Maine 
on  the  eastern  side  of  America;  and  in  1846  he  put  an  end  to 
another  dispute  about  the  frontier  (jf  Ore.gon  on  tlie  western  side. 
With  France,  where  Guizot  was  now  Prime  Minister,  his  relations 
were  excessively  cordial,  and  a  close  understanding  grew  up  be- 
tween the  two  governments,  assuring  the  maintenance  of  European 
peace.  The  entente  cordiale,  as  it  was  called,  w;is  ratified  in  1843 
by  a  visit  of  Onccn  Victoria  to  Louis  Pliilippe.  at  Eu.  and  by  a 
return  visit  paid  by  Louis  Philippe  to  tlie  queen  at  Windsor  in 
1844. 


604.  ENGLAND 

1842-1847 

Each  successive  ministry  was  confronted  with  the  problem 
of  Irish  government,  and  soon  after  Peel  came  into  office  the  cry 
for  the  repeal  of  the  Union,  which  had  died  away  during  the  ^Slel- 
bourne  Government,  was  once  more  loudly  raised.  The  Govern- 
ment stoutly  opposed,  and  the  demand  for  repeal  once  more  died 
away,  and  O'Connell,  whose  health  was  breaking,  retired  from 
public  life,  living  quietly  till  his  death  at  Genoa  in  1847. 

The  main  source  of  mischief  in  Ireland  was  to  be  found  in  the 
relations  between  landlord  and  tenant.  Evictions  on  the  one  hand 
were  answered  by  murder  and  outrage  on  the  other.  To  check 
the  latter  Peel  in  1843  Passed  an  amended  Arms  Act,  forbidding 
the  possession  of  arms  except  by  special  license,  while,  to  check 
the  former,  he  issued,  in  1844,  a  commission,  of  which  the  Earl 
of  Devon  was  chairman,  to  inquire  into  the  grievances  of  Irish 
tenants.  In  1845  he  raised,  amid  a  storm  of  obloquy  from  many 
English  Protestants,  the  Government  grant  to  the  College  of  ]May- 
nooth,  in  which  Roman  Catholics  were  educated  for  the  priesthood, 
and  established  three  Queen's  Colleges  to  give  unsectarian  educa- 
tion to  the  laity.  In  1845  the  Devon  Commission  reported,  and 
the  Government  brought  in  a  bill  securing  a  limited  amount  of 
compensation  to  those  tenants  who  made  improvements  duly  certi- 
fied to  be  of  value.  The  House  of  Lords,  however,  refused  to  pass 
it,  and  for  many  years  no  further  effort  was  made  to  improve  the 
condition  of  the  Irish  tenant. 

Peel  was  more  successful  in  dealing  with  England.  When  in 
1845  the  three  years  for  which  the  income-tax  had  been  granted 
came  to  an  end.  Peel,  instead  of  remitting  it,  obtained  leave  from 
Parliament  to  continue  it  for  three  more  years ;  though,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  it  was  subsequently  reimposed  and  is  still  levied  to  this 
day.  Peel,  having  received  a  surplus,  employed  it  to  sweep  away 
a  vast  number  of  duties  upon  imports  which  weighed  upon  trade, 
and  to  lower  other  duties  which  he  did  not  sweep  away :  while  at 
the  same  time  he  put  an  entire  end  to  all  duties  on  exports.  The 
country  gentlemen,  who  formed  the  large  majority  of  Peel's  sup- 
porters, took  alarm  at  a  proposal  made  by  him  to  remove  the  duties 
on  lard  and  hides,  on  the  ground  that  if  tliis  were  done  foreigners 
would,  in  regard  to  these  two  articles,  be  enabled  to  compete  with 
Englisli  prucluce. 

The  country  gentlemen  could  grumble,  but  they  were  no  match 
for  Peel  in  debate :  and  thev  were  therefore  in  a  mood  to  transfer 


FREETRADE  605 

1845 

their  allegiance  to  any  man  capable  of  heading  an  opposition  in 
Parliament  to  the  statesman  whom  they  had  hitherto  followed. 
Such  a  spokesman  they  found  in  a  young  member,  Benjamin 
Disraeli,  who,  after  attempting  to  enter  Parliament  as  a  Radical, 
had  been  elected  as  a  Conservative.  His  change  of  opinion  was 
greater  in  appearance  than  in  reality,  as  his  principal  motive,  both 
as  a  Radical  and  as  a  Conservative,  was  hostilitv  to  the  tendencies 
of  the  middle  classes  which  he  held  to  be  embodied  in  the  Whigs. 
He  now  discovered  that  the  same  tendencies  were  also  embodied 
in  Peel ;  being,  moreover  a  man  of  great  ambition,  he  seized  the  oc- 
casion to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  the  malcontent  Conservatives. 
He  was  more  angry  with  Peel  because  Peel  ]iad  refused  him  office. 
Fixing  upon  Peel's  weak  point,  his  want  of  originality,  he  declared 
that  the  Prime  Minister,  having  caught  the  Whigs  bathing,  had 
walked  away  with  their  clothes,  and  that  under  him  a  Conservative 
government  was  "  an  organized  hyprocrisy." 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League  was  growing  in 
influence.  The  oratory  of  Bright  and  the  close  reasoning  of  Cob- 
den  were  telling  even  on  the  agricultural  population.  The  small 
farmers  and  the  laborers  were  suffering  while  the  manufacturers 
were  flourishing.  Peel,  indeed,  was  a  free-trader  on  principle. 
He  believed  that  legislation  ought  to  make  goods  cheap  for  the  sake 
of  consumers  rather  than  dear  for  the  sake  of  producers,  and  at 
this  time  he  even  believed  that  the  nation  would  be  wealthier  if 
corn  fell  in  price  by  being  freely  imported  than  if  its  price  was 
raised  by  the  imposition  of  duties.  He  still  held,  however,  that  it 
was  the  duty  of  Parliament  to  keep  up  the  price  of  corn,  not  for 
the  benefit  of  the  existing  generation,  but  as  an  insurance  for  future 
generations.  If  Great  Britain  came  to  depend  for  a  great  part  of 
her  food  supply  upon  foreign  countries,  an  enemy  in  time  of  war 
would  have  little  difficulty  in  starving  out  the  country  by  cutting 
off  its  supply  of  foreign  food.  The  only  answer  to  this  was  that 
the  starvation  which  Peel  dreaded  in  the  future  was  existing  in  the 
present.  If  anything  occurred  to  bring  home  to  Peel  the  existence 
of  this  permanent  starvation,  he  would  become  a  free-trader  in 
corn  as  well  as  in  manufactures. 

The  conviction  which  Peel  needed  came  from  Ireland.  The 
population  was  8,000,000,  and  half  of  this  number  subsisted  on 
potatoes  alone.  In  the  summer  of  1845  "^  potato  disease,  previously 
unknown,  swept  over  both  islands.     Potato  plants,  green  and  flour- 


606  ENGLAND 

1845-1846 

ishing-  at  night,  were  in  the  morning  a  black  and  fetid  mass  of  cor- 
ruption. A  misfortune  which,  in  England  and  Scotland,  was  a 
mere  inconvenience,  caused  abject  misery  in  Ireland. 

Peel  saw  that  if  the  starving  millions  were  to  be  fed,  corn 
must  be  cheapened  as  much  as  possible,  and  that  the  only  way  of 
cheapening  it  was  to  take  off  the  duty.  In  October  he  asked  the 
Cabinet  to  support  him  in  taking  off  the  duty.  The  majority  in  it 
had  minds  less  flexible  than  his  own,  and  its  decision  was  postponed. 
In  November,  Russell,  now  the  leader  of  the  Liberals,  wrote  what 
was  known  as  "  the  Edinburgh  letter  "  to  his  constituents,  declaring 
for  the  complete  abolition  of  the  Corn  Law.  Peel  again  attempted 
to  induce  the  Cabinet  to  follow  him,  but  the  Cabinet  again  refused, 
and  on  December  5  he  resigned  office.  Russell,  however,  was  un- 
able to  form  a  ministry,  and  on  December  20  Peel  returned  to  office 
pledged  to  repeal  the  Corn  Law.  Lord  Stanley  novv-  resigned,  and 
became  the  acknowledged  head  of  the  Protectionists,  who  resolved 
to  oppose  Peel's  forthcoming  measure.  On  the  other  hand,  Rus- 
sell gave  assurances  that  he  and  the  Whigs  Vv-ould  loyally  support 
it.  Accordingly,  v/hen  Parliament  met  in  January,  1846,  Peel  pro- 
posed to  bring  in  a  bill  for  the  abolition  of  the  Corn  Law,  though 
three  years  were  to  pass  before  the  abolition  would  be  quite  com- 
plete. On  June  25  the  bill,  having  previously  passed  the 
Commons,  passed  the  Lords,  and  an  end  v.'as  at  last  put  to  the 
long-continued  attempt  to  raise  by  artificial  means  the  price  of 
bread. 

Peel  had  done  what  he  could  to  mitigate  the  distress  in  Ire- 
land. He  sent  Indian  corn  and  he  ordered  the  establishment  of 
public  works.  He  also  brought  in  a  bill  for  the  protection  of  life 
in  Ireland.  Russell  and  the  Liberals  disliked  it  because  it  was  too 
stringent.  The  Protectionists  in  the  House  of  Commons,  led  nomi- 
nally by  Lord  George  Bentinck  and  really  by  Disraeli,  were  glad 
of  any  opportunity  to  defeat  Peel,  and  on  June  25,  the  day  on 
which  the  Corn  Bill  passed  the  Lords,  the  Irish  Bill  was  thrown 
out  by  the  Commons.     On  the  27th  Peel  resigned  office. 

Lord  John  Russell  had  no  difficulty  this  time  in  forming  a 
ministry,  aiid,  though  his  followers  were  in  a  minority  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  he  was  sure  of  the  support  of  Peel  and  of  the  Peelites, 
as  those  Conservatives  were  called  who  had  voted  with  their  leader 
for  the  abolition  of  the  Corn  Law.  Russell  had  in  1846  to  face 
a  state  of  things  in  Ireland  even  more  dcnlurable  than  that  which 


FREETRADE  607 

1846-1848 

had  compelled  his  predecessor  in  1845  ^o  abandon  Protection.  In 
1846  the  failure  of  the  potato  crop  was  even  more  complete  than 
it  had  been  in  1845,  and  at  the  same  time  it  was  found  that  the 
system  of  public  works  established  by  Peel  had  led  to  gross  abuses. 
Russell  did  what  he  could  to  check  these  abuses.  No  Poor  Law, 
however,  could  do  more  than  mitigate  the  consequences  of  famine. 
The  misery  was  too  widespread  to  be  much  allayed  by  any  remedy, 
and  such  English  charity  as  was  added  to  the  relief  provided  by 
law  was  almost  as  ineffectual.  Thousands  perished  of  starvation, 
and  many  thousands  more  emigrated  to  America.  Those  who 
reached  America  preserved  and  handed  down  to  their  children  a 
hatred  of  the  English  name  and  government,  to  which  they  at- 
tributed their  sufferings.  By  starvation  and  emigration  the  popula- 
tion of  Ireland  fell  from  8,000,000  to  5,000,000. 

Russell  proposed  to  meet  the  evil  of  the  relations  of  landlord 
and  tenant  in  Ireland  by  a  double  remedy.  On  the  one  hand  he 
brought  in  a  bill  which  became  law  in  1848  as  the  Encumbered 
Estates  Act,  for  the  sale  of  deeply  mortgaged  estates  to  solvent 
purchasers,  in  the  hope  that  the  new  landlords  might  be  sufficiently 
well  off  to  treat  their  tenants  with  consideration.  At  the  same 
time  he  proposed  another  measure  to  compel  landlords  to  compen- 
sate their  evicted  tenants  for  improvements  which  the  tenants  had 
themselves  made.  English  opinion,  however,  prevented  even  the 
bill  for  compensation  for  actual  improvements  from  becoming  law ; 
on  the  other  hand,  the  bill  for  buying  out  the  owners  of  encumbered 
estates  was  rapidly  passed,  and  was  also  accompanied  by  a  Coercion 
Act.  The  Encumbered  Estates  Act  standing  alone  was  a  curse 
rather  than  blessing,  as  many  of  the  indebted  landowners  had  been 
easy-going,  whereas  many  of  the  new  landowners,  having  paid 
down  ready  moncv,  thought  themselves  justified  in  applying  purely 
commercial  principles  to  their  relations  with  the  tenants,  and  ex- 
acted from  them  every  penny  that  could  be  wrung  from  men  who 
had  no  protection  inv  tlie  results  of  their  own  industry  upon  the 
soil.  Those  who  suffered  smarted  from  a  sense  of  wrong,  which 
in  1848  became  stronger  and  more  likely  to  lead  to  acts  of  violence, 
because  in  that  year  the  course  of  affairs  in  Europe  gave  super- 
abundant exam])les  of  successful  resistance  to  governments. 

The  year  1848  was  a  year  of  European  revolution,  in  France, 
in  Italy,  and  in  Germany.  The  demand  for  constitutional  govern- 
ment was  evei*>'where  put  forth.      In  France  it  was  associated  with 


608  ENGLAND 

1848-1849 

Socialism.     In  central  Europe  and  in  Italy,  on  the  other  hand, 
dissatisfaction  with  existing  frontiers  was  the  prominent  feature. 

In  Ireland,  a  number  of  young  men  imagined  that  they  could 
play  the  part  in  which  O'Connell  had  failed,  and  raise  up  armed  re- 
sistance against  England.  One  of  these.  Smith  O'Brien,  tried  to 
put  in  practice  their  teaching  by  attacking  a  police  station,  but  he 
was  easily  captured,  and  no  attempt  was  made  to  follow  his  ex- 
ample. 

In  England  the  Chartists  thought  the  time  had  come  to  gain 
that  supremacy  for  the  mass  of  the  nation  which  had  been  gained  in 
France.  Their  leader,  Feargus  O'Connor,  a  half-mad  member  of 
Parliament,  called  on  enormous  numbers  of  them  to  meet  on  April 
lo  on  Kensington  Common,  and  to  carry  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons a  monster  petition  for  the  charter,  said  to  be  signed  by  5,700,- 
000  persons.  The  government  declared  the  design  to  be  illegal, 
as  crowds  are  forbidden  by  law  to  present  petitions,  and  called  on 
all  who  would  to  serve  as  special  constables — that  is  to  say,  to  act 
as  policemen  for  the  day.  No  less  than  200,000  enrolled 
themselves,  whereas,  when  the  appointed  day  came,  no  more  than 
25.000  persons  assembled  on  Kensington  Common,  many  of  whom 
were  not  Chartists.  Those  who  were  Chartists  formed  a  pro- 
cession intending  to  cross  Westminster  Bridge.  The  Duke  of 
Wellington  had  posted  soldiers  in  the  houses  on  the  Middlesex  side 
of  the  bridge,  to  be  used  in  case  of  necessity,  but  he  left  the  special 
constables  to  stop  the  procession.  This  they  did  without  difficulty. 
There  was,  however,  no  attempt  to  stop  the  presentation  of  the 
petition,  which  was  carried  in  a  cab  to  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
found  to  bear  2,000  signatures.  Alany  columns  of  these  were, 
however,  in  the  same  handwriting,  and  some  who  actually 
signed  it  wrote  false  names.  For  all  this  there  was  a  large  number 
of  Chartists  in  England;  but,  on  the  otiier  hand,  there  was  a  still 
larger  number  of  persons  who  were  resolved  that,  whatever  changes 
might  be  made  in  the  constitution,  they  should  not  be  brought 
about  by  the  exertion  of  physical  force. 

The  attempt  to  change  existing  European  order  failed  as  com- 
pletely on  the  continent  as  it  did  in  England.  By  the  end  of  1848 
reaction  prevailed  over  the  whole  continent. 

In  England  the  ministry  was  sup]:iorted,  not  merely  as  the 
reprcscntati\-e  of  order  against  turbulence,  but  also  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  free  trade  against  protection.      In  1849  the  Navigation 


F  R  E  E     T  R  A  D  E  609 

1849-1852 

Act  was  repealed,  and  foreign  shipping  admitted  to  compete  with 
EngHsh.  Yet  the  Government  only  maintained  itself  by  depend- 
ing on  the  votes  of  the  Peelites,  and  in  1850  Peel  unfortunately 
died  in  consequence  of  a  fall  from  his  horse.  Later  in  the  year  the 
Pope  appointed  Roman  Catholic  bishops  to  English  sees,  and  an 
excited  public  opinion  saw  in  this  an  attack  on  the  queen's  authority. 
In  1 85 1  Russell  introduced  ah  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill,  declaring  all 
acts  done  by  the  Roman  Catholic  bishops,  and  all  deeds  bestowing 
property  to  them  under  the  new  titles,  to  be  null  and  void.  This 
bill  alienated  the  Peelites  and  advanced  Liberals  like  Bright  and 
Cobden,  Li  February  the  ministry  resisted  a  proposal  to  lower  the 
county  franchise,  and  resigned.  Lord  Stanley,  however,  declined 
to  form  a  ministry,  and  Russell  and  his  followers  returned  to  office. 
The  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill  was  passed  in  a  modified  form,  but  it 
was  never  in  a  single  instance  put  in  execution  and  was  ultimately 
repealed. 

In  1 85 1  people  thought  less  of  politics  than  of  the  Great  Ex- 
hibition in  Hyde  Park,  where  the  produce  of  the  world  was  to  be 
seen  in  the  enormous  glass  house  known  as  the  Crystal  Palace — • 
afterwards  removed  to  Penge  Hill,  The  exhibition  was  a  useful 
undertaking  suggested  by  Prince  Albert,  and  it  served  its  purpose 
in  teaching  English  manufacturers  that  they  might  improve  their 
owai  work  by  studying  the  work  of  foreign.ers. 

On  December  2,  1851,  Louis  Xapoleon  dissolved  the  Assembly 
in  France,  and  was  named  President  for  ten  years,  with  institutions 
which  made  him  practically  the  master  ()f  the  state.  In  England 
Lord  Palmerston  not  only  approved  of  the  proceeding,  but  expressed 
his  approval  to  the  French  ambassador,  though  the  Cabinet  was  for 
absolute  neutrality ;  whereupon  lie  was  dismissed  from  office.  Early 
in  1852  he  took  his  revenge  by  declaring  against  the  ministry  on 
a  detail  in  a  IVIilitia  Bill,  The  ministers,  finding  themselves  in  a 
minority,  resigned  ofiice. 

Lord  Stanley,  who  had  recently  become  Earl  of  Derby  by  his 
father's  death.,  nov\-  formed  a  ministry  out  of  the  Protectionist 
party,  and  declared  that  the  question  whetlier  free  trade  or  protec- 
tion should  prevail  was  one  to  be  settled  by  a  new  Parliament  to  be 
elected  in  the  summer  of  1852.  The  real  master  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  Disraeli,  who  had  succeeded  to  tlie  nwniinal  as  well  as  to 
the  actual  leadership  of  his  parly  in  the  House  nf  Commons  upon  the 
death   of  Lord   George   Bent  inch   in    1848,   and   who   now  became 


610  ENGLAND 

1852 

Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  Disraeli  knew  well  that  the  feeling 
of  the  country  was  in  favor  of  free  trade,  and  he  astonished  his 
colleagues  and  supporters  by  declaring  his  admiration  of  its  bless- 
ings. The  elections,  when  they  took  place,  left  the  Government  in 
a  minority.  On  the  meeting  of  the  new  Parliament,  the  first  ques- 
tion needing  solution  was  whether  the  dissensions  between  Russell 
and  Palmerston,  and  between  the  Whigs  and  Peelites,  could  be 
made  up  so  as  to  form  a  united  opposition,  and  the  second,  whether 
the  Governm.ent  could  contrive  to  renounce  Protection  without 
complete  loss  of  dignity.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  had  died  before 
Parliament  met,  and  his  death  served  to  remind  people  how  he 
had  again  and  again  abandoned  political  positions  with  credit, 
by  stating  with  perfect  frankness  that  his  opinions  were  unchanged, 
but  that  circumstances  made  it  no  longer  possible  or  desirable  to 
give  effect  to  them. 

Soon  after  tl:e  meeting  of  Parliament,  Villiers,  the  old  cham- 
pion of  free  trade,  brought  forward  a  resolution,  declaring  a  repeal 
of  the  Corn  Laws  to  have  been  "  wise,  just,  and  beneficial."  Those 
who  had  once  been  Protectionists  shrank  from  condemning  so  dis- 
tinctly a  policy  which  they  had  formerly  defended;  but  when  Pal- 
merston came  to  their  help  Ijy  proposing  in  a  less  oft'ensive  form  a 
resolution  which  meant  much  the  same  as  that  of  Villiers.  he  was 
supported  by  the  greater  number  of  them,  and  his  motion  vras  car- 
ried with  only  fifty-three  dissentients.  Disraeli  then  brought  for- 
ward an  ingenious  budget,  which  was  rejected  by  the  House,  upon 
which  the  Derby  ]*vlinistry  resigned.  If  Disraeli  had  not  succeeded 
in  maintaining  his  party  in  power,  at  least  he  had  freed  it  from  tlie 
unpopular  burden  of  attachment  to  protection,  and  had  made  it 
capable  of  rising  to  power  in  the  future.  Before  he  left  office 
Louis  Xapoleon  became,  by  popular  vote,  Xapoleon  IIL,  Emperor 
of  the  French. 


Chapter   LIX 


THE    CRIMEAN    WAR    AND    THE    END    OF    THE 
EAST  INDIA  COMPANY.     1852— 1858 

LEADING    DATES 

The  Aberdeen  Ministry,  1852 — War  Between  Russia  and  Turkey, 
1853 — France  and  England  at  War  with  Russia,  1854 — Battle  of 
THE  Alma,  Sept.  20,  1854 — Battle  of  Inkerman,  Nov.  5,  1854 — Cap- 
ture OF  Sebastopol,  Sept.  8,  1855 — Peace  of  Paris,  March  30,  1856 — 
The  Indian  Mutiny,  1857-1858 

SINCE  the  accession  to  power  of  Lord  Grey's  ministry,  in  1830, 
the  opinions  of  Bentham  had  gained  the  upper  hand,  and 
the  greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest  number  had  become 
the  inspiring  thought  of  statesmen.  Free  trade  v/as  regarded,  not 
merely  as  desirable  because  it  averted  starvation,  but  as  uniting  na- 
tions together  in  commercial  bonds.  Nothing  was  more  com- 
mon in  185 1  and  1852  than  to  hear  sensible  men  predict  that  the 
era  of  wars  was  past,  and  that  nations  trafficking  with  one  another 
would  have  no  motive  for  engaging  in  strife.  The  fierce  passions 
evoked  by  the  struggles  for  nationality  in  1848  were  forgotten,  and 
a  time  of  peace  and  prosperity  regarded  as  permanently  established. 
There  had,  indeed,  been  signs  that  it  was  impossible  to  bring 
all  men  to  forsake  the  pursuit  of  ideal  truth.  In  1827  Keble  pub- 
lished the  first  edition  of  the  Christian  Year,  and  in  the  following 
years  a  body  of  writers  at  Oxford,  of  whom  the  most  prominent 
were  Newman  ami  Pusey,  did  their  best  to  inspire  the  rising  genera- 
tion with  the  belief  that  the  Church  of  England  had  a  life  of  its 
own  independent  of  the  state  or  of  society,  and  that  its  true  doc- 
trines were  those  which  had  been  taught  in  the  earlier  centuries  of 
the  Church's  existence.  Their  teaching  was  not  unlike  that  of 
Laud,  tliougli  without  Laud's  leaning  upon  the  state,  and 
with  a  reverence  for  the  great  medieval  ecclesiastics  and  their 
teachings  which  Laud  had  not  possessed.  In  Scotland,  reaction 
against  state  interference  took  another  turn.     Large  numbers  of 

611 


612  ENGLAND 

1830-1859 

the  Scottish  clerg^'-  and  people  objected  to  the  system  by  which  lay 
patrons  had  in  their  hands  the  appointment  of  ministers  to  Church 
livings,  and  in  1843  "o  less  than  474  ministers  threw  up  their  liv- 
ings, and,  followed  by  numerous  congregations,  formed  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland.  Different  as  were  the  movements  in  the  two 
countries,  they  had  this  in  common,  that  they  regarded  religion 
as  something  more  than  the  creature  of  law  and  Parliament. 

Other  men  sought  their  ideals  in  science,  and  though  scientific 
men  did  not  meddle  with  politics,  their  work  was  not  only  pro- 
ductive of  an  increase  of  material  comfort,  but  also  permeated  the 
minds  of  unscientific  persons  with  a  belief  in  natural  law  and  order 
which  steadied  them  when  they  came  to  deal  with  the  complex 
facts  of  human  life.  The  rapid  growth  of  railways,  especially 
after  1844,  the  introduction  of  the  electric  telegraph  in  1837,  and 
other  practical  results  of  scientific  discovery  prepared  the  way  for 
a  favorable  reception  of  doctrines  such  as  those  announced  in 
Lyell's  "  Principles  of  Geology,"'  the  first  edition  of  which  was  pub- 
lished in  1830,  where  the  formation  of  the  earth's  surface  was 
traced  to  a  series  of  gradual  changes  similar  to  those  in  action  at 
the  present  day.  Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Species.''  in  which  the  multi- 
plicity of  living  forms  were  accounted  for  by  permanent  natural 
causes,  did  not  appear  till  1859. 

The  feelings  and  opinions  of  the  age  were,  as  is  usually  the  case, 
reflected  in  its  literature.  Dickens,  whose  first  considerable  work, 
"The  Pickwick  Papers."  appeared  in  1837,  painted  humorously 
the  lives  of  the  middle  classes,  which  had  obtained  political  power 
through  the  Reform  Act  of  1832;  and  Thackeray,  whose  "Vanity 
Fair  "  was  publislied  in  1848,  lashed  the  vices  of  great  and  wealthy 
sinners,  principally  of  those  who  held  a  high  place  in  the  society  of 
the  preceding  generations,  though  he  delighted  in  painting  the  gen- 
tleness and  self-denial  of  men,  and  still  more  of  women,  of  a  lov/er 
station.  For  him  the  halo  of  glory  with  which  Scott  had  crowned 
the  past  had  disappeared.  Among  the  historians  of  this  period 
by  far  the  greatest  is  ^lacaulay,  whose  history  of  England  began 
to  appear  in  1848.  the  year  in  which  '"  X'anity  Fair"  was  published. 
In  him  was  to  be  found  a  massive  common  sense  in  applying  the 
political  judgments  of  the  day  to  the  events  of  past  times,  combined 
with  an  inability  to  grasp  sympathetically  the  opinions  of  those 
who  had  struggled  against  tlie  social  and  political  movements  oiv^ 
of  which  the  life  of  the  nineteenth   century   had  been   developed. 


C  R  I  M  E  A  N     W  A  R  613 

1833-1856 

As  for  the  future,  Macaulay  had  no  such  dissatisfaction  with  life 
around  him  as  to  crave  to  aher  the  poHtical  basis  of  society. 

There  were  not  wanting"  writers  who  saw  the  weak  points 
of  that  rule  of  the  middle  classes  which  seemed  so  excellent  to 
Macaulay.  Grote's  "  History  of  Greece,"  which  was  published  at 
intervals  from  1845  to  1856,  was  in  reality  a  panegyric  on  the 
democracy  of  Athens  and,  by  implication,  a  pleading  in  favor  of 
democracy  in  England.  Mill,  whose  "  System  of  Logic"  appeared 
in  1834,  expounded  the  utilitarian  philosophy  of  Bentham,  accom- 
panying his  scientific  teaching  with  the  expression  of  hopefulness 
in  the  growth  of  democracy  as  likely  to  lead  to  better  government. 
The  man,  however,  whose  teaching-  did  most  to  rouse  the  age  to  a 
sense  of  the  insufficiency  of  its  work  was  Thomas  Carlyle,  whose 
^'  Sartor  Resartus  "  began  to  appear  in  1833,  and  who  detested  alike 
the  middle-class  Parliamentary  government  dear  to  ^lacaulay  and 
the  democratic  government  dear  to  Grote  and  Mill.  He  was  the 
prophet  of  duty.  Each  individual  was  to  set  himself  resolutely  to 
despise  the  conventions  of  the  world,  and  to  conform  to  the  utmost 
of  his  power  to  the  divine  laws  of  the  world.  Those  who  did  this 
most  completely  were  heroes,  to  whom,  and  not  to  Parliamentary 
majorities  or  scientific  deductions,  reverence  and  obedience  were 
due.  The  negative  part  of  Carlyle's  teaching — its  condemnation 
of  democracy  and  science — made  no  impression.  The  positive  part 
fixed  itself  upon  the  mind  of  the  young,  thousands  of  whom  learned 
from  it  to  follow  the  call  of  duty  and  to  obey  her  behests. 

The  best  poetry  of  the  time  reflected  in  a  milder  way  the 
teaching  of  Carlyle.  Tennyson,  whose  most  tlioughtful  work,  "  In 
Memoriam,"  appeared  in  1849,  ^^  filled  with  a  sense  of  the  preemi- 
nence of  duty,  combined  with  a  reverent  religious  feeling  and  a 
respect  for  the  teaching  of  science  which  was  then  bursting  on  the 
world. 

The  pursuit  of  knowledge  of  the  secret  processes  and  the  open 
manifestations  of  nature,  v.hich  placed  its  stamp  upon  the  science 
and  the  literature  of  the  time,  made  itself  also  visible  in  its  art.  No 
man  ever  revealed  in  landscape  painting  the  infinity  of  the  natural 
world  and  the  subtleness  of  its  gradations  as  did  Turner  in 
the  days  of  his  strength,  before  In's  eyes  fixed  on  the  glory  of 
the  atmosphere  and  the  sky  lost  perception  of  the  beauty  of  the 
earth. 

The  Derby  Ministry  was  followed  by  a  coalitif>n  ministry  of 


614f  ENGLAND 

1853-1854 

Liberals  and  Peelites  under  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  At  first  it 
seemed  as  if  Parliament  was  about  to  settle  down  to  a  series  of 
internal  reforms.  In  1853  Gladstone,  as  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, produced  a  budget  which  proved  generally  acceptable, 
and  Russell  promised  a  new  Reform  Bill,  which  was  actually 
brought  forward  in  1854,  though  by  that  time  circumstances,  having 
become  adverse  to  its  consideration,  caused  its  prompt  withdrawal. 

In  the  beginning  of  1853  the  Czar  Nicholas  spoke  to  Sir  Ham- 
ilton Seymour  of  "  the  Turk  "  as  a  "  sick  man,"  and  proposed  that  if 
he  died,  that  is  to  say,  if  the  Turkish  power  fell  to  pieces,  England 
should  take  Crete  and  Egypt,  and  that  the  Sultan's  European  prov- 
inces should  be  formed  into  inde|:>endent  states,  of  course  under 
Russian  protection.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Christians 
under  the  Sultan  were  misgoverned,  and  that  the  Czar,  like  every 
Russian,  honestly  sympathized  with  them,  especially  as  they  be- 
longed to  the  Orthodox  Church — commonly  known  as  the  Greek 
Church — which  was  his  own.  It  was.  however,  also  true  that  every 
Czar  wished  to  extend  his  dominions  southward,  and  that  his 
sympathies  undoubtedly  tended  in  the  same  direction  as  his  am- 
bition. In  Eng'land  the  sympathies  were  ignored,  while  the  am- 
bition was  clearly  perceived,  and  the  British  ministers  refused  to 
agree  to  Nicholas's  proposal.  Nicholas  then  sent  Prince  Men- 
schikoff  as  ambassador  to  Constantinople  to  demand  that  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Sultan's  Christian  subjects  should  be  given  over  to 
himself,  and  when  this  was  refused,  occupied  the  principalities  of 
Moldavia  and  W'allachia  with  his  troops;  upon  which  a  British 
fleet  was  moved  up  to  the  entrance  of  the  Dardanelles. 

To  avert  an  outbreak  (^f  war  tiie  four  great  Powers,  Austria, 
Erance.  Great  Britain,  and  Prussia,  in  what  is  usually  called  the 
Vienna  Note,  embodied  a  proposal,  wliich.  if  adopted  bv  the  Sultan, 
would  convey  his  promise  to  tlie  Czar  to  protect  the  Christians  of 
the  Greek  Church  as  his  predecessors  h.ad  promised  to  do  in  older 
treaties  with  the  Czars.  With  ti'.is  note  the  Czar  was  content, 
but  the  Sultan,  urged  on  by  tlic  imperious  Sir  Stanford  Canning, 
the  British  ambassador  at  Constantinople,  refused  to  accept  it  with- 
out alterati.  in.and  (')n  the  Czar  insisling  on  its  accepu'uicc  as  it  stood, 
declared  war  iq-nn  liim.  In  t!;c  autumn  the  Turks  crtissed  the 
Danulje  and  det'cntcd  sonie  Russian  troops,  on  which  the  Russian 
tlcct  sallied  forth  from  Sebastopol,  the  great  Russian  forii(^ed  har- 
bor in  the  Crimea,  and  on  November  30  destroyed  the  Turkish  licet 


C  R  I  M  E  A  N     W  A  R  615 

1854 

at  Sinope.  In  England  strong  indignation  was  felt ;  England  and 
France  bound  themselves  closely  together,  and,  refusing  to  be  held 
back  by  Austria  and  Prussia,  entered  upon  war  with  Russia  in 
March,  1854.  In  May  the  Russians  laid  siege  to  Silistria,  on  the 
south  bank  of  the  Danube.  The  siege,  howe\er,  ended  in  failure, 
and,  as  a  British  and  French  army  arrived  at  Varna,  a  seaport  on 
the  Black  Sea  south  of  the  mouth  of  the  Danube,  and  as  the  Aus- 
trians  insisted  on  the  Russians  evacuating  Moldavia  and  Wallachia, 
the  Russian  army  drew  back  to  its  own  territory  and  abandoned 
any  further  attempt  to  enforce  its  claims  by  invasion. 

Tw^o  courses  were  now  open  to  the  allies.  They  might  knit 
themselves  again  to  Austria  and  Prussia  and  substitute  a  European 
protection  of  the  Christians  under  the  Sultan  for  a  merely  Russian 
protection,  without  driving  Russia  to  a  prolongation  of  the  war; 
or  else,  breaking  loose  from  their  alliance  with  Austria  and  Prus- 
sia (neither  of  which  w^as  inclined  to  drive  matters  to  extremities), 
they  might  seek  to  destroy  the  Russian  Black  Sea  fleet  and  the 
fortifications  of  Sebastopol,  in  order  to  take  from  Russia  the  power 
of  again  threatening  the  Turks.  Public  opinion  i*n  England  was 
defiantly  set  upon  the  latter  course.  There  was  exasperation 
against  the  ambition  of  Russia  and  a  determination  that  the  work 
should  be  thoroughly  done.  To  the  support  of  this  passionate  de- 
sire to  carry  on  the  war  to  its  end  came  a  misconception  of  the 
nature  of  the  Turkish  government.  In  reality  the  Turk  was.  as 
Nicholas  had  said,  a  sick  man,  and  as  he  would  become  weaker 
every  year,  it  was  impossible  to  provide  for  his  guarding  his  own 
even  if  Sebastopol  were  destroyed.  In  England  the  government  of 
the  Sultan  was  regarded  as  well-intentioned  and  perfectly  capable 
of  holding  its  own,  if  the  existing  danger  could  be  removed.  This 
view  of  the  case  v/as  strongly  supported  by  Palmerston,  who, 
though  he  was  no  longer  foreign  minister,  brought  his  strong  will 
to  bear  on  the  resolutions  of  the  ministry.  England  and  France 
resolved  on  transporting  their  arm-ies  from  Varna  to  the  Crimea, 
'^llie  iMiglish  force  was  convmanded  by  Lord  Raglan  and  the 
French  by  Marshal  St.  Arnaud. 

On  September  14  the  two  armies,  numbering  together  with 
a  body  of  Turkish  soldiers  about  61,000  men,  landed  to  the  south 
of  Eupatoria.  They  marched  southward  and  found  the  Russian 
army  drawn  up  on  high  ground  beyond  the  River  Alma.  There 
was  not  much  skill  shown  by  the  generals  on  cither  side,  but  the 


616  ENGLAND 

1864 

allies  had  the  better  weapons,  and  the  dogged  persistence  of  the 
British  contributed  much  to  the  success  of  the  allies.  The  Rus- 
sians were  defeated,  and  the  allies  wheeled  round  the  harbor  of 
Sebastopol  and  established  themselves  on  the  plateau  to  the  south 
of  the  town.  There  was  inside  the  place  a  vast  store  of  guns  and 
of  everything  needed  for  the  defense,  and  what  was  more,  a  man  of 
genius,  General  Todleben,  to  improve  the  fortifications  and  direct 
the  movements  of  the  garrison.  He  closed  the  harbor  against  the 
allied  fleets  by  sinking  ships  at  the  mouth,  and  he  brought  up  guns 
and  raised  earthworks  to  resist  the  impending  attack  on  the  land 
side.  On  October  17  the  allies  opened  a  tremendous  fire.  The 
British  batteries  destroyed  the  guns  opposed  to  them,  and  the  place 
might  perhaps  have  been  taken  by  assault  if  the  French  had  done 
as  well.  The  French,  however,  who  were  now  under  the  command 
of  Marshal  Canrobert — St.  Arnaud  having  died  after  the  battle 
of  the  Alma — made  their  magazines  of  gunpowder  too  near  the  sur- 
face of  the  ground,  and  when  one  of  them  exploded  their  efforts 
were  rendered  useless.  The  attack  had  to  be  postponed  for  an  in- 
definite time. 

The  stores  and  provisions  for  the  British  army  were  landed 
at  the  little  port  of  Balaklava.  On  October  25  a  Russian  army 
pushed  forward  to  cut  off  communication  between  this  port  and 
the  British  force  before  Sebastopol.  A  charge  by  the  Brigade  of 
Heavy  Cavalry  drove  back  a  huge  mass  of  Russian  horsemen. 
Lord  Cardigan,  who  commanded  the  Brigade  of  Light  Cavalry, 
received  an  order  vaguely  worded  to  retake  some  guns  which  had 
been  captured  by  the  Russians.  The  order  was  misunderstood, 
and  the  Light  Brigade,  knowing  that  it  was  riding  to  its  destruc- 
tion, but  refusing  to  set  an  example  of  disobedience,  charged  not 
in  the  direction  of  the  guns,  v.'hich  they  were  unable  to  see,  but  into 
the  very  center  of  the  Russian  army.  The  ranks  of  the  English 
cavalry  were  mowed  down  and  but  few  escaped  alive.  "  It  is  mag- 
nificent," said  a  French  general,  "  but  it  is  not  war."  On  November 
5  the  battle  of  Likerman  was  fought,  in  which  the  scanty  British 
drove  back  thick  columns  of  Russians.  If  the  Russians  had  pre- 
vailed, both  the  allied  armies  would  have  been  destroyed.  As  it 
was,  the  British  held  out  against  fearful  fxlds,  till  the  French  came 
to  their  help,  and  forced  the  Russians  to  retreat. 

Winter  was  now  upon  the  armies.  It  had  been  supposed  at 
home  that  their  task  would  be  accomplished  before  the  fine  weather 


CRIMEANWAR  617 

1855-1856 

ended,  and  no  adequate  provision  for  a  winter  season  had  been 
made.  Stores  were  lacking.  The  soldiers  fell  ill  by  hundreds. 
The  horses  died.  What  provisions  reached  the  camp  had  to  be 
carried  by  the  men,  and  the  men  were  worn  out  by  having  to  spend 
long  hours  in  guarding  the  trenches  and  to  fetch  provisions  as 
well.  Besides,  the  English  Government,  having  had  no  experience 
of  war,  committed  many  blunders  in  their  arrangements  for  the 
supply  of  the  army.  The  French  were  better  off,  because  Kamiesch 
Bay,  where  their  provisions  were  landed,  was  nearer  their  camp 
than  Balaklava  was  to  the  camp  of  the  British. 

The  sick  were  carried  to  a  hospital  at  Scutari,  near  Constanti- 
nople, but  when  they  arrived  there  were  no  nurses  to  attend  on  them, 
and  large  numbers  died.  After  a  while  Miss  Florence  Nightin- 
gale was  sent  out  with  her  ladies  to  nurse  the  sick.  It  was  the  first 
time  that  women  had  been  employed  as  nurses  in  war.  Miss 
Nightingale  soon  reduced  the  disorder  into  order,  made  the  place 
clean,  and  saw  that  the  sufferers  were  skillfully  tended.  Good 
nursing  at  once  told  on  the  health  of  the  men,  and  valuable  lives 
were  spared  in  consequence  of  the  gentle  help  received. 

At  home  Englishmen  looked  on  the  misery  in  the  Crimea  with 
growing  anger.  They  thought  that  someone  was  to  blame,  and 
as  soon  as  Parliament  met  the  Government  was  forced  to  resign. 
Lord  Palmerston  became  Prime  ^Minister.  It  was  known  that  his 
whole  heart  was  in  the  war,  and  that  he  was  a  man  of  strong  com- 
mon sense  and  resolute  character.  Matters  in  tlie  Crimea  began 
to  improve,  principally  because  by  that  time  English  officials  had 
begun,  after  numerous  failures,  to  understand  tlieir  duties. 

During  the  summer  the  siege  of  Sebastopol  was  pushed  on. 
The  British  army  was  in  good  condition.  The  French  troops  were, 
however,  more  numerous,  and  occupied  the  positions  from  which 
the  town  cr^ukl  be  most  easily  attacked.  They  had,  too,  a  new  com- 
mander. Marshal  Pelissier,  who  was  more  strong-willed  than  Can- 
robert  had  been.  The  king  of  Sardinia,  Victor  Emmanuel,  joined 
the  allies.  After  various  attempts  a  final  attack  on  Sebastopol 
was  made  on  September  8,  and  the  whole  of  the  fortifications  were 
rendered  untenable.  The  Czar  Nicholas  had  died  in  tlie  spring,  and 
his  successor,  Alexander  II.,  was  now  ready  to  make  peace.  The 
Russian  losses  had  been  enormous,  not  merely  in  Sebastopol  itself, 
but  over  the  whole  of  the  empire.  In  March,  1856.  peace  was 
made.     The  fortifications  of  Sebastopol  were  destroyed,  and  Russia 


618  ENGLAND 

1823-1858 

promised  not  to  have  a  fleet  in  the  Black  Sea  or  to  refortify  the 
town.  The  Russians  abode  by  these  conditions  as  long  as  they 
were  obliged  to  do  so,  and  no  longer.  It  was,  however,  long  enough 
to  give  the  Turks  time  to  improve  and  strengthen  their  government 
if  they  had  been  capable  of  carrying  out  reforms  of  any  kind. 

British  hostility  to  Russia  had  arisen  chiefly  from  fear  lest 
she  should,  by  gaining  possession  of  Constantinople,  cut  off  the 
passage  to  India.  Alarm  on  this  score  had  not  been  of  recent 
growth.  By  1823  the  power  of  the  East  India  Company  was 
absolutely  predominant,  and  though  there  were,  indeed,  wars  oc- 
casionally on  a  small  scale,  yet  for  some  years  the  chief  feature 
of  Indian  history  was  its  peaceful  progress. 

The  suppression  of  internal  disorders  did  not  relieve  the  Gov- 
ernment of  India  from  anxiety  lest  increasing  prosperity  within 
should  tempt  invaders  from  without.  Secured  on  the  north  by 
the  lofty  wall  of  the  Himalayas,  India,  until  the  arrival  of  the 
British  by  sea,  had  always  been  invaded  by  enemies  pouring  across 
its  northwestern  frontier  from  the  passes  of  the  highlands  of 
Afghanistan ;  and  it  was  from  the  same  quarter  that  danger  w'as 
now  feared. 

In  1835,  when  England  and  Russia  were  striving  for  the  mas- 
tery at  Constantinople,  the  two  countries  were  necessarily  thrown 
into  opposition  in  Asia.  In  1837  the  Shah  of  Persia,  who  was 
under  the  influence  of  Russia,  laid  siege  to  Herat,  on  the  road  to 
India.  The  English  took  alarm  and  tried  to  win  over  the  Ameer  of 
Afghanistan,  who,  however,  taking  offense,  allied  himself  with 
Russia.  The  siege  of  Herat  had  been  raised  by  the  Persians,  and 
there  was,  therefore,  no  longer  any  real  excuse  for  an  attack  on  the 
fierce  and  warlike  Afghans. 

Nevertheless,  the  British  army  entered  Afghanistan  in  1839, 
and  reached  Cabul  in  safety.  Suddenly,  however,  an  insurrection 
broke  out.  The  British  were  soon  at  a  disadvantage,  and  on  the 
retreat  from  Cabul  lost  all  but  one  of  14,500  men.  In  1842  they 
sent  a  punitive  expedition.  Further  e\ents  in  India  were  the  con- 
quest of  Sindh  (1842),  the  first  and  second  Sikh  wars,  and  the 
Mutiny  of  1857.  After  the  suppression  of  that,  in  1858,  Parlia- 
ment put  an  end  to  the  authority  of  the  East  India  Company. 
Thenceforth  the  Governor-General  was  brought  directly  under  the 
qncen,  acting  thnmgh  a  British  Secretary  of  State  for  India  re- 
sp',n5!l)le  lo  Parliament.     There  was  also  to  be  an  Indian  Council 


CRIMEAN     WAR 


619 


1858 

in  England  composed  of  persons  familiar  with  Indian  affairs,  in 
order  that  the  Secretary  of  State  might  have  the  advice  of  experi- 
enced persons.  On  assuming  full  authority  the  queen  issued  a 
proclamation  to  the  peoples  and  princes  of  India.  To  the  people 
she  promised  complete  toleration  in  religion,  and  admission  to 
office  of  qualified  persons.  To  the  princes  she  promised  scrupulous 
respect  for  their  rights  and  dignities.  To  all  she  declared  her  in- 
tention of  respecting  their  rights  and  customs.  It  is  in  this  last 
respect  especially  that  the  proclamation  laid  down  the  lines  on  which 
administration  of  India  will  always  have  to  move  if  it  is  to  be 
successful.     Englishmen  cannot  but  perceive  that  many  things  are 


s\eqe:  of  sebastopol 


done  by  the  natives  of  India  which  are  in  their  nature  hurtful,  un- 
just, or  even  cruel,  and  they  are  naturallv  impatient  to  remove  evils 
that  are  very  evident  to  them.  The  lesson  necessary  for  them  to 
learn  is  the  one  which  Walpole  taught  their  own  ancestors,  that  it 
is  better  to  leave  evils  untouched  for  a  wliile  than  to  risk  the  over- 
throw of  a  system  of  government  whicli.  on  the  whole,  works  benefi- 
cently. It  is  one  thing  to  endeavor  to  lead  the  people  of  India  for- 
ward to  a  better  life,  anotlier  thing  to  drag  them  forward  and 
thereby  to  provoke  a  g-eneral  exasperation  which  would  lessen  the 
chances  of  improvement  in  the  future,  and  might  possibly  sweep 
the  reforming  goveiTiment  itself  away. 


Chapter    LX 


ANTECEDENTS  AND  RESULTS  OF  THE  SECOND 
REFORM    ACT.     1857— 1874 

LEADING   DATES 

The  Second  Derby  Ministry,  1858 — The  Second  Palmerston  Min- 
istry, 1859 — War  of  Italian  Liberation,  1859 — Commercial  Treaty 
WITH  France,  i860 — The  American  Civil  War,  1861-1864 — Earl 
Russell's  Ministry,  1865 — War  Between  Austria  and  Prussia,  1866 — 
The  Third  Derby  Ministry,  1866 — The  Second  Reform  Act,  1867 — 
The  First  Disraeli  Ministry,  1868 — The  First  Gladstone  Ministry, 
1868 — Disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church,  1869 — The  First  Irish 
Land  Act  and  the  Education  Act,  1870 — War  between  France  and 
Germany,  1870-1871 — Abolition  of  Army  Purchase,  1871 — The 
Ballot  Act,  1872 — Fall  of  the  Gladstone  Ministry,  1874 

WHEN  the  Indian  ^Mutiny  was  crushed  the  Palmerston 
^linistry  no  longer  existed.  Palmerston's  readiness  to 
enforce  his  will  on  foreign  nations  had  led  him,  in  1857, 
to  provoke  a  war  with  China  which  the  majority  of  the  House  of 
Commons  condemned  as  unjustifiable.  He  dissolved  Parliament 
and  appealed  to  the  fighting  instincts  of  the  nation,  and  though  not 
only  Cobden  and  Bright,  but  Gladstone,  joined  the  Conser\'atives 
against  him,  he  obtained  a  sweeping  majority  in  the  new  Parlia- 
ment. Curiously  enough,  he  was  turned  out  of  office,  in  1858,  by 
this  very  same  Parliament,  on  a  charge  of  truckling  to  the  French 
Emperor.  Explosive  bombs,  wherewith  to  murder  Napoleon  HI., 
were  manufactured  in  England,  and  plans  for  using  them  against 
him  were  laid  on  English  soil.  The  attempt  was  made  by  an 
Italian,  Orsini,  and  upon  its  failure  the  French  Government  and 
people  called  upf>n  the  English  Government  to  prevent  such  designs 
in  future.  Palmerston  brought  in  a  Conspiracy-to-]\Iurder  Bill,  the 
object  of  which  was  to  punish  those  who  contri\"ed  the  assassination 
of  foreign  princes  on  English  soil.  This  measure,  desirable  as  it 
was,  was  unpopular  in  England,  because  some  Frenchmen  talked 
abusively  of  EngliL^hmen  as  protectors  of  murderers,  and  even  called 
on  the  Emperor  to  invade  England.     Parliament   refused   to  be 

620 


SECOND     REFORM     ACT  621 

1858-1861 

bullied  even,  into  doing  a  good  thing,  and,  the  bill  being  rejected, 
the  Palmerston  Ministry  resigned. 

Lord  Derby  became  Prime  Minister  a  second  time,  and  in  1859 
Disraeli,  who  was  again  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  leader  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  brought  in  a  Reform  Bill,  which  was  re- 
jected by  the  House  of  Commons.  A  new  ministry  was  formed 
which,  like  Lord  Aberdeen's  in  1852,  comprised  Whigs  and  Peelites. 
Palmerston  was  Prime  Minister,  Russell  Foreign  Secretary,  and 
Gladstone  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 

In  i860  Russell  brought  in  a  Reform  Bill,  but  the  country  did 
not  care  about  it,  and  even  Russell  perceived  that  it  was  useless  to 
press  it.  It  was  withdrawn,  and  no  other  similar  measure  was 
proposed  while  Palmerston  lived.  The  country,  indeed,  was 
agitated  about  other  matters.  Napoleon  had  annexed  Savoy  and 
Nice  after  a  successful  war  with  Austria  in  behalf  of  the  liberation 
of  Italy,  and  suspicions  were  entertained  that,  having  succeeded 
in  defeating  Austria,  he  might  think  of  trying  to  defeat  either  Prus- 
sia or  England.  Already,  while  Lord  Derby  was  Prime  Minister, 
young  men  had  come  forward  to  serve  as  volunteers  in  defense  of 
the  country.  Palmerston  gave  great  encouragement  to  the  move- 
ment, and  before  long  corps  of  volunteers  were  established  in  every 
county,  as  a  permanent  part  of  the  British  army. 

Napoleon  did  not  really  want  to  quarrel  with  England,  and 
before  long  an  opportunity  presented  itself  for  binding  the  two 
nations  together.  The  Emperor  warmly  adopted  a  scheme  for  a 
commercial  treaty  between  England  and  France  which  had  been 
suggested  by  Cobden,  and  which  was  also  supported  by  Gladstone, 
who,  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  had  been  completing  Peel's 
work  by  carrying  out  the  principles  of  free  trade.  In  i860  was 
signed  the  Commercial  Treaty,  in  virtue  of  which  English  goods 
were  admitted  into  France  at  low  duties,  while  French  wines  and 
other  articles  were  treated  in  England  in  the  same  way.  At  a  later 
time  the  power  of  the  Emperor  came  to  an  end,  and  France  took  the 
earliest  opportunity  to  annul  a  treaty  the  value  of  which  she  was 
unable  to  appreciate. 

In  1 86 1  a  terrible  war  broke  out  in  the  United  States  between 
the  Southern  States,  which  held  to  slavery  and  tlic  right  to  secede 
from  the  Union,  and  the  Northern  States,  which  believed  the  op- 
posite. English  opinion  was  divided  on  the  subject.  The  upper 
classes,  for  the  most  part,  sided  with  the  South,  while  the  working- 


622  ENGLAND 

1861-1862 

men  sympathized  with  the  North.  Towards  the  end  of  1861  the 
Confederate  Government  dispatched  two  agents,  Mason  and  SHdell, 
to  Europe  in  an  Enghsh  mail  steamer  to  seek  for  the  friendship  of 
England  and  France.  They  were  taken  out  of  the  steamer  by  the 
captain  of  a  United  States  man-of-war.  x\s  it  was  contrary-  to  the 
rules  of  international  law  to  seize  anyone  on  board  a  neutral  ship, 
the  British  Government  protested,  and  prepared  to  make  war  with 
the  United  States  if  they  refused  to  surrender  the  agents.  Fortu- 
nately the  United  States  Government  promptly  surrendered  the 
men,  honorably  acknowledging  that  its  officer  had  acted  wrongly, 
and  the  miserable  spectacle  of  a  war  between  two  nations  which 
ought  always  to  be  bound  together  by  ties  of  brotherhood  was 
averted. 

When  the  demand  for  the  surrender  of  ^Mason  and  Slidell  was 
being  prepared  in  England,  Prince  Albert,  who  had  lately  received 
the  title  of  Prince  Consort,  lay  upon  what  proved  to  be  his  death- 
bed. His  last  act  was  to  suggest  that  some  passages  in  the  Eng- 
lish dispatch,  which  might  possibly  give  offense  in  America,  should 
be  more  courteously  expressed.  On  December  14,  1861,  he  died. 
His  whole  married  life  had  been  one  of  continuous  self-abnegation. 
He  never  put  himself  forward,  or  aspired  to  the  semblance  of 
power ;  but  he  placed  his  intelligence  and  tact  at  the  service  of  the 
queen  and  the  country,  softening  down  asperities  and  helping  on 
the  smooth  working  of  the  machinery  of  government. 

The  tleet  of  the  United  States  had  from  the  beginning  of  the 
war  blockaded  the  Southern  ports,  and  many  English  merchants 
fitted  out  steamers  to  run  through  the  blockading  squadrons,  carry- 
ing goods  to  the  Confederates  and  taking  away  cotton  in  return. 
The  Confederates,  who  had  no  navy,  were  anxious  to  attack  the  com- 
mercial marine  of  their  enemies,  and  ordered  a  swift  war-steamer 
to  be  built  at  Birkenhead  by  an  English  shipbuilder,  which,  after 
it  had  put  to  sea,  was  named  the  Alabaiiia.  The  Alabama 
took  a  large  number  of  American  merchant  ships,  sinking  the  ships 
after  removing  the  crews  and  the  valuable  part  of  the  cargo.  Such 
j)rocce'.lii:g5  caused  tlie  greatest  indignation  in  America,  where  it 
v/as  b.eld  tl"iat  tl:ie  British  Guvernment  ought  to  have  seized  the 
Alal'd)}ia  l)ef<jre  it  put  to  sea  as  being  in  reality  a  ship  of  war 
which  ought  not  to  be  alluwed  to  start  on  its  career  from  a  neutral 
harbor.  Srime  years  afterwards  England  had  to  pay  heavy  dam- 
ages  to   the    United    States    for   the    losses   arising  in  consequence 


SECOND     REFORM     ACT  623 

1861-1865 

of  the  mismanagement  of  the  Government  in  allowing  this  ship 
to  sail. 

In  the  meanwhile  great  suffering  was  caused  in  the  North  of 
England  by  the  stoppage  of  the  supplies  of  cotton  from  America, 
in  consequence  of  the  blockade  of  the  Southern  ports.  It  was  on 
American  cotton  that  the  cotton  mills  in  Lancashire  had  almost 
exclusively  depended.  Mills  were  either  stopped  or  kept  going  only 
for  a  few  hours  in  the  week.  Thousands  were  thrown  out  of  work. 
Yet  not  only  were  the  sufferers  patient  under  their  misfortune,  but 
they  refused  to  speak  evil  of  the  Northern  States,  whose  blockading 
operations  had  been  the  cause  of  their  misery.  Believing  that  slave- 
owning  was  a  crime,  and  that  the  result  of  the  victory  of  the  North- 
ern States  would  be  the  downfall  of  slavery  in  America,  they  suf- 
fered in  silence  rather  than  ask  that  England  should  aid  a  cause 
which  in  their  hearts  they  condemned. 

In  1864  the  American  civil  war  ended  by  the  complete  victory 
of  the  North.  Slavery  was  brought  to  an  end  in  the  whole  of  the 
territory  of  the  United  States.  The  conquerors  showed  themselves 
most  merciful  in  the  hour  of  victory,  setting  themselves  deliberately 
to  win  back  the  hearts  of  the  conquered.  Such  a  spectacle  could 
not  fail  to  influence  the  course  of  English  politics.  A  democratic 
government,  sorely  tried,  had  shown  itself  strong  and  merciful. 
The  cause  of  democratic  progress  also  gained  adherents  through  the 
abnegation  of  the  workingmen  of  Lancashire  in  the  time  of  the 
cotton  famine.  Those  who  willingly  suffered  on  behalf  of  what 
they  believed  to  be  a  righteous  cause  could  hardly  be  debarred  much 
longer  from  the  exercise  of  the  full  rights  of  citizenship. 

Although  Parliamentary  reform  could  not  be  long  delayed, 
it  was  not  likely  to  come  as  long  as  Lord  Palmerston  lived.  He 
was  the  most  popular  man  in  England :  cheery,  high-spirited,  and 
worthily  representing  the  indomitable  courage  of  the  race  to  which 
he  belonged.  He  was  now  eighty  years  of  age,  and  the  old  system 
did  well  enough  for  him.  On  the  other  hand,  Gladstone,  whose 
energy  and  financial  success  gave  him  an  authority  only  second  to 
that  of  Palmerston  in  the  House  of  Commons,  declared  for  reform. 
In  1865  a  new  Parliament  was  elected.  On  October  18,  before  it 
met,  Palmerston  died.  He  had  been  brisk  and  active  to  the  last, 
but  there  was  work  now  to  be  done  needing  the  hands  and  hearts 
of  younger  men. 

Russell,  who  had  been  created  Earl  Russell  in  1861,  succeeded 


624.  ENGLAND 

1865-1867 

Palmerston  as  Prime  Minister,  and  Gladstone  became  leader  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  When  the  session  opened  in  1866  the  min- 
istry introduced  a  Reform  Bill,  with  the  object  of  lowering  the  fran- 
chise in  counties  and  boroughs.  The  majority  in  the  House  of 
Commons  did  not  care  about  reform,  and  though  the  House  did  not 
directly  throw  out  the  bill,  so  many  objections  were  raised,  mainly 
by  dissatisfied  Liberals,  and  so  much  time  was  lost  in  discussing 
them,  that  the  ministry  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  House  did 
not  wish  to  pass  it.  On  this  they  resigned,  intending  to  show  by 
so  doing  that  they  really  cared  about  the  bill,  and  were  ready  to 
sacrifice  office  for  its  sake. 

For  the  third  time  Lord  Derby  became  Prime  Minister,  with 
Disraeli  again  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  leader  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  It  soon  appeared  that,  though  the  House  of 
Commons  cared  little  for  reform,  the  workingmen  cared  for  it 
much.  Crowded  and  enthusiastic  meetings  were  held  in  most  of 
the  large  towns  in  the  north.  In  London,  the  Government  having 
prohibited  a  meeting  appointed  to  be  held  in  Hyde  Park,  the  crowed, 
finding  the  gates  shut,  broke  down  the  railings  and  rushed  in.  Dis- 
raeli, quick  to  perceive  that  the  country  was  determined  to  have 
reform,  made  up  his  mind  to  be  the  minister  to  give  it ;  and,  as  he 
was  able  to  carry  his  usual  supporters  with  him,  the  opposition 
of  the  discontented  Liberals — through  which  the  Reform  Bill  of  the 
last  session  had  been  wrecked — was  rendered  innocuous.  At  the 
opening  of  the  session  of  1867  Disraeli  first  proposed  a  series  of 
resokitions  laying  down  the  principles  on  which  reform  ought  to 
be  based.  Finding  that  the  House  of  Commons  preferred  an  actual 
bill,  l:e  sketched  out  the  plan  of  a  bill,  and  tiien,  as  it  did  not  please 
the  Houses,  withdrew  it  and  brouglit  in  a  second  bill,  very  different 
from  the  one  which  he  had  first  proposed.  Three  Cabinet  ministers, 
one  of  whom  was  Lord  Cranborne  (who  afterwards  became  Lord 
Salisbury),  resigned  rather  than  accept  a  bill  so  democratic  as  the 
final  pn.po-al.  Before  the  bill  got  through  the  House  of  Commons 
it  became  still  mnre  democratic.  In  its  final  shape  every  man  who 
paid  rales  in  tr.e  1)'  M-oughs  was  to  liave  a  vote,  and  in  towns  there- 
fore IvjUseivId  suffrage  was  practically  established,  while  even 
lodgers  were  ailijwed  to  vote  if  tliey  paid  10/.  rent  and  had  resided 
in  the  same  lodgings  for  a  whole  year.  In  tlie  counties  the  fran- 
chi.-e  was  given  to  all  who  inhabited  liouses  at  u/.  rental,  while 
tiie  old  freehoM  ^uffracje  ot    '^.o.  ^vas  rctaiiied.     At  least  in  towns 


IJF.NJAM  l.\     DISRAKI.I,    KAkl.    dl'     I'.K  \(  ( I  N  SKI  Kl.D 

(l)orn     1805.       I  )iiMl     18S 1  ) 

Frvin    a    I'hotogrtipk 


SECOND     REFORM     ACT  625 

1868-1870 

large  enough  to  return  members  separately  the  workingmen  would 
henceforth  have  a  voice  in  managing  the  affairs  of  the  nation.  In 
1868  bills  w^ere  carried  changing  on  similar  principles  the  franchise 
in  Scotland  and  Ireland.  In  England  and  Scotland  there  was  also 
a  redistribution  of  seats,  small  constituencies  being  disfranchised 
and  their  members  given  to  large  ones. 

The  year  of  the  second  Reform  Act  was  one  of  trouble  in 
Ireland.  The  discontented  in  Ireland  were  now  supported  by  an 
immense  population  of  Irish  in  America,  the  whole  of  which  was 
hostile  to  England,  and  large  numbers  of  which  had  acquired  mili- 
tary discipline  in  the  American  Civil  War.  A  secret  society,  whose 
members  were  known  as  Fenians,  sprang  up  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic.  Many  of  the  military  Irish  returned  from  America  to 
Ireland,  and  in  j\Iarch,  1867,  a  general  rising  was  attempted  in 
Ireland,  but  was  suppressed  with  little  bloodshed.  Numbers  of 
Irish,  as  well  those  residing  in  England  as  those  who  remained  in 
their  own  country,  sympathized  with  the  Fenians.  In  Manchester, 
some  of  these  rescued  some  Fenian  prisoners  from  a  prison  van, 
and  in  the  course  of  the  struggle  a  shot  was  fired  which  killed  a 
policeman.  Five  of  the  rescuers  were  tried  in  November,  and  three 
were  hanged.  In  December  other  Irishmen  blew  down  with  gun- 
powder the  wall  of  Clerkenwell  Prison,  in  which  two  Fenians  were 
confined,  hoping  to  liberate  the  prisoners. 

In  February,  1868,  Disraeli  became  Prime  Minister,  Lord 
Derby  having  resigned  in  consequence  of  the  state  of  his  health. 
It  had  by  this  time  become  evident  to  the  principal  Liberals  that 
Irish  discontent  must  be  caused  by  grievances  which  it  behoved  the 
British  Parliament  to  remedy.  Accordingly,  Gladstone  proposed 
and  carried  resolutions  calling  for  the  disestablishment  of  the 
Irish  Church.  Disraeli  dissolved  Parliament,  as  he  was  obliged  in 
any  case  to  do  in  order  to  allow  the  new  constituencies  created  by 
the  Reform  Act  to  choose  their  representatives.  The  new  Parlia- 
ment contained  a  large  Liberal  majority,  and  Gladstone  became 
Prime  Minister.  In  1869  he  brought  in  and  carried  a  bill  dis- 
establishing and  disendowing  tlie  Protestant  Church  of  Ireland, 
which  was  the  church  of  the  minority. 

In  1870  the  Government  attacked  llie  more  difficult  question 
of  Irish  land.  An  Irish  Land  Act  was  now  passed  which  obliged 
landlords  to  compensate  their  tenants  for  improvements  made  by 
them,  and  to  give  them  some  payment  if  they  turned  them  out  of 


626  ENGLAND 

1866-1870 

their  holding  for  any  reason  except  for  not  paying  their  rent. 
Tenants  who  desired  to  buy  land  from  their  landlords  might  receive 
loans  from  the  Government  to  enable  them  to  become  owners  of 
farms  which  they  had  rented.  The  act  had  less  effect  than  was 
intended,  as  the  landlord,  being  allowed  to  come  to  an  agreement 
with  a  tenant  that  the  act  should  not  in  his  case  be  enforced,  had 
usually  sufficient  influence  over  his  tenants  to  induce  them  to 
abandon  all  claim  to  the  benefits  which  Parliament  intended  them 
to  receive. 

In  the  same  year  Forster,  who  was  one  of  the  ministers,  intro- 
duced a  new  system  of  education  in  primary  schools  in  England. 
Up  to  this  time  the  Government  had  been  allowed  by  Parliament 
to  grant  money  to  schools  on  condition  that  a  sum  at  least  equal 
to  the  grant  was  raised  by  school  fees  and  local  subscriptions,  and 
that  the  Government  inspectors  were  satisfied  that  the  children 
were  properly  taught.  By  the  new  Education  Act,  wherever  there 
was  a  deficiency  in  school  accommodation  the  ratepayers  were  to 
elect  a  school  board  with  authority  to  draw  upon  the  rates  for 
the  building  and  maintenance  of  as  many  schools  as  the  Committee 
of  the  Privy  Council  appointed  to  decide  on  questions  of  education 
thought  to  be  necessary — ^which  school  boards  had  authority  to 
compel  parents  who  neglected  the  education  of  their  children  to 
send  them  either  to  the  board  school  or  to  some  other  efficient 
school.  At  these  schools  the  Bible  was  to  be  read  and  explained, 
but  no  religious  instruction  according  to  the  principles  of  any 
special  religious  body  was  to  be  given  in  school  hours. 

While  these  events  were  occurring  in  England  great  changes 
had  taken  place  on  the  continent.  In  1866  a  war  had  broken  out 
between  Prussia  and  Austria  in  which  Prussia  was  completely 
victorious.  Xapoleon  was  jealous  of  the  success  of  Prussia,  and 
in  1870  picked  a  quarrel,  was  disastrously  defeated,  and  a  repub- 
lic was  established  in  France  and  a  powerful  empire  in  Germany 
as  a  result  of  the  war.  During  these  two  struggles  Italian  unity 
was  completed  under  the  constitutional  monarchy  of  Victor 
Emmanuel. 

In  these  wars  England  took  no  part.  Government  and  Par- 
liament continued  to  pay  attention  to  domestic  reforms.  Hitherto 
regimental  officers  in  the  army  had  been  allowed,  on  voluntarily 
retiring  from  service,  ti)  receive  a  sum  of  monev  from  the  senior 
officer  beneath  'them  who  was  willing  or  able  to  pay  the  price  for 


SECOND     REFORM     ACT  627 

1871-1872 

the  creation  of  a  vacancy  to  which  he  would  be  promoted  over  the 
heads  of  officers  who,  though  they  were  his  own  seniors,  did  not 
pay  the  money.  A  poor  officer,  therefore,  could  only  be  promoted 
when  vacancies  above  him  were  caused  by  death.  A  Government 
bill  for  the  abolition  of  this  practice  passed  the  Commons,  but  was 
laid  aside  by  the  Lords  till  a  complete  measure  of  army-reform, 
which  had  been  joined  to  the  bill  when  it  was  first  brought  into  the 
Commons,  should  be  produced.  Gladstone,  taking  this  to  be  equiv- 
alent to  the  rejection  of  the  bill,  obtained  from  the  queen  the  with- 
drawal of  the  warrant  by  which  purchase  was  authorized,  thus 
settling  by  a  stroke  of  the  prerogative  a  measure  which  he  had  at 
first  hoped  to  pass  by  the  authority  of  Parliament.  His  action  on 
this  occasion  lost  him  the  good  will  of  some  of  his  best  and  most 
independent  supporters,  while  large  numbers  of  Dissenters  had 
been  alienated  from  the  Government  because  the  Education  Act 
had  not  entirely  put  an  end  to  the  giving  of  religious  instruction  in 
schools,  and  thus  relieved  them  from  the  fear  that  the  religious 
belief  of  the  children  would  be  influenced  by  the  teaching  of  Church 
of  England  schoolmasters  and  schoolmistresses. 

All  members  of  the  Liberal  party,  however,  concurred  in  sup- 
porting a  bill  introduced  by  Forster  in  1872  for  establishing  secret 
voting  by  means  of  the  ballot.  The  Ballot  Act,  which  passed  in 
this  year,  made  it  impossible  to  know  how  any  man's  vote  was 
given,  and  consequently  enabled  persons  dependent  on  others  for 
their  livelihood  or  advancement  to  give  their  votes  freely  without 
fear  of  being  deprived  of  employment  if  they  voted  otherwise  than 
their  employers  wished.  The  work  of  the  first  Gladstone  Ministry 
was  in  some  respects  like  the  work  of  the  ministry  of  Lord  Grey 
after  the  first  Reform  Act.  In  both  cases  the  accession  of  a  new 
class  to  a  share  of  power  was  followed  by  almost  feverish  activity 
in  legislation,  in  the  one  case  in  accordance  with  the  ideas  of  the 
middle  classes,  in  the  other  case  in  accordance  with  the  ideas  of  the 
artisans.  In  both  cases  vigorous  progress  was  followed  by  a  reac- 
tion. Many  who  had  applauded  what  was  done  had  no  desire  to 
see  more  done  in  the  same  direction,  and.  as  always  happens  when 
people  are  no  longer  in  accord  with  the  ideas  of  a  ministry,  they 
fix  angrily  on  mistakes  committed  and  think  of  unavoidable  mis- 
fortunes as  though  they  were  intentional  mistakes.  Some  of  the 
ministers,  moreover,  made  themselves  unpopular  by  the  discourtesy 
of  their  language. 


628  ENGLAND 

1871-1873 

The  foreign  policy  of  the  Government  made  it  unpopular. 
One  result  of  the  great  war  between  France  and  Germany  in  1871 
was  that  Russia  refused  to  be  any  longer  bound  by  the  treaty  of 
1856  to  abstain  from  keeping-  ships  of  war  in  the  Black  Sea,  and  the 
English  Government,  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  but  to  its  own  griev- 
ous injury  at  home,  agreed  to  a  conference  being  held  between  the 
representatives  of  the  great  Powers  in  London,  at  which  the  stipula- 
tions objected  to  by  Russia  were  annulled.  Another  cause  of  the 
unpopularity  of  the  Government  was  its  agreement  in  1871  to  refer 
to  arbitration  the  claims  which  had  been  brought  forward  by  the 
United  States  for  compensation  for  damages  inflicted  on  their  com- 
mercial marine  by  the  ravages  of  the  Alabama.  In  1872  a  Court 
of  Arbitration  sat  at  Geneva  and  awarded  to  the  United  States  a 
sum  of  15,000,000  dollars,  or  rather  more  than  3,000,000/.  The 
sum  was  regarded  by  many  in  England  as  excessive,  but,  whether 
this  was  so  or  not,  it  was  well  spent  in  putting  an  end  to  a  mis- 
understanding between  the  two  great  branches  of  the  English- 
speaking  race.  Since  that  time  there  has  been  an  increasing  readi- 
ness to  submit  disputes  between  nations  to  arbitration. 

In  1873  the  ministry  brought  in  a  bill  to  establish  in  Ireland  a 
new  university.  This  bill  being  rejected  by  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, the  ministers  resigned.  As,  however,  Disraeli  refused  to  take 
office,  they  continued  to  carry  on  the  Government.  In  January, 
1874,  Parliament  being  dissolved,  a  large  Conservative  majority 
was  returned.  The  ministry  then  resigned,  and  Disraeli  became 
Prime  Minister  a  second  time.  It  was  the  first  time  since  Peel's 
resignation  that  the  Conservatives  had  held  office  except  on 
sufferance. 

After  the  great  war  with  France,  which  ended  in  181 5,  the 
colonies  retained  and  acquired  by  England  were  valued  either  like 
the  West  India  Islands  because  they  produced  sugar,  or  like  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  because  they  afforded  stations  for  British  fleets 
which  would  be  of  the  highest  value  in  time  of  war.  There  were 
Britisli  emigrants  in  Canada  and  Australia,  but  their  numbers  were 
not  very  great,  and  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  the  population  was 
almost  entirely  of  Dutch  origin.  Since  that  time  the  West  India 
Islands  have  decreased  in  importance  in  consequence  of  the  abolition 
of  slavery,  the  throwing  open  of  the  British  market  to  foreign 
sugar,  and  to  defects  in  a  system  of  cultivation  which  had  been 
adopted   in   the  time  of  slavery.     On  the  other  hand   there  have 


SECOND     REFORM     ACT  629 

1815-1872 

grown  up  great  and  powerful  communities  mainly  composed  of 
emigrants  from  Great  Britain,  self-governing  like  Great  Britain 
herself,  and  held  to  the  mother-country  by  the  loosest  possible  ties. 
These  communities  are  to  be  found  in  three  parts  of  the  globe — 
the  Dominion  of  Canada,  Australasia,  and  South  x\frica. 

It  had  been  supposed  in  England  that  the  troubles  which  had 
resulted  in  Canada  from  the  dissensions  between  the  British  and 
French  settlers  had  been  brought  to  an  end  in  1841  by  the  legisla- 
tive union  of  the  two  provinces.  The  British  inhabitants  of  Upper 
Canada,  however,  complained  of  the  influence  exercised  by  the 
French  of  Lower  Canada.  To  provide  a  remedy  an  Act  of  the 
British  Parliament  created,  in  1867,  a  federation  known  as  the 
Dominion  of  Canada,  into  which  any  existing  colonies  on  the  North 
American  continent  were  to  be  allowed  to  enter.  There  was  to  be 
a  governor-general  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  a  Dominion  Parlia- 
ment seated  at  Ottawa  and  legislating  for  matters  of  common  con- 
cern, which  was  to  consist  of  a  Senate,  the  members  of  which  are 
nominated  for  life  by  the  governor-general  on  the  advice  of  respon- 
sible ministers,  and  a  House  of  Commons,  the  members  of  which 
are  elected  by  constituencies  in  the  provinces  in  proportion  to  the 
population  of  each  province.  The  Parliaments  of  the  separate  prov- 
inces retained  in  their  own  hands  the  management  of  their  own  local 
affairs.  The  provincial  Parliaments  of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada 
were  separated  from  one  another,  bearing  respectively  the  names 
of  the  Province  of  Ontario  and  the  Province  of  Quebec.  To  them 
were  added  as  component  parts  of  the  Dominion  Nova  Scotia  and 
New  Brunswick.  Between  1870  and  1872  Manitoba,  British 
Columbia,  and  Prince  Edward  Island  joined  the  Dominion.  New- 
foundland continues  to  hold  aloof.  The  unoccupied  lands  of  the 
Northwest  are  placed  under  the  control  of  the  authorities  of  the 
Dominion,  which  thus  combines  under  one  government  the  whole 
of  America  north  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  with  the  exception  of  Alaska,  Newfoundland 
and  its  subject  territory  of  Labrador. 

The  Australasian  colonies  are  divided  into  two  groups,  those 
of  Australia  and  those  of  New  Zealand.  The  first  British  settlers 
in  Australia  were  convicts,  who  arrived  at  Port  Jackson  in  1788. 
For  many  years  the  colony  thus  founded  under  the  name  of  New 
South  Wales  remained  a  penal  settlement.  The  convicts  them- 
selves, after  serving  their  time  in  servitude,  became  free,  their  chil- 


630  ENGLAND 

1806-1901 

dren  were  free,  and  there  was  a  certain  amount  of  free  emigration 
from  Great  Britain.  In  1821  New  South  Wales  had  a  population 
of  30,000,  of  which  three-fourths  were  convicts.  It  had  already- 
been  discovered  that  the  country  was  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  pro- 
duction of  wool,  and  the  number  of  sheep  in  the  colony  rose  from 
25,000  in  1810  to  290,000  in  182 1.  From  this  time  success  was 
assured.  Other  colonies  were  founded  in  due  course.  Van  Die- 
men's  Land,  afterwards  known  as  Tasmania,  was  established  as  a 
separate  colony  in  1825.  In  the  same  year  a  small  convict  settle- 
ment was  founded  under  the  name  of  West  Australia.  South  Aus- 
tralia received  a  separate  government  in  1836  under  a  British  Act 
of  Parliament  passed  in  1834.  Victoria  was  separated  from  New 
South  Wales  in  1850.  By  this  time  the  free  population,  indignant 
at  the  constant  influx  of  British  criminals,  resisted  the  importation 
of  convicts  so  strenuously  that  in  185 1  an  end  was  put  to  the  system 
of  transportation  to  Australia  except  in  the  small  and  thinly  popu- 
lated colony  of  West  Australia.  In  that  year  the  population  flocked 
to  the  newly  discovered  gold  fields,  and  the  attraction  of  gold 
brought  an  enormous  number  of  immigrants  from  Great  Britain. 
Queensland  became  a  separate  colony  in  1859.  In  1901  the  white 
population  of  the  whole  of  Australia  numbered  about  3,700,000. 
After  a  long  delay,  Tasmania  and  the  five  Australian  colonies  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  the  North  American  colonies,  and  set  up  a 
federal  government.  The  Commonwealth  of  Australia  came  into 
being  on  January  i,  1901,  in  accordance  with  an  Act  passed  by  the 
Parliament  of  Great  Britain  in  the  previous  year.  New  Zealand, 
in  which  the  white  population  reached  772,000  in  1901,  has,  since 
1876,  been  governed  by  a  single  Parliament,  the  seat  of  which  is  at 
Wellington. 

The  Cape  Colony  finally  passed  under  British  authority  in 
1806.  In  1820  a  stream  of  British  immigration  began  to  set  in. 
The  colony  was  under  the  disadvantage  of  having  fierce  and  war- 
like Kafiir  tribes  on  its  northeastern  frontier,  and  from  1834 
onwards  a  series  of  wars  with  the  Kafiirs  broke  out  from  time  to 
time,  whicli  taxed  to  the  uttermost  the  resources  of  the  colonists 
and  of  the  British  regiments  sent  for  their  defense.  Many  of  the 
Dutch,  who  were  usually  known  as  Boers  or  farmers,  were  dis- 
satisfied with  British  rule,  and  in  1835  they  began  to  migrate 
further  north.  Some  settled  in  Natal,  which,  in  1843,  became  a 
British  colony.     Others  founded  the  Orange  River  Free  State  and 


SECOND  REFORM  ACT 


631 


1871-1891 

the  Transvaal  Republic,  both  of  which  the  British  Government 
finally  recognized  as  independent  states.  In  spite  of  emigration 
and  Kaffir  wars,  the  British  colonists  continually  pressed  further 
north,  and  in  1871  the  discovery  of  diamonds  at  Kimberley 
attracted  immigrants  and  capital  to  the  colony.     That  which  dis- 


tinguishes the  South  African  settlements  of  Great  Britain  from 
those  in  North  America  and  Australia  is  the  enormous  preponder- 
ance of  a  native  population.  Out  of  every  six  inhabitants  five  are 
natives.  The  total  white  population  in  1891,  excluding  the  Trans- 
vaal and  the  Orange  Free  State,  amounted  to  about  430,000 
persons. 


Chapter    LXI 


THE  LAST  YEARS   OF  THE   NINETEENTH 
CENTURY.     1874— 1910 

LEADING  DATES 

Reign  of  Victoria,  A.D.  1837-1901 — Reign  of  Edward  VII.,  A.D. 
1901 — Living — War  between  Servia  and  Turkey,  1876 — Treaty  of 
Berlin,  1878 — Arrests  of  Irisji  Leaders,  1879 — English  Troops  De- 
feated at  Majuba  Hill,  1881 — General  Gordon  Killed  at  Khartoum, 
1885 — Gladstone  Introduces  Home  Rule  Bill  for  Ireland,  1886 — 
Irish  Land  Bill  Passed,  1887 — Jameson's  Raid,  1896 — English  and 
French  Troops  Meet  at  Fashoda,  1898 — War  with  the  South 
African  Republics,  1899-1900 — Death  of  Victoria  and  Accession  of 
Edward  VII.,  1901 — Balfour  Beco.mes  Prime  Minister,  1902 — Treaty 
with  Japan,  1905 — The  Asquith  Ministry,  1908 — Dissolution  of 
Parliament,  1910. 

THE  Conservative  ministry  formed  under  Disraeli  in  1874 
contented  itself  for  some  time  with  domestic  legislation. 
In  1876  troubles  broke  out  in  the  Balkan  Peninsula, 
caused  by  the  misdeeds  of  the  Turkish  officials.  Servia  and  Mon- 
tenegro made  war  upon  the  Turks,  and  in  January,  1877,  a  con 
ference  of  European  ministers  was  held  at  Constantinople  to  settle 
all  questions  at  issue.  Nothing,  however,  was  done  to  coerce  the 
Turkish  Government  into  better  behavior,  and  as  other  European 
powers  refused  to  act,  Russia  declared  war  against  Turkey. 
After  a  long  and  doubtful  struggle  the  Turkish  power  of  resist- 
ance collapsed  early  in  1878,  and  a  treaty  between  Russia  and 
the  Sultan  was  signed  at  San  Stefano,  by  which  the  latter 
abandoned  a  considerable  amount  of  territory.  Disraeli,  who 
had  recently  been  made  Earl  of  Beaconsfield,  insisted  that  no 
engagement  between  Russia  and  Turkey  would  be  valid  unless  it 
were  confirmed  by  a  European  congress,  and  a  congress  was  accord- 
ingly held  at  Berlin.  By  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  which  was  signed 
in  the  course  of  1878,  Roumania  and  Servia  became  independent 
kingdoms,  witli  some  addition  to  their  territory;  ]\Iontenegro  was 
also  enlarged,  and  Bulgaria  erected  into  a  principality  paying  trib- 
ute to  the  Sultan ;  while  a  district  to  which  the  name  of  Eastern 

63^ 


NINETEENTH     CENTURY  633 

1877-1882 

Roumelia  was  given  was  to  be  ruled  by  a  Christian  governor  nomi- 
nated by  the  Sultan,  who  was  to  have  the  right  of  garrisoning  for- 
tresses in  the  Balkan  Mountains.  Russia  acquired  the  piece  of  land 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Danube,  which  she  had  lost  after  the  Crimean 
War,  and  also  another  piece  of  land  round  Kars,  which  she  had  just 
conquered.  The  Sultan  was  recommended  to  cede  Thessaly  and 
part  of  Epirus  to  Greece.  The  protectorate  over  Bosnia  and  Herze- 
govina was  given  to  Austria,  and,  by  a  separate  convention,  Cyprus 
was  given  to  England  on  condition  of  paying  tribute  to  the  Sultan 
and  protecting  Asia  Minor,  which  the  Sultan  promised  to  govern 
on  an  improved  system.  These  arrangements  have  remained  to  the 
present  day,  except  that  the  Sultan  has  never  garrisoned  the 
fortresses  in  the  Balkans,  and  that  Eastern  Roumelia  has  been 
annexed  by  its  own  population  to  Bulgaria,  while  the  Sultan  has 
only  given  over  Thessaly  to  Greece,  refusing  to  abandon  any  part 
of  Epirus.  In  1879  Egypt,  having  become  practically  bankrupt, 
was  brought  under  the  dual  control  of  England  and  France.  In 
South  Africa  the  territory  of  the  republic  of  the  Transvaal  was 
annexed  in  1877,  and  in  1879  there  was  a  war  with  the  Zulus,  which 
began  with  the  slaughter  of  a  British  force,  though  it  ended  in  a 
complete  victory.  In  Asia  a  second  Afghan  War  broke  out  in 
1878,  arising  from  the  attempt  to  establish  a  British  agent  at  Cabul 
in  order  to  check  Russian  intrigues.  An  impression  grew  up  in 
the  country  that  the  Government  was  too  fond  of  war,  and  when 
Parliament  was  dissolved  in  1880  a  considerable  Liberal  majority 
was  returned. 

Gladstone  formed  a  ministry  which  was  soon  confronted  by 
difficulties  in  Ireland.  There  were  troubles  arising  from  the  rela- 
tions between  landlord  and  tenant,  and  a  Land  League  had  been 
formed  to  support  the  tenants  in  their  contentions  witli  their  land- 
lords. There  had  also  for  some  little  time  been  among  the  Irish 
members  a  parliamentary  party  wiiich  demanded  Home  Rule,  or 
the  concession  of  an  Irish  Parliament  for  the  management  of  Irish 
affairs.  This  party  was  led  by  Parnell.  In  18S0  the  ministiy,  in 
which  the  leading  authority  on  Irish  questions  was  Forster,  the 
Irish  Secretary,  brought  in  a  Compensation  for  a  Disturbance  Bill, 
giving  an  evicted  tenant  compensation  for  tlie  li^ss  falling  on  him  by 
being  thrust  out  of  his  holding.  Tliis  Ijill  passed  the  Commons, 
but  was  rejected  by  tlie  Lords.  In  1881  the  ministry  carried 
another  fresh  Land  Act,  appointing  a  land  court  to  fix  rents,  which 


634  ENGLAND 

1880-1885 

were  not  to  be  changed  for  fifteen  years.  At  the  same  time  it 
carried  an  act  for  the  protection  of  life  and  property,  intended  to 
suppress  the  murders  and  outrages  which  were  rife  in  Ireland,  by 
authorizing  the  imprisonment  of  suspected  persons  without  legal 
trial.  In  1881  Parnell  and  other  leading  Irishmen  were  arrested, 
but  in  1882  the  Government  let  them  out  of  prison,  with  the  inten- 
tion of  pursuing  a  more  conciliatory  course.  On  this  Forster 
resigned.  His  successor,  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish,  was  mur- 
dered, together  with  the  Irish  Under-Secretary,  Burke,  in  Phoenix 
Park,  Dublin,  by  a  band  of  rufiians  who  called  themselves 
Invincibles.  An  act  for  the  prevention  of  crimes  was  then  passed. 
The  Irish  members  of  Parliament  continued  bitterly  hostile  to  the 
ministry.  On  the  other  hand,  some  at  least  of  the  members  of  the 
Government  and  of  their  supporters  were  becoming  convinced  that 
another  method  for  the  suppression  of  violence  than  compulsion 
must  be  employed,  if  Ireland  was  ever  to  be  tranquil. 

As  had  been  the  case  with  the  last  Government,  foreign  com- 
plications discredited  the  ministry.  In  1880  the  Dutch  inhabitants 
of  the  Transvaal  rose  against  the  English  Government  set  up  in 
their  territory  in  1877,  and  drove  back  with  slaughter  at  Majuba 
Hill  a  British  force  sent  against  them.  On  this,  the  Home  Govern- 
ment restored  the  independence  of  the  republic,  subject  to  its 
acknowledgment  of  the  suzerainty  of  Great  Britain.  The  greatest 
trouble,  however,  arose  in  Egypt.  In  1882  an  insurrection  headed 
by  Arabi  Pasha,  with  the  object  of  getting  rid  of  European  influ- 
ence, broke  out  against  the  Khedive,  as  the  Pasha  of  Egypt  had 
been  called  since  his  power  had  become  hereditary.  France, 
which  had  joined  Great  Britain  in  establishing  the  dual  con- 
trol, refused  to  act,  and  the  British  Government  sent_  a  fleet 
and  army  to  overthrow  Arabi.  The  forts  of  Alexandria  were 
destroyed  by  the  fleet,  and  a  great  part  of  the  town  burned  by  the 
native  populace.  vSir  Garnet  Wolseley,  at  the  head  of  a  British 
army,  defeated  Arabi's  troops  at  Tel-el-Kebir,  and  since  that  time 
the  British  Government  has  temporarily  assumed  the  protectorate 
of  Eg}'pt,  helping  the  Khedive  to  improve  the  condition  of  the 
Egyptian  people.  Further  south,  in  the  Soudan,  a  ]\Iohammedan 
fanatic  calling  himself  the  Mahdi  roused  his  ^Mohammedan  fol- 
lowers against  the  tyranny  of  the  Egyptian  officials,  and  almost  the 
whole  country  broke  loose  from  Egyptian  control.  An  Egyptian 
army  under  an  Englishman,  Hicks,  was  massacred,  and  a  few  posts, 


NINETEENTH     CENTURY  636 

1885-1886 

of  which  the  principal  was  Khartoum,  alone  held  out.  An  enthusi- 
astic and  heroic  Englishman,  General  Gordon,  who  had  at  one  time 
put  down  a  widespread  rebellion  in  China,  and  had  at  another  time 
been  governor  of  the  Soudan,  where  he  had  been  renowned  for  his 
justice  and  kindliness  as  well  as  for  his  vigor,  offered  to  go  out,  in 
the  hope  of  saving  the  people  at  Khartoum  from  being  overwhelmed 
by  the  Mahdi.  The  Government  sent  him  off,  but  refused  to  com- 
ply with  his  requests.  In  1884  Gordon's  position  was  so  critical 
that  Wolseley,  now  Lord  Wolseley,  was  sent  to  relieve  him.  It  was 
too  late,  for  in  January,  1885,  before  Wolseley  could  reach  Khar- 
toum, the  town  was  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  the  Mahdi,  and 
Gordon  himself  murdered.  The  vacillation  of  the  Cabinet,  prob- 
ably resulting  from  differences  of  opinion  inside  it,  alienated  a  large 
amount  of  public  opinion.  In  Asia  Russia  was  pushing  on  in  the 
direction  of  Afghanistan,  and  in  1885  seized  a  post  called  Penjdeh. 
For  a  time  war  with  Russia  seemed  imminent,  but  eventually  an 
understanding  was  reached  which  left  Penjdeh  in  Russian  hands. 
At  home,  in  1884,  by  an  agreement  between  Liberals  and  Con- 
servatives, a  third  Reform  Act  was  passed,  conferring  the  franchise 
in  the  counties  on  the  same  conditions  as  those  on  which  it  had  been 
conferred  by  the  second  Reform  Act  on  the  boroughs.  The  county 
constituencies  and  those  in  the  large  towns  were  split  up  into 
separate  constituencies,  each  of  them  returning  a  single  member,  so 
that  with  a  few  exceptions  no  constituency  now  returns  more  than 
one.  The  ministry  was  by  this  time  thoroughly  unpopular,  and  in 
1885  it  was  defeated  and  resigned,  being  followed  by  a  Conserva- 
tive Government  under  Lord  Salisbury. 

The  Government  formed  by  Lord  Salisbury  in  June,  1885, 
lasted  little  more  than  seven  months.  It  annexed  Upper  Burma  to 
the  British  dominions,  and  passed  an  act  to  facilitate  the  purchase 
of  Irish  land  by  the  tenants.  The  general  election  of  the  autumn 
gave  the  Liberals  a  majority  over  the  Conservatives,  but  left  the 
eighty-six  Irish  Nationalists  the  arbiters  of  the  situation.  When 
the  Irish  members  discovered  that  the  Government  intended  to  bring 
in  a  new  bill  for  the  suppression  of  crime  in  Ireland,  and  that  Mr. 
Gladstone  was  favorable  to  Home  Rule,  they  threw  their  weight 
into  the  scale  of  the  Opposition,  and  Lord  Salisbury's  Government 
fell  (January,  1886). 

Mr.  Gladstone  again  formed  a  ministry,  and  at  once  introduced 
a  bill  for  granting  self-government  to  Ireland.      By  the  "  Home 


636  ENGLAND 

1886-1892 

Rule  "  Bill  Ireland  was  to  have,  under  certain  restrictions,  a  Parlia- 
ment of  its  own,  and  Irish  members  were  no  longer  to  sit  in  the 
Imperial  Parliament  at  Westminster.  He  put  forward  also  a  com- 
prehensive scheme  for  buying  out  the  Irish  landlords  and  selling 
their  lands  to  the  tenants,  which  was  to  be  carried  out  by  the 
expenditure  of  fifty  millions  advanced  by  the  Imperial  exchequer. 
Both  plans  met  with  great  opposition,  even  among  his  own  fol- 
lowers. Some  thought  that  the  sovereignty  of  the  Imperial  Parlia- 
ment was  not  sufficiently  secured  and  that  the  unity  of  the  empire 
would  be  endangered :  others  that  the  money  borrowed  to  buy  tlie 
land  would  not  be  repaid.  Several  members  of  the  ministry 
resigned,  and  ninety-three  Liberals  voted  against  the  second  read- 
ing of  the  Home  Rule  Bill,  so  that  it  was  rejected  by  a  majority  of 
thirty.  ]\Ir.  Gladstone  appealed  to  the  country,  but  in  the  election 
which  follovv-ed  the  Conservatives  and  the  Liberal-Unionists,  as  the 
dissentient  Liberals  called  themselves,  obtained  a  majority  of  ii8 
over  the  Home  Rulers  (Jnly,  1886). 

Lord  Salisbury's  Ministry  did  not  include  any  Liberal-Union- 
ists, but  they  firmly  supported  it  throughout  its  existence.  The 
first  difficulty  the  Government  had  to  deal  with  was  the  condition 
of  Ireland.  Since  the  passing  of  IMr.  Gladstone's  Land  Act  in  1881 
the  prices  of  all  kinds  of  farm  produce  had  fallen  considerably,  so 
that  farmers  were  often  unable  to  pay  the  rents  which  had  been 
fixed  as  fair.  Some  landlords  made  equitable  remisssions  to  their 
tenants ;  others  ignored  the  fall  in  prices  and  refused  to  make  any. 
In  many  places  the  tenants  combined  to  resist  eviction,  adopting  a 
scheme  called  the  Plan  of  Campaign,  by  which  they  oft'ered  to  pay 
their  lanrllurd  wliat  they  themselves  deemed  a  fair  rent,  and  if  he 
refused  to  accept  it  :is  sufiicient,  applied  tb.e  money  to  the  relief  of 
the  tenants  whom  he  evicted.  The  Government  brought  in  a 
Crimes  Act  (T887)  \n  put  down  illegal  combinations  among  the 
tenants,  supjiressed  tlie  meetings  of  the  National  League,  and 
imprisMiicd  many  Irish  members  of  Parliament.  It  adopted  also 
various  remedial  measures,  siicli  as  admitting  leaseholders,  hitherto 
excliidc.'l.  t-  t]ie  riglit  ..;  having  tlicir  rents  fixed  by  the  land  courts, 
and  enabling  icn:int>  inidcr  certain  conditions  to  obtain  the  revision 
of  rents  fixol  bef^-re  the  fail  in  prices.  .Vets  were  also  passed  to 
facilitate  tlie  purcha.^e  ■  f  ]:,-m]  ],y  tenants,  for  the  Irish  policy  of  Lord 
Salisbury  aimed  rat!K-r  at  tlie  increase  of  peasant  proprietorship 
than  ti-e  r.---:!-:--   :    .  !"  ^hc  :-_-7'-nT  of  du:d  ownership. 


NINETEENTH     CENTURY  637 

1893-1898 

In  Great  Britain  Lord  Salisbury's  Ministry  carried  two  excel- 
lent reforms.  One  completed  the  Elementary  Education  Act  of  1870 
by  making  education  free  in  all  elementary  schools  (1891).  The 
other  followed  up  the  Municipal  Corporations  Act  of  1835,  some- 
what tardily,  it  is  true,  by  placing  the  government  of  the  counties  in 
the  hands  of  councils  elected  by  the  ratepayers.  At  the  same  time  a 
similar  "  county  council  "  was  established  for  the  government  of  all 
that  large  part  of  London  outside  the  limits  of  the  city  proper 
(1888). 

In  1892  a  general  election  took  place,  and  the  Salisbury  ]\Iin- 
istry.  rendered  unpopular  by  its  coercive  policy  in  Ireland,  was  de- 
feated by  an  alliance  between  the  Liberals  and  the  Irish  Nationalists. 
Mr.  Gladstone  became  Prime  Minister  for  the  fourth  time,  and  intro- 
duced a  second  Home  Rule  Bill  (1893).  Unlike  the  previous 
bill,  it  provided  that  the  Irish  members  should  retain  their  seats  in 
the  Imperial  Parliament;  but  though  it  passed  the  House  of  Com- 
mons the  Lords  threw  it  out  by  419  to  41  votes.  However,  a  bill 
for  completing  the  fabric  of  local  government  in  the  counties  by 
establishing  elective  councils  to  administer  parish  affairs  became 
law  in  the  same  year.  In  March,  1894,  Mr.  Gladstone  resigned 
office  on  account  of  his  advanced  age,  and  Lord  Rosebery  succeeded 
him  as  Prime  Minister.  The  most  important  measure  of  his  ad- 
ministration was  a  change  in  the  system  of  taxation  made  by  the 
Finance  Act  of  1894.  By  it  the  duties  on  property  known  as  the 
death  duties  were  revised  and  augmented,  so  that  large  properties 
paid  in  proportion  more  than  small  ones.  Lord  Rosebery's  Ministry 
fell  in  June,  1895,  and  Lord  Salisbury  became  for  the  third  time 
Prime  Minister. 

The  elections  of  1895  gave  Lord  Salisbury  a  majority  of  153 
over  Liberals  and  Irish  Nationalists  comljined,  and  in  tlie  ministry 
which  he  formed  Liberal-Unionists  were  included.  It  was  not, 
however,  remarkable  for  its  legislation.  It  passed  another  Irish 
Land  Act  (1896),  and  did  something  to  develop  local  industries 
and  agriculture  in  Ireland,  but  its  most  important  measure  was  the 
establishment  of  countv  and  di.-trict  councils  in  that  country  like 
those  which  had  been  set  up  in  England  and  Scotland  (1898). 
The  Irish  were  offered  local  selt-go\ernment  and  material  pros- 
perity as  a  substitute  for  Home  Rule. 

Foreign  and  colonial  affairs  absorbed  most  of  the  ministry's 
attention.      Once  more   the  mi.-^govcrnmcnt   of  Turkey   called   for 


638  ENGLAND 

1896-1898 

European  intervention.  A  series  of  brutal  massacres  took  place  in 
Armenia:  the  Cretan  Christians  rose  in  revolt;  the  Greeks  came  to 
the  aid  of  the  Cretans  as  the  Servians  had  come  to  the  aid  of  the 
Bulgarians  in  1876.  The  principle  which  dictated  Lord  Salisbury's 
Eastern  policy  was  that  the  condition  of  the  Christian  subjects  of 
Turkey  concerned  Europe  as  a  whole,  and  should  be  ameliorated 
by  an  agreement  between  the  six  great  Powers,  not  by  the  isolated 
action  of  one  or  two  of  them.  By  that  method  alone  could  the 
peace  of  Europe  be  preserved  and  the  necessary  reforms  secured. 
The  process,  however,  was  slow,  and  agreement  difficult  to  obtain. 
Owing  to  the  differences  of  the  great  Powers  nothing  was  done  to 
redress  the  wrongs  of  the  Armenians,  but  Greece  was  protected  from 
the  consequences  of  its  defeat  by  Turkey,  and  the  Cretans  obtained 
self-government.  Though  Crete  still  remained  nominally  subject 
to  Turkey  it  became  practically  independent,  with  the  second  son 
of  the  king  of  Greece  as  its  ruler  (1898). 

In  the  years  which  followed  the  suppression  of  Arabi's  rebel- 
lion the  government  of  Egypt  w-as  reorganized  under  British  influ- 
ence. Reforms  were  introduced  into  every  branch  of  the 
administration,  the  condition  of  the  people  was  greatly  improved, 
and  the  finances  were  so  well  managed  that  there  was  an  annual 
surplus  of  revenue  over  expenditure.  Sir  Evelyn  Baring,  after- 
wards Lord  Cromer,  the  British  consul-general,  was  the  chief  agent 
in  this  work.  During  the  same  period  other  Englishmen  trained 
and  disciplined  the  Egyptian  army  till  it  became  an  efficient  body 
of  fighting  men.  British  troops  had  been  withdrawn  from  the 
Soudan  in  1885,  after  the  fall  of  Khartoum,  and  it  was  left  entirely 
to  the  possession  of  the  Mahdi  and  his  successor,  the  Khalifa.  Under 
English  leaders,  however,  the  new  Egyptian  army  proved  capable 
of  defending  the  frontier  of  Egypt  against  attack  from  the  south, 
and  became  finally  efficient  enough  to  undertake  the  reconquest  of 
the  Soudan.  In  1896  the  province  of  Dongola  was  recovered,  and 
in  1897  Berber  was  reoccupied.  The  work  was  completed  in  1898 
when  a  mixed  British  and  Egyptian  force  under  General  Kitchener 
defeated  one  nf  the  Khalifa's  lieutenants  on  the  Atbara,  a  tributary 
of  the  Blue  Nile  (.^pril  8,  1898),  and  routed  the  Khalifa's  whole 
army  with  immense  slaughter  before  the  walls  of  his  capital,  Om- 
durman  (September  2,  1898).  A  year  later  the  Khalifa  himself 
was  killed  in  battle.  For  a  moment  the  reconquest  of  the  Soudan 
seemed  likely  to  involve  England  in,  a  quarrel  with  France,  as  a 


NINETEENTH     CENTURY  639 

1897-1899 

French  post  had  been  established  at  Fashoda  in  its  extreme  south. 
But  the  French  Government  eventually  recognized  that  the  place 
was  properly  a  part  of  the  Soudan,  and  accordingly  ordered  it  to  be 
evacuated. 

During  the  same  period  another  difference  v^hich  threatened 
to  lead  to  war  was  peacefully  settled.  For  many  years  a  dispute 
had  existed  as  to  the  boundary  between  British  Guiana  and  the 
neighboring  republic  of  Venezuela.  An  impression  prevailed  in  the 
United  States  that  Great  Britain  was  unjustly  seeking  to  extend 
her  possessions  at  the  expense  of  a  weaker  state  and  in  violation 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  President  Cleveland,  claiming  the  right 
to  protect  South  American  republicanism  against  European  ag- 
gression, called  upon  England  to  submit  the  dispute  to  arbitration. 
Lord  Salisbury,  while  denying  the  right  of  intervention  claimed  by 
the  United  States,  consented,  with  certain  restrictions,  to  accept  the 
method  of  settlement  proposed.  Accordingly  a  treaty  for  arbitra- 
tion was  signed  at  Washington  on  February  2,  1897,  and  a  court 
was  established  to  determine  the  disputed  boundary.  It  gave 
judgment  in  October,  1899,  awarding  to  British  Guiana  the  greater 
part  of  the  area  claimed  by  the  British  Government,  but  reserving 
to  Venezuela  the  mouths  of  the  Orinoco,  which  was  the  really  im- 
portant point  in  the  disputed  territory. 

In  1894  a  war  broke  out  between  China  and  Japan,  in  the  course 
of  which  China  was  completely  defeated.  The  break-up  of  the 
Chinese  Empire  seemed  a  possible  consequence,  and  the  European 
Powers  began  to  lay  hands  upon  Chinese  territory.  Russia  claimed 
the  control  of  Manchuria  and  annexed  Port  Arthur;  Germany 
seized  Kiao-Chau;  and  Great  Britain  took  possession  of  Wei-hai- 
wei,  and  extended  her  territory  on  the  mainland  opposite  Hong- 
Kong.  The  result  was  a  popular  movement  in  China  directed 
against  all  foreigners  and  their  friends.  Large  numbers  of  Chi- 
nese Christians  and  many  European  missionaries  were  barbarously 
murdered.  The  German  ambassador  was  killed  in  the  streets  of 
Pekin,  and  the  ambassadors  of  the  other  Powers  with  their  retinues 
were  besieged  in  the  British  Legation  in  that  city.  The  great  Powers 
of  Europe,  joined  by  the  United  States  and  Japan,  intervened  to 
restore  order  and  protect  their  representatives.  An  army  composed 
of  the  soldiers  of  many  nations,  of  which  the  English  and  Indian 
troops  formed  part,  captured  Pekin  and  set  at  liberty  the  besieged 
ambassadors  (August,  1900).      But   the   restoration   of   order   in 


640  ENGLAND 

1886-1900 

China  and  the  settlement  of  terms  was  a  work  of  greater  difficulty, 
and  was  not  effected  till  the  following  year. 

In  1899  war  broke  out  in  South  Africa.  The  conventions  by 
which  Mr,  Gladstone's  government  had  annulled  the  annexation  of 
the  Transvaal  Republic  and  restored  to  its  inhabitants  the  right  of 
self-government  subjected  it  to  a  vague  British  suzerainty.  The 
limits  of  the  republic  were  defined,  and  the  Transvaal  was  prohibited 
from  entering  into  any  treaties  with  foreign  states  without  the 
consent  of  the  British  Government.  From  the  first  there  was  much 
friction,  and  many  disputes  arose.  The  Boers  persistently  over- 
passed the  boundaries  imposed  by  the  conventions,  in  order  to  con- 
quer fresh  territory  from  the  natives.  The  British  Government  had 
to  interfere  to  prevent  the  annexation  of  Zululand  and  Bechuanaland, 
and  north  of  the  Transvaal  a  British  colony  called  Rhodesia  was 
established  in  1889  by  a  chartered  company  called  the  British 
South  Africa  Company.  A  more  serious  cause  of  dispute  arose 
from  the  treatment  of  British  settlers  in  the  Transvaal.  Alany 
Englishmen  v;ere  established  in  that  country  before  its  retrocession 
by  Air.  Gladstone,  and  the  discovery  of  large  gold  fields  there  in  1886 
attracted  a  large  white  population,  four-fifths  of  which  were  of 
British  origin.  These  immigrants,  whom  the  Boers  called  "out- 
landers,"  were  badly  governed,  heavily  taxed,  and  persistently  de- 
nied the  political  rights  whicli  the  men  of  Dutch  descent  enjoyed  in 
all  the  British  colonies  in  Africa.  Discontent  spread  among  the 
outlanders,  and,  as  all  redress  of  their  grievances  was  refused,  some 
of  them  plotted  an  armed  rising  in  order  to  force  concessions  from 
the  Transvaal  Government.  At  the  end  of  1896  a  small  body  of 
irregular  troops  levied  for  the  defense  of  the  territories  of  the 
Chartered  Company  against  the  natives  entered  the  Transvaal,  but 
were  defeated  and  captured  by  the  Boers.  Though  "  Jameson's 
Raid."  as  lliis  invasion  was  termed,  from  the  name  of  its  leader, 
was  disavowed  by  tlie  British  Government,  it  greatly  increased 
the  friction  which  already  existed  between  the  republic  and  its 
Suzerain. 

The  Transvaal  Go\-ernmcnt,  wliicli  had  at  first  promised  conces- 
sions to  the  ouilandcrs,  became  still  more  hostile  to  them  and  pre- 
pared large  arni;uncii{s.  Tn  iSog  tlic  P.ritish  outlanders  petitioned 
the  (jueen  to  iiUervciic  on  their  behalf,  and  Air.  Chamberlain,  the 
Secretary  for  the  Colonics,  demanded  tliat  tliey  should  be  granted 
political  rights.      Air.    Kriigcr,   the   {'resident   of  the   republic,   re- 


NINETEENTH     CENTURY  641 

1900-1902 

fused  any  substantial  concessions,  and  demanded,  on  behalf  of  the 
Transvaal,  the  complete  abolition  of  British  suzerainty.  No  agree- 
ment was  arrived  at,  and,  as  the  British  Government  declined  to 
withdraw  the  troops  which  it  had  sent  to  the  Cape,  President  Krii- 
ger  published  a  declaration  of  war  and  invaded  the  British  colonies 
(October,  1899).  The  Boers  of  the  Transvaal,  who  were  joined  by 
those  of  the  Orange  Free  State  and  by  many  colonial  rebels,  gained 
at  first  many  successes.  Mafeking  and  Kimberley,  in  the  north- 
west of  Cape  Colony,  were  for  many  months  besieged,  and  the  army 
of  11,000  men  charged  with  the  defense  of  Natal  was  shut  up  in  its 
fortified  camp  at  Ladysmith.  Efforts  to  relieve  Kimberley  and 
Ladysmith  were  defeated  with  loss  at  Magersfontein  and  Colenso. 
Early  in  1900,  however.  Lord  Roberts  relieved  Kimberley,  forced 
4,000  Boers  to  surrender  at  Paardeberg,  and  successively  occupied 
the  capitals  of  the  Free  State  and  the  Transvaal.  General  Buller 
about  the  same  time  relieved  Ladysmith,  and  drove  the  Boer  forces 
out  of  Natal.  President  Kriiger  fled  to  Europe,  and  the  annexa- 
tion of  the  two  Boer  republics  was  proclaimed.  Nevertheless,  their 
subjugation  was  only  partial,  and  for  some  time  longer  roving 
bands  of  Boers  carried  on  an  active  guerrilla  war,  which  was  grad- 
ually suppressed. 

While  the  Transvaal  War,  like  the  Crimean  War,  revealed 
many  defects  in  the  organization  of  the  army,  it  also  exhibited  a 
convincing  proof  of  the  military  value  of  the  colonies.  The  self- 
governing  colonies  of  Great  Britain,  regarding  the  war  as  one  for 
the  unity  of  the  Empire,  sent  contingents  of  volunteers  to  take  part 
in  it.  It  became  evident  that  the  empire  which  had  grown  up 
during  the  nineteenth  century  was  not  a  collection  of  heterogeneous 
atoms,  but  a  great  association  of  states  bound  together  by  common 
interests  and  common  aims. 

Queen  Victoria  did  not  live  to  see  the  conclusion  of  the  war: 
she  died  on  January  22,  190 1,  in  her  eighty-second  year,  having 
reigned  longer  than  either  Elizabeth  or  George  III.  Like  Queen 
Elizabeth,  she  might  have  said  with  truth  that  she  never  cher- 
ished a  thought  in  her  heart  which  did  not  tend  to  her  people's 
good.  Her  influence  in  public  affairs  was  constantly  employed  to 
moderate  party  differences,  and  to  facilitate  the  harmonious  work- 
ing of  the  constitution.  Although  with  the  advance  of  democracy 
the  direct  power  of  the  monarchy  steadily  diminished,  its  popularity, 
thanks  to  her,  had  continually  increased.     She  left  her  successor  not 


642  ENGLAND 

1902-1907 

only  wider  dominions  than  she  had  inherited,  but  a  throne  estab- 
lished upon  a  firmer  because  a  broader  basis. 

Edward  VII.  succeeded  his  mother  as  sovereign.  In  1902 
Lord  Salisbury  resigned  the  premiership  owing  to  increasing  age, 
and  was  succeeded  by  his  nephew,  Arthur  Balfour.  In  Ireland 
matters  seemed  hkely  to  be  made  smoother  by  a  new  land  law,  but 
the  Irish  Nationalists  joined  with  the  English  Dissenters  in  vigor- 
ous opposition  to  the  law  requiring  compulsory  support  of  Church 
schools.  The  increasing  Liberal  strength  was  added  to  by  the  re- 
vived discussion  over  free  trade  and  protection.  Joseph  Chamber- 
lain, after  the  Boer  War,  was  convinced  of  the  need  of  a  closer  bond 
between  the  colonies  and  England,  and  proposed  to  secure  it  by 
means  of  a  series  of  tariffs  in  which  reciprocal  preferences  were, 
however,  to  be  given  to  England  and  all  British  possessions.  The 
discussion  was  heated,  and  the  free-traders  among  the  Conserva- 
tives threatened  to  fall  away  if  a  tariff-wall  were  built  around 
Britain. 

In  foreign  affairs  the  Russo-Japanese  war  revealed  the  exist- 
ence of  an  Anglo-Japanese  alliance,  which,  however,  did  not  bring 
Great  Britain  into  actual  hostilities.  Before  the  war  was  over,  a 
new  agreement  was  made  between  England  and  Japan,  August, 
1905,  much  to  England's  advantage.  By  this  it  is  provided  that 
if  either  Power,  by  reason  of  unprovoked  attack  or  aggressive 
action,  should  be  involved  in  war  in  defense  of  its  territorial  rights 
or  special  interests  (in  Eastern  Asia  and  India),  the  other  Power 
will  at  once  come  to  its  assistance,  and  the  war  will  be  conducted  in 
common.  Great  Britain  recognizes  Japan's  paramount  position  in 
Korea.    The  agreement  is  for  ten  years,  and  may  be  prolonged. 

In  1907,  the  Liberal  Party  came  into  power  with  Sir  Henry 
Campbell-Bannerman  at  the  head,  of  a  majority  larger  than  had 
existed  in  the  House  of  Commons  since  the  Reform  Bill  of  1834. 
Among  the  bills  passed  by  the  parlianient  of  this  year  were:  the 
Coal  ]Mines  Bill,  which  proposed  to  reduce  gradually  the  hours  of 
laborers  in  mines  until  a  limit  of  eight  hours  was  reached ;  and 
amendment  to  the  Patent  Law,  designed  to  prevent  the  obstruction 
of  British  industrial  development  by  the  abuse  of  patents;  the  Pro- 
cedure Bill,  carried  by  a  large  majority  on  April  16,  providing  new 
rules  of  procedure  for  expediting  parliam.cntary  business  through 
concentrating  or  shortening  discussions  ;  the  Act  for  the  Establish- 
ment of  a  Court  of  Criminal  Appeal,  which  created  appellate  rights 


NINETEENTH    CENTURY  642a 

1902-1908 

against  the  convictions  for  crime  corresponding  to  those  exercised 
against  adverse  verdicts  in  civil  courts ;  and  the  Deceased  Wife's 
Sister  Bill,  making  legal  a  marriage  with  the  sister  of  a  deceased 
wife. 

On  April  5,  1908,  Sir  Campbell-Bannerman  resigned  the 
premiership  owing  to  increasing  ill-health,  and  was  succeeded  by 
Mr,  Herbert  Henry  Asquith.  The  most  important  measure  carried 
in  parliament  in  this  year  was  the  Old  Age  Pensions  Act,  which 
provided  pensions  for  all  persons  at  least  seventy  years  of  age, 
who  are  citizens  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  have  resided  there 
tw«nty  years  previous,  and  who  do  not  belong  to  the  delinquent, 
defective,  or  criminal  classes,  and  who  are  not  public  dependents. 
There  was  also  an  attempt  to  pass  a  bill  limiting  the  number  of 
licenses  for  the  sale  of  liquor,  but  although  it  passed  the  Commons 
it  suffered  an  overwhelming  defeat  in  the  Lords — 272  votes  against 
it  to  96  in  favor  of  it. 

In  the  summer  and  fall  of  1908,  Great  Britain  had  before  her 
a  serious  problem  in  knowing  what  to  do  with  the  vast  numbers 
of  unemployed.  It  was  estimated  that  nearly  500,000  m.en  were  out 
of  work.  To  give  some  employment  the  Admiralty  ordered  the 
construction  of  fourteen  new  warships  at  an  aggregate  cost  of 
$12,000,000  several  months  earlier  than  had  originally  been  in- 
tended. It  was  also  proposed  to  start  a  system  of  reforestation 
which  would  give  employment  to  many. 

In  1907,  the  question  of  woman  suffrage  was  brought  very 
emphatically  before  the  British  public.  Early  in  the  year  a  large 
delegation  of  women  presented  to  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman 
a  memorial  representing  about  300,000  women.  On  the  second  day 
of  its  session,  parliament  was  stormed  by  about  two  hundred  suf- 
fragettes, about  sixty  of  whom  were  arrested  and  imprisoned.  On 
March  8  the  Suffrage  Bill  giving  women  the  full  parliamentary 
suffrage  on  the  same  basis  as  that  enjoyed  by  men  was  discussed 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  but  was  not  voted  upon.  On  March 
20  about  seventy  women  were  arrested  for  a  second  attempt  to 
break  into  the  House  of  Commons.  During  1908  they  continued 
the  same  aggressive  policy ;  they  organized  street  parades  and 
other  demonstrations,  everywhere  displayed  signs  bearing  the 
words  "Votes  for  Women,"  and  bothered  members  of  the  govern- 
ment on  public  occasions  by  legal  means  and  illegal  ones.     Many 


642b  ENGLAND 

1902-1909 

arrests  followed  the  disorders  arising  from  these  tactics,  and  nearly 
fifty  of  the  leaders  were  sentenced  to  prison. 

In  1907  was  signed  an  Anglo-French-Spanish  agreement  by 
which  France  and  England  guaranteed  to  Spain  her  coast  and  her 
possessions,  Spain  acknowledging  that  the  English  occupation  of 
Gibraltar  is  now  permanent,  and  England  and  Spain  agreeing  that 
France  shall  continue  in  Algeria  and  Tunis.  During  1908,  the 
newspapers  were  constantly  printing  fears  concerning  German  de- 
signs, saying  that  Germany  was  increasing  her  navy  in  order  that 
she  might  invade  England.  The  Tweedmouth  Incident  greatly  in- 
tensified this  feeling  for  the  moment.  On  March  6,  the  London 
Times  reported  that  Lord  Tweedmouth,  First  Lord  of  the  Ad- 
miralty, had  received  a  letter  from  the  German  emperor.  It  was 
believed  that  this  was  an  attempt  of  the  Kaiser's  to  interfere  in 
British  naval  affairs,  especially  since  it  followed  an  open  letter  in 
the  newspapers  from  Lord  Esher  demanding  an  increase  in  the 
naval  budget.  Both  German  officials  and  Lord  Tweedmouth  ex- 
plained that  the  letter  was  entirely  a  personal  one  and  had  no 
national  bearing  whatever.  The  cordial  feeling  existing  between 
France  and  England  was  greatly  strengthened  in  1908  by  a  visit 
of  the  French  president  to  London,  and  the  entente  with  Russia 
was  cemented  by  a  visit  of  King  Edward  to  Reval,  where  he  held 
a  conference  with  the  czar.  In  April,  1909,  King  Edward  and 
Queen  Alexandria  made  a  visit  to  Berlin^  which  temporarily 
smoothed  out  relations  between  the  two  countries. 

The  increase  of  the  navy  was  seriously  discussed  in  the  par- 
liament of  1909  and  insisted  on  by  the  government.  Their  strong- 
est argument  in  favor  of  this  increase  was  that  Germany  was  in- 
creasing her  navy  at  a  greater  rate  than  Great  Britain,  and  as  the 
latter's  whole  national  life  and  security  depended  upon  her  security 
at  sea,  the  government  could  not  afford  to  get  behind  or  to  slacken 
its  efforts.  Parliament  gave  substantial  evidence  of  their  agree- 
ment with  the  government  when  the  vote  was  taken  on  the  budget, 
the  building  programme  pru\-iding  for  four  DrcadnougJits,  six  pro- 
tected cruisers,  besides  torpedo  destroyers  and  submarines.  During 
the  summer  the  feeling  that  a  war  was  not  onlv  possible  but  prob- 
able continued  to  grow  in  s{)ite  of  pn  itestatinns  by  both  govern- 
ments that  they  were  arming  solely  tr)  keep  the  peace. 

From  May  to  November,  1909.  Mr.  Llnvd-George,  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  labored  to  get  his  financial  budget  through  the 


NINETEENTH    CENTURY  642c 

1902-1910 

House  of  Commons.  On  the  fourth  of  the  latter  month  it  was 
passed  by  the  Commons  with  a  vote  of  379  to  149.  It  then  came 
to  the  House  of  Lords,  where  Lord  Landsdowne,  the  opposition 
leader,  announced  on  November  16  that  when  the  budget  came  up 
for  its  second  reading  on  November  22  he  would  move  for  its  re- 
jection until  it  had  been  submitted  to  the  judgment  of  the  country 
in  general  elections  to  be  held  in  January,  1910. 

On  November  22,  1909,  the  House  of  Lords  commenced  de- 
bating on  the  budget,  and  among  other  notable  speeches  at  this 
time  was  the  one  made  by  Lord  Loreburn,  outlining  the  Liberal 
policy.  On  November  24,  Lord  Roseberry  made  a  speech  which 
will  long  be  remembered,  he  being  followed  by  Lord  Morely  and 
Lord  James,  of  Hereford,  on  November  29.  When  the  vote  was 
taken  on  November  30,  the  vote  stood  350  to  75  to  adopt  the 
motion  made  by  Lord  Landsdowne  to  suspend  the  Finance  Bill. 
This  action  was  not  approved  by  the  House  of  Commons,  who  on 
December  2,  endorsed  the  budget  by  a  majority  of  over  two 
hundred.  As  a  result,  the  houses  of  parliament  were  prorogued. 
Premier  Asquith  created  considerable  excitement  by  committing 
the  Liberal  party  to  Irish  self-government,  on  December  10,  and 
on  the  15  of  the  month,  the  Irish  national  convention  returned 
the  favor  by  pledging  its  unqualified  support  of  the  Liberal  party 
at  the  coming  general  elections.  The  House  of  Lords  took  a  de- 
cided action  on  December  20,  by  deciding  that  trades  unions 
have  no  right  to  assess  their  members  to  pay  for  representation  in 
parliament,  which  was  not  popular.  The  same  day  Herbert  Glad- 
stone was  appointed  as  governor-general  of  South  Africa,  an  honor 
he  deserved.  Desiring  to  emulate  the  United  States  in  discoveries, 
the  British  government  pledged  $100,000  towards  the  Scott  Expe- 
dition to  the  South  Pole,  with  sanguine  hopes  for  its  successful 
termination.  King  Edward  dissolved  parliament  on  January  10, 
1910,  and  summoned  a  new  one  for  the  fifteenth  of  February.  The 
general  elections  resulted  in  the  return  of  the  Liberal  party  to 
power,  although  the  majorities  were  reduced  considerably. 

These  elections  began  formally  on  January  10,  1910,  when  the 
second  parliament  of  King  Edward  VLI  was  dissolved  and  election 
v/rits  were  issued  to  every  constituency,  summoning  the  new  parlia- 
ment to  meet  on  February  15,  following.  The  nominations  and 
voting  took  place  according  to  law  between  January  10  and  28, 


e42d  ENGLAND 

1962-1910 

the  actual  voting  in  the  majority  of  the  districts  taking  place  on 
the  15th,  17th,  i8th,  and  19th,  The  result  of  the  elections  was  the 
return  to  power  of  the  Liberals,  but  with  reduced  majorities.  All 
of  the  ministry  were  returned  by  their  constituents,  and  some  of 
them  with  increased  majorities.  When  the  final  count  was  made 
it  was  found  that  the  Liberals  had  but  one  more  member  in  the 
House  than  the  Unionists — 274  against  273.  This  state  of  affairs 
was  extremely  satisfactory  to  the  Irish  Nationalist  Party  and  to  the 
Labor  Party  because  they  could  now  decide  the  policy  of  the  gov- 
ernment as  they  could  cast  their  votes  with  whichever  party  ad- 
vanced ideas  or  bills  in  accordance  with  their  wishes. 

The  new  parliament,  the  third  of  Edward  VII,  was  formally 
opened  by  the  king  and  queen  in  person  on  February  21,  1910. 
Unusual  interest  attended  the  speech  from  the  throne.  Besides  the 
usual  references  to  foreign  and  imperial  matters,  the  speech  con- 
tained two  very  important  paragraphs.  The  first  of  these  was: 
"Recent  experience  has  disclosed  serious  differences  of  strong 
opinion  between  the  two  branches  of  the  legislature.  Proposals 
wdll  be  laid  before  you  with  all  convenient  speed  to  define  the  rela- 
tions between  the  houses  of  parliament  so  as  to  secure  the  un- 
divided authority  of  the  House  of  Commons  over  finance  and  its 
predominance  in  legislation."  The  second  paragraph  referred  to 
the  House  of  Lords :  "These  measures,  in  the  opinion  of  my  ad- 
visers, should  provide  that  this  house  should  be  so  constituted  and 
empowered  as  to  exercise  impartially  in  regard  to  proposed  legis- 
lation the  functions  of  initiation,  of  revision,  and,  subject  to  proper 
safeguards,  of  delay." 

By  inserting  the  words  "in  the  opinion  of  my  advisers,"  the  king 
virtually  told  the  ministry  and  the  country  that  he  was  a  strictly 
constitutional  monarch  and  that  if  the  ministers  intended  a  fun- 
damental change  in  the  constitution,  they  must  have  the  authority 
of  more  than  one  branch  of  the  legislature  to  commit  him  to  such 
a  course. 

During  ]\Iarch  and  April  both  houses  of  parliament  discussed 
the  question  of  reforming  the  House  of  Lords.  Lord  Rosebery 
presented  a  scheme  for  "regeneration  by  the  Peers  themselves," 
consisting  of  three  provisions:  (i)  That  there  must  be  an  effective 
second  chamljer  in  Great  Britain;  (2)  that  such  chamber  must  be 
formed  from  the  present  House  of  Lords;  (3)  that  to  such  end  the 


NINETEENTH     CENTURY  642e 

1902-1910 

hereditary  principle  must  be  abandoned  for  one  of  selection  ac- 
cording to  merit  and  by  popular  choice.  The  first  two  of  these  pro- 
visions were  passed  without  delay  by  the  House  of  Lords  and  the 
third  after  much  debate  was  adopted  on  March  22.  The  House 
of  Commons  passed  on  April  14  Premier  Asquith's  plan  which 
provided:  (i)  that  the  Lords  should  in  the  future  have  nothing 
whatever  to  say  about  financial  legislation ;  (2)  that  they  should 
have  no  power  over  legislation  except  to  compel  deliberation,  and 
that  not  beyond  the  life  of  a  single  parliament ;  (3)  that  the  life 
of  parliament  should  be  shortened  from  seven  years  to  five. 

On  May  6  all  the  British  Empire  and  the  other  civilized  coun- 
tries of  the  world  were  saddened  to  learn  of  the  serious  illness  of 
King  Edward  VH.  He  died  that  same  night  at  a  quarter  before 
the  midnight  of  pneumonia  in  the  presence  of  Queen  Alexandra, 
the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales,  the  Princess  Royal,  the  Duchess 
of  Fife,  Princess  Victoria,  and  Princess  Louise,  the  Duchess  of 
Argyll. 

The  Prince  of  Wales  immediately  succeeded  to  the  throne  as 
George  V.  The  new  king  was  born  on  June  3,  1865,  at  Marl- 
borough House,  almost  within  a  stone's  throw  of  Norfolk  House, 
the  birthplace  of  George  HL  He  was  the  second  son  of  the  late 
King  Edward,  his  elder  brother  being  known  as  the  Duke  of 
Clarence.  In  1877  the  two  princes  entered  the  navy  together, 
Prince  George  being  one  of  the  youngest  cadets  who  ever  shipped 
on  the  Britannia.  The  years  1879  to  1882  were  passed  in  a  trip 
around  the  world.  On  their  return,  they  spent  six  months  in  study 
in  Switzerland  and  in  1883  Prince  George  was  appointed  a  mid- 
shipman on  the  Canada,  in  which  he  visited  the  Dominion  of 
Canada  and  the  W^est  Indies.  He  continued  to  follow  the  sea  until 
1892  when  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Clarence  occurred,  placing  him 
in  the  direct  line  of  succession  to  the  throne.  On  July  6,  1893, 
the  prince  married  the  Princess  Victoria  Mary  of  Teck,  who  had 
been  the  promised  wife  of  the  Duke  of  Clarence.  Six  children  have 
been  born  to  the  royal  couple,  the  eldest  and  the  heir  is  Prince 
Edward,  born  in  June,  1894. 

George  V  is  a  thorough  Englishman,  disliking  all  other  nation- 
alities and  speaking  other  languages  only  in  an  indifferent  manner. 
Pic  cares  only  for  the  serious  things  of  life  and  has  the  interests 
of  his  kingdom  very  much  at  heart. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


GENERAL   HISTORIES 

Acland,  A.  H.  D.,  and  Ransome,  C. — "  Handbook  of  English  Political  History," 
London,   1897. 
A  valuable  outline,  chronologically  arranged,  but  in  no  sense  a  connected 
histof}'. 

Bright,  J.   Franck. — "  History  of  England,"   new   edition,   5  vols.     London  and 
New  York,  1904. 
This  is  an  impartial  and  accurate  account  of  English  history,  excellent  for 
full  information  on  any  subject  of  inquiry,  but  dry  for  continuous  reading. 

Green,  John  Richard. — "  History  of  the  English  People,"  4  vols.  New  York, 
igoo-1903. 
This  work  starts  with  the  beginning  of  English  history  and  comes  down  to 
1815.  It  is  a  very  interesting  account  of  "  that  constitutional,  intellectual, 
and  social  advance  in  which  we  read  the  history  of  the  nation  itself."  It 
does  not  treat  war  and  diplomacy  at  length,  but  gives  more  space  to  social 
conditions.  This  is  an  expansion  of  a  "  Short  History  of  the  English 
People,"  I  volume. 

Lingard,  John. — "  History  of  England,"  5th  edition,  London,   1849,   10  vols. 

This  is  the  Roman  Catholics'  standard  history  and  is  not  impartial,  though 
it  has   some   excellent   features. 

Low,   S.  J.   IM.,  and  Puling,  F.   S. — "Dictionary  of  English   History,"   London, 

1897. 
An    excellent   book    of    reference    for   biography,    bibliography,    chronology, 
and  the  constitution. 

SPECIAL   PERIODS 

Ashley,  W.  J. — "  An  Introduction  to   English   Economic  History  and  Theory," 
new  edition,  2  vols.,  New  York,  1892,  1893. 
Excellent    and    scholarly    treatment,    but    does    not    cover    the    entire    field; 
comes  to  the  end  of  the  Middle  Age-. 
Brewer,  J.  S. — "The  Reign  of  Henry  VIII.  from  his  Accession  to  the  Death  of 
Wolsey." 
Made    up    from   the    introductions    to    the    State    Papers    prepared    by    Mr. 
Brewer,  but  nevertheless  connected  and  interesting,  and  of  course  based  on 
the  facts. 
Browne,  M. — "  Chaucer's  England." 

Excellent  but  very   rare. 
Buhver,    Sir    H.    L.,    and    Ashley,    Hon.    E. — "  Life    of    Viscount    Palmerston," 
3  vols. 
This  long  account  is  the  best  life  of  Palmerston,  with  whom  Bulwer  was 
in  close  personal  relations. 

645 


646  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Cunningham,  W. — "  The  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce  during  the 
Early  and  Middle  Ages." 
Excellent  systematic  treatment,  showing  England  from  the  economic  side. 

Dawkins,  William   Boyd. — "  Early  Man  in   Britain." 

Learned  and  authoritative ;  written  in  a  pleasing  style. 

Dixon,  Canon  R.  W. — "  History  of  the  Church  of  England  from  the  Abolition 
of  the  Roman  Jurisdiction,"    1891. 
Acute  and  learned. 

Edwards,  E.— "  The  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh." 

This  is  a  mine  of  information,  but  not  suited  to  the  general  reader. 

Egerton,  H.  E. — "  Origin  and  Growth  of  English  Colonial  Policy,"  Oxford,  1903. 
A  good  survey;  first  part  deals  with  America;  remainder  with  later  British 
colonies. 

Elton,  C.  L — "  Origin  of  English  History." 

This  deals  with  England  from  prehistoric  times  to  about  597  a.  d. — a 
valuable  work. 

Firth,  C.  H. — "  Cromwell  and  the  Rule  of  the  Puritans  in  England." 

This  book  is  well  written  and  impartial.  Firth,  who  is  acknowledged  as  an 
authority   in  this   field,  took   up   Gardiner's   unfinished   work  when   he   died. 

Forster,  John. — "  The  Grand  Remonstrance,"  London,  i860. 

The  four  works  by  Forster  on  this  period  are  very  valuable  for  the  infor- 
mation they  contain,  made  up  from  contemporary  and  previously  unpub- 
lished records. 

"  Life  of  Sir  John  Eliot,"   London,   1864. 

Includes  speeches  and  correspondence. 

"  The   Statesmen  of  the  Commonwealth  of  England,"   London,   1840. 

Accounts  of  seven  statesmen,  most  of  which  remain  standard. 

"  The  Arrest  of  the  Five  Members,"  London,  i860. 

Freeman,    Edward    Augustus. — "  History    of    the    Norman    Conquest,"    London 
and   New  York,   1867- 1879,  6  vols. 
A  very  clear  and   able  account  of  this  subject.     Thesis — the   continuity  of 
the    English    element   through    and    after   the    Norman    Conquest.     Still    of 
great  value,  though  perhaps  less  highly  regarded  than  when  published. 

Froude,  James   Anthony. — "  History  of   England   from   the    Fall   of   Wolsey   to 
the  Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada,"  London.  1870,  12  vols. 
A  brilliant  and   interesting  but  unreliable   account   of   about   sixty  years   of 
Tudor  sovereigns.     Froude  lets  his  prejudice  run  away  with  him. 

Gairdner,  James. — "  Richard  III.,"  London.  1878. 
The  authoritative  work  on  this  subject. 

"The  Houses  of  Lancaster  and  York"  (Epochs  of  Modern  History  series), 

London  and  New  York,   1900. 
A  short  history  of  the  disturbed  reign  of  the  kings  of  these  houses. 

"  Henry  the  Seventh,"  London.  1902. 

A  good  short  biography  of  the  first  of  the  Tudors. 

Gardiner,  Samuel   Rawson. — "  History  of  England  from   1603  to   1642,"   10  vols., 
London  and   New  York,    1894- 1896. 
In    these    and    the    succeeding    eight    volumes    Gardiner    has    given    a    most 
thorough,  accurate,  and  impartial  account  of  the  period.     The  volumes  are 
hardly  of  absorbing  interest,  but  are  thoroughly  reliable. 

"  History  of  the   Great   Civil   War,"    1642-1640,   4  vols..   London    and    New 

York,  1898-1901. 

"History  of  the  Commonwealth  and   Protectorate,   1649-1656,"'  4  vols.,  new 

edition,  London   and   New  York,    1903. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  647 

Green,  John  Richard. — "  The  Making  of  England." 

A    scholarly    account    of    early    English    history,    with    much    reference    to 

archeology. 
"  The  Conquest  of  Britain." 

A  continuation  of  the  "  Making  of  England." 
Green,  Kate  Norgate. — "  Henry  II." 

A  good,  clear  account  of  Henry  II.,  with  an  appreciation  of  his  work. 
Greville,   Charles   Cavendish   Fulke. — "  Memoirs,"   published   after  his   death  by 
Henry   Reeves;   first  series,    1817-1837    (3  vols.,    1875),   second   and  third 
series,  1837-1860  (3  vols.,  1885,  2  vols.,  1887). 

Very  interesting  reading,  with  much  personal  detail. 
Hallam,  Henry. — "  Constitutional  History  of  England,"  3  vols.,  London,  1854. 

One  of  the  older  works,  many  of  whose  conclusions  have  been  overthrown, 

but  still  retaining  value  for  its  impartiality  and  general  observation  of  the 

otherwise  uncovered  field. 
Harrop,  R. — "  Bolingbroke." 

The  most  recent  life  of  Bolingbroke,  and  probably  the  best  for  the  general 

reader. 
Jessopp,  Dr.  A. — "The  Coming  of  the  Friars  and  other  Historic  Essays,"  4th 
edition,  1890. 

A  good  account  of  the  Friars  and  of  life  in  Medieval  England. 
Lecky,  William  E.  H. — "  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  London, 
1878-1890,  8  vols. 

This  is  not  only  accurate,  but  also  very  readable.     Excellent  and  impartial 

accounts  of  Ireland,  and  of  the  American  Revolution.     Deals  with  subjects 

topically  rather  than  chronologically. 
Lewis,  Sir  George  Cornwall. — "  Essays  on  the  Administrations  of  Great  Britain, 
1783- 1830." 

This  treats  of  political   events,  administration  by  administration,   and   was 

originally  printed  in  the  Edinburgh  Review. 
McCarthy,  Justin — "  History  of  Our  Own  Times,  1837-1897,"  5  vols. 

A  pleasing  account  of  the  period,  written  in  a  cozy  manner  by  a  man  with 

contemporaneous   acquaintance,  generally  impartial,  but  not  thorough.     In- 
cludes literary  and  social  history. 
Macaulay,    Thomas    Babington,    Baron    Macaulay. — "History   of    England    fiom 
the  Accession  of  James  II.,"  London,  1848-1855,  1861,  5  vols.     Many  later 
editions. 

Macaulay's  idea  was  to  write  a  book  that  would  take  the  place  of  the  latest 

novel ;  he  produced  a  brilliant  work,  clearly  arranged,  and  which  has  been 

widely   read.     There   is   considerable   bias   toward    the    Whigs.     The   work 

covers  only  about  twenty  years. 
Mahan,  Alfred  Thayer.—"  Influence  of  Sea  Power  upon  History.  i6(')0-i783,"  1890. 

The  works  of  Malian,  himself  a  naval  officer,  are  epoch-makin<;.     He  gives 

the  idea  that  naval  power  and  the  control  of  the  sea  have  been  far  more 

important  than  hitherto  believed. 
"  Life  of  Nelson,"  1897. 

This  is  the  best  life  of  Nelson;  his  influence  is  particularly  remarked,  and 

also  the  influence  of  his  victories  on  European  history. 
Martineau,  Harriet. — "  A  History  of  England  during  the  Thirty  Years'   Peace," 
London,  1849-1850,  4  vols. 

The  period  covers   from   the  close  of  the   Napoleonic  Wars   in    1815   to  the 

Crimean  War  in  1854.     It  is  well  written,  but  sometimes  colored  by  personal 

sympathies    and    antipathies. 


648  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Massey,    William    Nathaniel. — "  A    History    of   England    during   the   Reign   of 

George  III.,"  London,  1855-1863,  4  vols. 

A  good  history  for  this  period,  but  with  Whig  tendencies. 
Masson,   Davis. — "  Life   of  John    Milton,   and   History  of   His   Time,"   6   vols., 
London  and  New  York,  1859-1880. 

Everything  knowable  about  Milton  has  been  given,  with  careful  references 

to  original  sources. 
May,  Sir  Thomas  Erskine. — "  Constitutional  History  of  England  since  the  Acces- 
sion of  Gkorge  HI.,"  3d  edition.  New  York,  1871. 

Two  excellent  volumes  treating  of  the  century  1760-1860,  arranged  topically 

and  showing  great  ability  and  fairness.     It  is  chronologically  a  continuation 

of  Hallam. 
Milner,  Sir  Alfred. — "  England  in  Egj'pt,"  1892. 

Excellent  book,  showing  the  benefits  of  the  English  rule. 
Molesworth,    William    Nassau. — "  History   of   England   from   the   Year    1830   to 
1874,"  3  vols.,  London,  1876. 

A  valuable  history,  dealing  particularly  with  the  political  side,  and  in  less 

compass  than  Walpole.     Especially  good  for  the  Reform  Bills. 
Morley,  John. — "  Life  of  W.  E.  Gladstone,"  3  vols.,  London  and  New  York,  1903. 

This  has  been  very  highly  praised  by  many  reviewers,  some  going  so  far 

as   to   call    it   the   greatest,   or    second    greatest,   biography   in   the    English 

language.     It  is  interesting,  sympathetic,  important. 
"  Crom.well,"   New   York,    1900. 

This  is  one  of  the  best  of  the  numerous  lives  of  Cromwell. 
"  Burke :  An  Historical  Study,"  1867. 

The  best  work  written  to  show  Burke's  political  career  and  position. 
"  Walpole,"  London  and  New  York,   1889. 

A    well-written    biography.     "  Twelve    English    Statesmen "    series. 
Oman,  Charles  William  Chadwick. — "  The  Art  of  War  in  the  Middle  Ages." 

An  excellent  work  by  a  scholar  of  note. 
Ramsay,  Sir  James  Henry. — "  The  Foundations  of  England,"  2  vols.,  London, 
1898. 

This  deals  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  period  in  general   (55  b.  C.-1154  a.  v.)   and 

is  a  good  reference  book  by  a  scholar  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 

subject.     Good  for  military  history. 
"  Lancaster  and  York,"  Oxford,  1892. 

Fullest  account  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  by  an  authority. 
Ranke,  Leopold  von. — "  A  History  of  England  in  the  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth 
Centuries,"  Oxford,  1876,  6  vols. 

A  work  by  a  German  for  advanced  students  and  historians,  dealing  chiefly 

with  the  Reformation,  and  emphasizing  England's  relations  to  Europe. 
Reid,  T.  Wemyss. — "  Life  of  W.  E.  Forster,"  2  vols. 

Forster  was  not  of  first  importance  in  nineteenth  century  English  history,  but 

Reid's  life,   containing  much  valuable   treatment  of  the   events   Forster  was 

connected  with,  is  an  excellent  work. 
Rhys,  John. — "  Celtic  Britain,"  new  edition.  New  York,  1884. 

A  good  short  book  on  earliest  English  history. 
Rogers,  James  E.  Thorold. — "  A  History  of  Agriculture  and  Prices  in  England," 
6  vols.,  London,  1S66. 

A  full  account  of  the  material  condition  of  the  people  of  England.     Some- 
what superseded. 
"  Six   Centuries  of  Work   and  Wages,"   New   York,    1884. 

Largely  based  on  the  above,  in  brief  compass. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  649 

Rosebery,  Lord. — "  Pitt,"  London  and  New  York,  1892. 

This  book  in  the  "  Twelve  English  Statesmen  "  series  is  a  charming  account 
of  Pitt's  life,  written  with  judgment. 
Seeley,  Sir  John  Robert. — "  Expansion  of  England,"  Boston,  1900. 

Divided  into  two  series  of  lectures  (American  Colonies  and  India).     Stimu- 
lating and  interesting. 

"  Growth  of  British  Policy,"  2  vols.,  London  and  New  York,  1895. 

A  larger  work  dealing  with  the  same  subject. 
Smith,  Goldwin. — "  The  United  Kingdom :  A  Political  History,"  2  vols.,  London 
and  New  York,  1899. 
Written  in  good  style;  takes  a  broad  view  of  essentials. 
Bpedding,   James. — "  An   Account   of   the   Life   and   Times   of   Francis   Bacon," 
Boston,  1878,  2  vols. 
A  most  carefully  written  life,  based  on  the  larger  "  Life  and  Letters." 
Stanhope,  Philip  Henry,  Earl    (Lord  Mahan). — "History  of  England,  compris- 
ing the   Reign   of   Anne   until   the    Peace   of   Utrecht,"   2   vols.,   London, 
1870. 

"  History  of  England  from  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  to  the  Peace  of  Versailles," 

London,  1858,  7  vols. 

"  Life  of  William  Pitt,"  4  vols. 

These   volumes,   taken   together,   form    a   history   of  England   for   about   a 
century.    They  are  the  result  of  much  investigation  and  careful  weighing  of 
evidence;  there  is  a  slight  Tory  bias,  but  the  works  are  entitled  to  respect. 
The  style  is  not  stimulating. 
Stephens,   William   Richard   Wood,   and    Hunt,    William,   editors. — "  A    History 
of  the  English  Church,"  7  vols. 
This  work,  the  separate  volumes  of  which  are  written  by  authorities,  gives 
the  best  general  account  of  the  English  church. 
Strype,  John. — "  Annals  of  the   Reformation." 

This  and  other  works  of  Strype  contain  a  vast  amount  of  material,  and  so 
are  important,  but  are  badly  arranged  and  uncritical. 
Stubbes,    William. — "  The    Early    Plantagenets,"    London    and    New    York,    last 
edition,   1901    ("Epochs  of  Modern  History"  series). 
This  work  covers  in  brief  compass  a  most  important  period,  and   does   it 
very  ably. 

"The  Constitutional  History  of  England  in  its  Origin  and  Development,"  3 

vols.,  Oxford,  1874-1878. 
Best  work  of  the  kind  in  English  history;  of  profound  learning,  and  able 
exposition.     A  work  which  requires  concentration  and  application  to  follow. 
Some  of  the  author's  conclusions  liave  been  displaced  by  later  research,  but 
in  general   it  remains  unrivaled. 
Thursfield,  J.  R.— "  Peel"    ("Twelve  Englisli   Statesmen"   series). 

A  good,  brief  biography. 
Traill,    H.    D.— "William    HL,"    London,    1888    ("Twelve    English    Statesmen" 
series). 
This  is  a  good  brief  account  of  William  HI.,  but  not,  however,  making  him 
so  much  of  a  hero  as  Macaulay  does. 
Traill,   H.   D.,  and   Mann,  J.   S. — "  Social   England,"   6  vols.,   London   and    New 
York,  1901-1903. 
Not  a   coimected   history,   but   a   series   of   good,   short   articles   on   subjects 
bearing  on  the  social  life  of  tlic   I'^nglish  people. 
Trevelyan,  Sir  George  Otto. — "  The  Early  History  of  Charles  James  Fox,"  last 
edition.  New  York,  1904. 


650  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

An  excellent  history,  not  only  of  Fox,  but  of  the  times   and  the  statesman- 
ship.    Fox  is  Trevelyan's  hero. 

Wakeman,  H.  O.,  and  Hassall,  A. — "  Essays  Introductory  to  the  Study  of  English 
Constitutional  History,"  2d  edition,  1891. 
Interesting  essays,  but  making  no  pretense  to  original  research. 

Walpole,  Spencer. — "  A  History  of  England  from  the  Conclusion  of  the  Great 
War  in  1815,"  London,  1878-1886,  6  vols. 
A    well-arranged,    interesting,    and    thoroughly    investigated    study    of    the 
period.     The  author  is  a  Liberal,  but  the  work  docs  not  reflect  his  partisan 
views. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Aaron:  martyred,   14 

Abercrombie,  James :  made  commander- 
in-chief  of  forces  in  America,  500 

Abercromby,  Sir  Ralph :  his  expedition 
to  Egj'pt,  551 

Aberdeen,  George  Hamilton  Gordon, 
Earl  of:  his  foreign  policy,  603 

Aboukir   Bay:   battle   of    (1798),  549 

Abraham,  Heights  of:  battle  of  (1759), 
500 

Aclea  (Ockley)  :  battle  of  (851  a.d.), 
42 

Acre:  captured  by  Richard,  113 

Addington,  Henry,  Viscount  Sidmouth : 
becomes  premier,  551;  enters  Pitt's 
ministry,  556;  in  All  the  Talents 
Ministry,  558 

Addison,   Joseph :    sketch   of,   461 

Addled    Parliament,    The    (1614),   311 

Adrian  IV,  Pope:  presents  Ireland  to 
Henry  II  of  England,   107 

Adrian  VI,  Pope :  accession  of,  243 

Adulterine   Castles :    destruction    of,   96 

Alfred  the  Great,  king  of  England : 
reign  of,  43 ;  death  of,  45 

^thefrith:  his  struggle  with  the 
Kymry,    31 

/Ethelbald,  king  of  the  Mercians :  con- 
quers   Wessex,    39 

Ethelbald,  king  of  England :  reign  of, 
42 

yEthelberht,  king  of  Kent :   reign  of,  27 

yEthelberht,  king  of  England,  son  of 
.■Ethehvulf :   reign  of.  42 

/Ethelings :  power  of,  39 

^-Ethelred  I,  king  of  Wessex  :  his  strug- 
gles with  the  Danes,  42 

/Ethelred  (II)  the  Unready,  king 
of  England:  reign  of,  56;  death 
of,  59 

/Ethelred  of  Mercia:  appointed  ealdor- 
man,  44 

653 


^thelric,  king  of  Bernicia :  combines 
Deira  and  Bernicia,  forming  North- 
humberland,   30 

^thelstan :    reign   of.   46 

yEthelwold,  Bishop  of  Winchester:  his 
career,  50 

^^^thelwulf,  king  of  England:  his  strug- 
gles with  the  Northmen,  42 

Aetius :   Britons  appeal  to,   17 

Agincourt:   battle  of     (1415),    198 

Agricola :  becomes  governor  of  Britain, 
10 

Aidan :  his  efforts  to  convert  the  men 
of   Xorth-humberland,   35 

Aix-la-Cliapelle,  Peaces  of:  (1668),  393; 
(1748).  488 

Alabama   Affair,   The,   622 

Alasco.  John  :  teachings  of,  268 

Alban  :  martyred,  14 

Albert  Francis  Augustus  Charles  Em- 
manuel, prince-consort  of  England: 
marries  Queen  Victoria.  598;  death 
of,  622 

Alengon.  Frangois,  Duke  of:  plans  mar- 
riage with  Elizabeth  of  England, 
287.  292 ;   death  of.  293 

Alexander  ITT,  Pope:  attempts  to  rec- 
oncile Henry  II  of  England  and 
Thomas  a  Beckct,   102 

Alexander  T,  emperor  of  Russia :  asks 
aid     of     England     against     France, 

559 

Alexander  II.  emperor  of  Russia:  ac- 
cession  of.   617 

Alexander  HI,  king  of  Scotland:  death 
of,   146 

Alexandria:    siege   of    (1801),   551 

Allen,  William :  founds  a  seminary  for 
Catholic    missionaries    to     England, 

2QI 

Alma:  battle  of  the   (1854),  615 
Alnwick:   battle  of   (1174).   108 
Althorp.      Lord :      sec      Spencer,     John 
Charles,    Earl    Spencer 


654 


INDEX 


Alva,  Fernando  Alvarez  de  Toledo, 
Duke  of :  governor  of  the  Nether- 
lands, 285 

Amiens,  Mise  of   (1264),   140 

Amiens,  Treaty  of   (1802),  552 

Anderida :  captured  by  Saxons,  18 

Angles :   invade   Britain,    19 

Anglo-Japanese  Alliance,  642 

Annates,  Act  of   (1532),  250 

Annates,  Act  of  (1534),  252 

Anne,  queen  of  Great  Britain :  joins  Wil- 
liam III,  430;  reign  of,  453;  death 
of,  466 

Anne  of  Bohemia :  marries  Richard  II 
of  England,  180 

Anne  of  Brittany :  aided  by  England, 
225;  marries  Charles  VIII  of 
France,  226 

Anne  of  Cleves :  marries  Henry  VIII 
of   England.    260 

Anselm,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury: 
made  archbishop,  84 ;  resists  Wil- 
liam Rufus,  85 ;  recalled  to  Eng- 
land, 88;  his  quarrel  with  Henry 
I,   89 

Anti-Corn  'Law  League:  formed,  600; 
growth   of,  605 

Appeals,  Act  of   (1533),  250 

Arabi  Pasha :  rebellion  of,  634 

Argyle,  Archibald  Campbell,  Marquis 
of:  in  civil  war  in  Scotland,  352 

Argyle,  Archibald  Campbell,  Earl  of: 
execution  of,  422 

Argjde,  John  Campbell,  Duke  of: 
crushes  rebellion  of  Mar,  470 

Arkwright,   Sir   Richard :    inventions  of, 

533 
Arlington,     Henry     Bennct,     Earl     of: 

sketch  of,  393 
Armada,  The   Invincible    (1588),  295 
Armagnac,  Bernard  VII,  Count  of:  see 

Bernard    VII,    Count    of   Armagnac 
Arms,  The  Assize  of   (1181),   108 
Arms  Act  (1843),  604 
Army    of    God    and    the    Holy    Church 

(1215).   126 
Arnold,   Benedict:   treason   of,   519 
Arras,  Treaty  of,  219 
Arteveldt,  Jacob  van  :  leader  of  Flemish 

cities,  158 
Arthur,  King:  legend  of,  24 
Arthur,  Prince  of  Wales :  marriage  and 

death,  229 


Arthur  of  England,  Prince :  claims 
throne,  121 ;  murdered,  122 

Arundel,  Earl  of:  wins  naval  victory, 
181 ;  takes  up  arms  against  Richard 
II,   181 ;   executed,   184 

Arundel,  Thomas,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury :  banished,  184 

Ashley,  Anthony  Ashley  Cooper,  Lord: 
see  Shaftsbury,  Charles  Ashley 
Cooper,   Earl   of 

Assiento  Treaty  (1713),  464 

Atbara:  battle  of  the   (1898),  638 

Augustine,  Saint :  sent  to  England.  28 ; 
becomes  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 

29 

Aulus  Plautius :  invades  Britain,  8 
Austerlitz:  battle  of   (1805),  557 
Australia :  sketch  of  the  history  of,  629 

B 

Babington,  Anthony:  plots  against  Eliz-i 
abeth,  294 

Bachelors,  Knights :  see  Knights  Bach- 
elors of  England 

Bacon,  Francis,  Baron  Verulam  and 
Viscount  St.  Albans :  sketch  of, 
302;   advises  James   I,  310;   fall  of, 

315 
Bacon,   Sir   Nicholas :   character  of,   316 
Badajoz:    captured    by    Wellington,    565 
Basda,     "  the     Venerable     Bede " ;     first 

English  historian,  39 
Ball,   John :   imprisoned,    174 
Ballard :   plots  against  Elizabeth,  294 
Balliol,  Edward :  claims  Scottish  throne, 

157 
Balliol,    John,    king    of    Scotland:    does 
homage    to    Edward    I   of   England, 
147;   renounces  his  homage,  148 
Ballot  Act    (1872),  627 
Bank    of    England :    founded,    441 ;    sus- 
pends   cash    payments    (1797),    546; 
resumes   cash   payments,   571 
Bannockbnrn:  battle  of   (1314),   153 
Bantry    Bay    Expedition    (1796),   546 
Barcelona :      captured      by      the      allies 

(1705),   456 
Barebone's    Parliament    (1653),   366 
Baring,    Evelyn,    Earl    of    Cromer :    his 

work   in   Eg>-pt,  638 
Barnct     (Chipping    Barnet)  :     battle    of 
(1471),   217 


INDEX 


655 


Barons,  Revolts  of  the:  (1075),  78; 
(1087),  82;  (1172-1174),  108; 
(1215),  126 

Barrow,  Henry :   hanged,  301 

Bastwick,  John :  tried  before  the  Star 
Chamber,  333 

Bate's  Case    (1606-1608),  309 

Bath,  William  Pulteney,  Earl  of :  see 
Pulteney,    William,    Earl    of    Bath 

Baxter,  Richard :   imprisoned,  421 

Bay  of  Biscay:  battle  of   (1805),  556 

Bayeux  Tapestry,  67 

Beachy  Head:  battle  of   (1689),  438 

Beaufort,  Henry,  Bishop  of  Winches- 
ter :  feud  with  Duke  of  Gloucester, 
202 ;  becomes  cardinal,  202 ;  advo- 
cates peace  with  France,  205 ;  death, 
207 

Beaufort,  John,  Duke  of  Somerset :  suc- 
ceeds to  the  command  in  France, 
206;  death,  207 

Bedford:  battle  of  (571  a.d.),  24 

Bedford,  John,  Duke  of:  career  of,  201 

Bedford,  John  Russell,  Duke  of:  leader 
of  Parliamentary  faction,  507;  ad- 
mitted to  office.  508;  death  of,  514 

Belgians :    invade    Britain,   6 

Bell,  Henry:  makes  first  English  steam- 
boat, 590 

Benedict  of  Nursia:  organizes  the  Ben- 
edictine Rule,  29 

Benedictine  ]\Ionks,  Order  of:  foimdcd, 
29;  increase  of  their  wealth  and  in- 
fluence, 91 

Bennet,  Henry,  Earl  of  Arlington :  see 
Arlington,    Henry    Bennet,    Earl    of 

Bentham,  Jeremy :   sketch   of,  578 

Bentinck,  Lord  George :  defeats  Peel 
ministry,  606 

Bentinck,  William,  l-'arl  of  Portland: 
see  Portland,  William  Bentinck, 
Earl  of 

Bentinck,  William  Henry  Cavendish, 
Duke  of  Portland :  see  Portland, 
William  Henry  Cavendish  Ben- 
tinck, Duke  of 

Beorhtic:  his  contest  with  Ecgberht  for 
West  Saxon  crown,  40 

Berlin,  Treaty  of   ( 1S7S) .  632 

Berlin  Decree   (1806).  560 

Bernard  VH,  Count  of  Armagnac: 
leader  of  feudal  party  in  France. 
194 


Bernicia:   founding  of,  25 

Bertha,  queen  of  Kent;  marries  /Ethel- 

berht,   27 
Bertie,    Robert,    Earl    of    Lindsey:    see 

Lindsey,   Robert  Bertie,   Earl   of 
Bertrand    VH,     Count    of     Armagnac; 

murder  of,   199 
Berwick:  sie^  of  (1333),  157 
Berwick,  Treaty   of    (1638),  336 
Better    Government    of    India,    Bill    for 

(1783),  527 
Beverley  Minster:   built,   141 
Bible,  The :  translated  into  English,  257 
Bigod,   Hugh,  Justiciar:   otfends  barons, 

139 
Bigod,    Roger,    Earl    of    Norfolk :    leads 

baronial    opposition    to    Edward    I, 

149 
Birmingham    Political    Union :    demands 

Parliamentary    reform,   586 
Bishops'  War,  I-'irst,  336 
Black   Death   in   England:    (1348),   163; 

(1361),   169 
Black    Prince :    see    Edward,    Prince    of 

Wales 
Blackwater:   battle   of    (1598).   303 
Blake,   Robert :    commands    fleet   against 

the   Dutch,   365 ;   commands   expedi- 
tion against  Ttmis  and  Algiers,  370; 

death  of.  371 
Blanketeers.   ^March   of  the    (1816),   571 
Blenheim:   battle  of    (1704).  455 
Bloody  Assizes,  The   (1685).  423 
Boadicea,  wife  of  a  Briton  chief:  insur- 
rection of,  10 
Bodleian  Library:   nucleus   of,  238 
Boer  War.  640 
Bohun.    Humfrcy.     Earl     of    Hereford: 

leads  baronial  opposition  to  Edward 

T.  I  19 
Boleyn,  Anne:   influence  of,  over   Henry 

VHT  of  T'jigland,  246:  marriage  of, 

250;  death  of,  256 
Bolingbroke.    Viscount:     see    St.    John, 

flenry 
Bologna,    I'nivcrsity    of:    fotmding    and 

growth    of,    116 
Bombay:      ac(ir.ircd      l)y      th.e      T'"nglish 

crown,    381 
Bonaparte,  Napoleon:  sec  Napoleon   (I) 

Bonaparte 
Fioniiace  A'HT,  Pope:   is.-^ues  the  Clrricis 

laicps.    149 


656 


INDEX 


Boniface  of  Savoy,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury: character  of,  137 
Bookland :  meaning  of  term,  52 
Booth,  Sir  George :  leads  uprising,  374 
Boroughbridge :  battle  of    (1322),   154 
Boscawen,      Edward :      his      expedition 

against  the  French    (1759),  501 
Boston  Massacre   (1770),  515 
Boston  Tea  Party   (1773),  515 
Bosworth:  battle  of   (1485),  222 
Bothwell,  James  Hepburn,  Earl  of:  his 

relations     with     Mary     Queen     of 

Scots,  282 
Bothwell     Bridge:     battle     of     (1679), 

409 
Boulogne:  siege  of  (1544),  261 
Bouvines :  battle  of  (1214),  126 
Boyne:  battle  of  the  (1690),  438 
Braddock,  Edward :  defeat  of,  495 
Bramham  Moor:  battle  of   (1407),  194 
Brandon,  Charles,  Duke  of  Suffolk :  see 

Suffolk,   Charles   Brandon,  Duke  of 
Brand\-wine:  battle  of   (1777),  517 
Breda,  Declaration  of  (1660),  375 
Breda,  Treaty  of  (1667),  389 
Brember,    Mavor    of    London :    hanged, 

181 
Breslau,  Treaty  of   (1742),  485 
Bretigni,  Treaty  of  (1360),  166 
Bridgenorth :  siege  of  (1102),  89 
Bridgman,    Sir   Orlando:    directs   public 

opinion  concerning  Charles  II.  3S0 
Bridport,  Lord :  commands  fleet  against 

the  French,  547 
Bright,  John :  leader  of  Anti-Corn  Law 

League,    600;    opposes    China    War, 

620 
Brindley,      James:      plans      Manchester 

Canal,  533 
Bristol:  stormed   (1645),  354 
Britain:  derivation  of  name,  5 
"  Britons,  The  Groans  of  the,"   17 
Brittany:  becomes  part  of  France,  226 
Broadbottomed      Administration,      The, 

487 
Brougham,        Henry        Peter,        Baron 

Brougham    and    Vaux :    made    Lord 

Chancellor,   587 
Browne,  Robert:  founds  the  Separatists, 

300 
Brownists:  see  Separatist? 
Bruce,    David,    king    of    Scotland :     see 

David   II,  king  of   Scotland 


Bruce,  Robert,  king  of  Scotland:  reign 
of,  152;  death  of,  157 

Brudenel,  James  Thomas,  Lord  Cardi- 
gan: see  Cardigan,  James  Thomas 
Brudenel,  Lord 

Brunanburh :    battle    of    (927  A.D.),    46 

Buckingham,  Edward  Stafford,  Duke 
of:  executed,  240 

Buckingham,  Henry  Stafford,  Duke  of: 
aids  Richard  III  to  win  throne, 
220;  revolts  against  Richard  III, 
221 

Buckingham,  George  Villiers,  ist  Duke 
of:  growth  of  his  influence,  312; 
attempts  to  relieve  Rochelle,  322; 
impeached,  322;   assassinated,  325 

Buckingham,  George  Villiers,  2d  Duke 
of :  sketch  of,  393 ;  negotiates  sham 
treaty  with  France,  396 

Buller,  Sir  Redvers  Henry:  his  cam- 
paign in  South  Africa,  641 

Bunker  Hill:  battle  of  (1775),  516 

Bunyan,  John :   sketch  of,  391 

Burdett,  Sir  Francis :  his  reform  propo- 
sals, 583 

Burgh,  Hubert  de :  defends  Dover  Cas- 
tle, 129;  sends  out  fleet  which  de- 
feats French,  130;  dismissed  from 
oftice  and  arrested,   131 

Burgoyne,  John :  his  campaign  in  Amer- 
ica, 517 

Burgundy,  John  the  Fearless,  Duke  of : 
see  John  the  Fearless,  Duke  of 
Burgundy 

Burke,  Edmund :  supports  repeal  of 
Stamp  Act,  509;  proposes  reforms 
in  Parliament;  519;  denounces 
French  Revolution,  540 

Burns,  Robert :  sketch  of,  576 

Burton,  Henry:  tried  before  the  Star 
Chamber,  333 

Bute,  John  Stuart,  Earl  of:  be- 
comes prime  minister,  505;  resigns, 
506 

Butler,  Joseph :  publishes  his  "  Anal- 
ogy." 493 

Butler,  Samuel :  sketch  of,  391 

Buxton,  Sir  Thomas  Fowell :  agitates 
slavery  question,   592 

Byng,  John :  fails  to  relieve  Minorca, 
406;  death  of,  498 

Byron,  George  Noel  Gordon,  Lord : 
sketch  of,  ^"J"/ 


INDEX 


657 


Cabot,  John :  voyages  of,  230 

Cade,  Jack :  rebellion  of,  209 ;  death  of, 
210 

Cadiz:  captured  by  the  English  (1596), 
298 

Csedmon,  Anglo-Saxon  herdman :  his 
poems,  38 

Caedwalla,  King  of  Gwynneld:  joins 
Penda,  34 ;  downfall  of,  35 

Caen:  siege  of  (1417),  199 

Caesar,  Caius  Julius:  conquers  Gaul,  6; 
invades  Britain,  7 

Caewlin,  chief  of  the  West  Saxons :  his 
campaigns  against  the  Angles,  24 ; 
defeated  at  Wanborough,  25 

Calais:  sieges  of  (1347),  162;  (1557- 
1558),   275 

Calder,  Sir  Robert :  at  battle  of  Bay  of 
Biscay,  556 

Calixtus  III,  anti-Pope:  elected  by 
Frederick  Barbarossa,  102 

Calvin,  John :  teachings  of,  276 

Camden,  Charles  Pratt,  Earl  of:  see 
Pratt,  Charles,  Earl  of  Camden 

Campbell,  Archibald,  Marquis  of  Ar- 
gyle :  see  Argyle,  Archibald  Camp- 
bell,  Marquis  of 

Campeggio,  Lorenzo :  papal  legate  to 
England,  246 

Camperdovvn :   battle   of    (1797),   548 

Camperdown,  Adam  Duncan,  Viscount : 
see  Duncan,  Adam,  Viscount  Cam- 
perdown 

Campion,  Edmund :  executed,  292 

Campo-Formio,  Treaty  of    (1797),  548 

Camulodunum :  founded  by  the  Ro- 
mans, 9;  massacre  of  Romans  at, 
10 

Canada :  union  of,  595 ;  organization  of 
government  of,  629 

Canning,  George :  member  of  Portland 
ministry,  559 ;  becomes  Foreign  Sec- 
retary, 573;  made  Prime  Minister, 
581 ;  death  of,  582 

Canning,  Sir  Stanford :  urges  Sultan  to 
refuse  the  Vienna  Note,  614 

Canrobert,  Frangois  Certain :  commands 
French  forces  in  Crimea,  616 

Canterbury:   sacked  by   Northmen,   42 

Cape  Colony:   sketch  of  its  history,  630 

Cape  St.  Vincent:  battle  of  (1797),  547 


Capel,  Arthur,  Earl  of  Essex :  see  Es- 
sex, Arthur  Capel,  Earl  of 

Cardigan,  James  Thomas  Burdcnel, 
Lord  :  leads  charge  of  the  Light  Bri- 
gade, 6t6 

Carlisle:  fortified  by  William  Rufus,  86 

Carlyle,  Thomas :  sketch  of,  613 

Caroline,  Queen  of  George  II  of  Eng- 
land :  her  influence  over  George  II, 
477 ;   death  of,  480 

Caroline  of  Brunswick :  marries  George 
IV  of  England,  573 

Carmarthen :  captured  by  the  French, 
194 

Carr,  Robert,  Earl  of  Somerset :  rise 
of,  310;   disgraced,  312 

Carteret,  John,  Earl  of  Granville:  his 
rivalry  with  Walpole,  477;  sketch 
of,  485 ;  fall  of,  486 ;  attempts  to 
form  a  ministry,  488 

Cartwright.  Edmund :  invents  a  power 
loom,  534 

Cartwright,  Thomas :  leader  of  reform 
movement,   288 

Cary,  Lucius,  Viscount  Falkland :  see 
Falkland.    Lucius    Cary,   Viscount 

Cassel:  battle  of   (1328),   158 

Cassivelaunus,  Briton  chief:  opposes 
Caesar,  7 

Castlemaine,  Barbara  Villiers,  Lady: 
her  influence  over  Charles  II,  389 

Castlereagh,  Robert  Stewart,  Viscount : 
see  Stewart,  Robert,  Marquis  of 
Londonderry 

Catharine  of  Aragon :  marries  Prince 
Arthur,  229;  dispensation  for  her 
marriage  to  Henry  VITI  granted, 
231;  marries  Henry  VIII  of  Eng- 
land, 235 ;  Henry  VIII  desires  di- 
vorce   from,   245 

Catharine  of  Braganza :  marries  Charles 
IT   of  England,  384 

Catherine  of  Valois :  marries  Henry  V, 
200 

Catholic  Emancipation,  581 

Catesby,  Robert :  plots  agamst  James  I 
of   England.   308 

Cavalier    Parliament    (1661),    382 

Cavendish,  Lord  Frederick :  murder  of, 

634 
Cavendish.    William.    Duke    of    Devon- 
shire: sec  Devonshire,  William  Cav- 
endish, Duke*  of 


658 


INDEX 


Cavendish,  William,  Marquis  of  New- 
castle: see  Newcastle,  William  Cav- 
endish, Marquis  of 

Caxton,  William :  sets  up  his  press  at 
Westminster,  231 

Cecil,  Sir  Edward :  commands  expedi- 
tion against  Cadiz,  321 

Cecil,  Robert,  Earl  of  Salisbury :  see 
Salisbury,  Robert  Cecil,  Earl  of 

Cecil,  Robert  Arthur  Talbot  Gascoyne, 
Marquis  of  Salisbury :  see  Salis- 
bury, Robert  Arthur  Talbot  Gas- 
coyne, Marquis  of 

Cecil,  Sir  William :  becomes  secretary 
of  Elizabeth,  275 

Celts :    invade   Britain,   4 

Chamberlain,  Joseph :  demands  political 
rights  for  English  colonists  in  the 
Transvaal,  640;  his  tariff  projects, 
642 

Chambers's  Case   (1630),  329 

Charlemagne  (Charles  the  Great),  Holy 
Roman  emperor :  his  influence  felt 
in  England,  40 

Charles  V,  Holy  Roman  emperor : 
joins  league  for  peace,  237;  contest 
with  Francis  I,  240 ;  alliance  with 
Henry  VHI  of  England,  246,  261 

Charles  VI,  Holy  Roman  emperor : 
claims  throne  of  Spain,  456;  acces- 
sion of,  to  imperial  throne,  463 

Charles  I,  king  of  England :  plans  a 
marriage  with  a  princess  of  Spain, 
317;  marries  Henrietta  Maria  of 
France,  318;  reign  of,  320;  death 
of,  361 

Charles  H,  king  of  England :  proclaimed 
king  of  Ireland,  363 ;  proclaimed 
king  of  Scotland,  363 ;  reign  of,  379 ; 
death  of,  416 

Charles  (III)  the  Simple,  king  of 
France :  marries  sister  of  ^thel- 
stan,  46 

Charles  (V)  the  Wise,  king  of  France: 
sends  help  to  Henry  of  Trastamara, 
167;  at  war  with  England,   168 

Charles  VI,  king  of  France:  becomes 
insane,   193 

Charles  VII,  king  of  France :  character 
cf,  203 :   crowned.  204 

Charles  VIII.  king  of  France:  marries 
Anne  of  Brittany.  226;  invades 
Italy,   227;    death   of,   229 


Charles   IX,  king  of  France:   death  of, 

290 
Charles    XII,    king    of    Sweden :    forms 

alliance  with  Spain,  472 
Charles  the  Rash,  Duke  of  Burgundy : 

accession  and  marriage  of,  216 
Charles  Edward,  the  Young  Pretender : 

attempts  to  -win  the  throne,  487 
Charles    Martel,    king    of    the    Franks : 

checks  Mohammedanism,  40 
Charlotte,    daughter    of    George    IV    of 

England :  marriage  of,  573 
Chatham,  John  Pitt,  Earl  of:   see   Pitt, 

John,  Earl  of  Chatham 
Chatham,    William    Pitt,    Earl    of:    see 

Pitt,  William,  Earl  of  Chatham 
Chaucer,     Geoffrey:     his     "Canterbury 

Tales,"   176,  238 
Chester:    captured   by  the   English,   31; 

conquest  of,  by  William  I,  73 
Chino-Japanese  War,  639 
Chippenham,    Peace    of    (878    a.d.),    43 
Chocolate :  first  used  in  England,  418 
Christian  IV,  king  of  Denmark :  makes 

alliance  with  England,  321 
Cintra,  Convention  of  (1808),  563 
Cistercian    Monks,   Order   of :    founding 

and  rules  of,  92 
Ciudad   Rodrigo:   captured  by   Welling- 
ton, 56s 
Civil  War,  American,  621 
Clare,    Gilbert    de.    Earl    of   Gloucester : 

see    Gloucester,    Gilbert    de    Clare, 

Earl   of 
Clarence,     George,     Duke     of:     created 

duke,  214;  marries  daughter  of  Earl 

of   Warwick,   216;    flees   to   France, 

216;  joins  Henry  IV,  217;  death  of, 

218 
Clarendon,  Assize  of  (1166),  103 
Clarendon,  Constitutions  of   (1164),   lOT 
Clarendon,  Edward   Hyde,  Earl   of:   see 

Hyde,  Edward,  Earl  of  Clarendon 
Clarkson :    his   crusade    against    slavery, 

540 
Claudius,     emperor     of     Rome :     sends 

Aulus   Plautius  to  invade    Britain,  8 
Clement  VII,  Pope :  refuses  to  sanction 

divorce  of  Henry  VIII  of  England, 

246 
Clcrifis  laicns:  issued  by  Boniface  VIIT, 

149 
Cleveland,     Grover,     president     of     the 


INDEX 


659 


United   States :  proposes  arbitration 
for       settlement       of       Venezuelan 
Boundary  Dispvite,  639 
Give,   Robert,   Baron   Give :   his    career 
in    India,    502 ;    his    government    of 
India,  525 
Gosterseven    (Kloster  Zeven),  Conven- 
tion of  (1757),  499 
Glut,   king   of   England :    accession   and 
reign  of,  59;  becomes  king  of  Den- 
mark and   Norway,  60 
Cobbett,  William :  influence  of,  572 
Cobdam,  Lord :  see  Oldcastle,  Sir  John 
Cobden,   Richard :    leader  of   Anti-Corn 
Law    League,    600;    opposes    China 
War,   620 
Code  Napoleon,  555 
Coffee :  introduced  in  England.  418 
Colchester:  siege  of   (1648),  360 
Colenso :   battle   of    (1900),  641 
Colet,     Oxford     reformer:     founds     St. 

Paul's  School,  239 
Columba,    Saint :    founds    monastery    of 

Hii  at  lona,  35 
Columbus,  Christopher:  influence  of  his 

discoveries,  229 
Commercial    Treaty    with    France.    The 

(i860),  621 
Common    Pleas,    Court    of:    established, 

145 
Commonwealth,  The,  362 
Compiegne  :  skirmish  of  ( 1430) ,  204 
Compton,     Henry:     his     struggle     with 

James   IT.  424 
Compton,  Spencer.  Earl  of  Wilmington : 

premiership   of,   477;   becomes   First 

Lord  of  the  Treasury,  484 
Concord:  battle  of  (1775),  515 
Confirmatio  Cartarum   (1297),  150 
Conflans,  Hubert  de  Brienne,  Count  of: 

at  battle  of  Quiberon  Bay,  501 
Congregation,  Lords  of  the :   organized, 

277 

Constantine,  emperor  of  Rome :  pro- 
claimed emperor  in  Britain  (409 
A.D.),   16 

Continental  Congress,  First :  meeting 
of,  515 

Continental  Congress,  Second:  meeting 
of,  516 

Continental   System   of   Napoleon,   560 

Conventicle  Acts  (1664),  385;  (1670), 
394 


Cooper,  Anthony  Ashley:  see  Shaftes- 
bury, Anthony  Ashley  Cooper,  Earl 
of 

Coote,  Eyre :  his  campaign  in  India,  502 

Cope,  Sir  John :  his  campaign  against 
the   Young   Pretender,  487 

Copenhagen:  battle  of  (1801),  552; 
bombarded    (1807),  561 

Corn  Law   (1815),  600 

Cornwall,  Richard  of:  see  Plantagenet, 
Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall 

Cornwallis,  Charles,  Lord :  his  cam- 
paigns in  America,  521 ;  appointed 
governor-general  of  India.  530 

Corporation  Act    (1661),  382 

Corunna :  sacked  by  the  English  (1592), 
298;  battle  of   (1809),  563 

Courtenay,  Bishop  of  London :  presides 
over  ecclesiastical  court  at  St. 
Paul's,   172 

Cowper,  William,  Earl:  becomes  Lord 
Chancellor,  458 

Cranborne,  Viscount :  see  Salisburjs 
Robert  Arthur  Talbort  Gascoyne 
Cecil,   Marquis  of 

Cranfield,  Lionel,  Earl  of  Middlesex : 
restores  financial  order,  315;  im- 
peached, 318 

Cranmer,  Thomas,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury: career  of,  251;  introduces 
English  into  the  church  service, 
262;   death  of,  271 

Cregy:  battle  of   (1346),  l6l 

Cressingham,  Sir  Hugh:  appointed 
guardian   of   Scotland,    148 

Crewe,  Chief  Justice :  dismissed  from 
oflicc.  322 

Crimes  Act   (1887),  636 

Cromer,  Evelyn  Baring,  Earl  of:  see 
Baring,   Evelyn,  Earl  of  Cromer 

Crompton,  Samuel :  invents  a  spinning- 
machine,   534 

Cromwell,  Oliver:  commands  parlia- 
mentary forces,  346;  made  Lieuten- 
ant-General  in  the  New  Model 
Army,  351;  conquers  Ireland,  363; 
made  Lord  Protector,  367;  death 
of,  372 

Cronuvell,  Richard :  his  Protectorate, 
373 

Cromwell,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Essex :  rise 
of  248;  career  of,  255;  death  of, 
260 


660 


INDEX 


Cropredy  Bridge:  battle  of   (1644),  349 
Cuba:  reduced  by  English,  505 
Culloden  Moor:  battle  of   (1746),  488 
Cumberland,    William    Augustus,    Duke 
of :  at  battle  of  Fontenoy,  487 ;   his 
campaign    against    the    Young    Pre- 
tender,   488 ;     defeated    at     Hasten- 
beck,  499 
Cutha,   chief  of  the  West   Saxons :   his 
campaign    against    the    Angles,    24; 
death  of,  25 
Cynric,   king  of  the  West  Saxons :   at- 
tacks Britons,  24 


D 


Danby,  Thomas   Osborne,   Earl  of:   see 

Osborne,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Danby 
Danegeld :  Thomas  a  Becket  resists  the 

levying  of,    loi 
Danes :    invade    England,    42 ;    conclude 

peace    with    yElfred    the    Great    43 ; 

again  invade  England,  57 
Dare.  Jeanne :  her  career,  203 
Darnley,    Henry    Stuart,   Lord :    marries 

Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  281 
David,   brother   of   Llewelyn,    Prince    of 

Wales:  joins  revolt,   144;   death  of, 

144 
David  1,  king  of  Scotland :  his  hostility 

to  Stephen  I  of  England,  93 
David    IT,   king   of   Scotland:    reign   of, 

157 

David,  Saint:  his  piety,  31 

De  Lucv,  Richard :  appointed  Justiciar, 
98    ' 

Declaration  of  Breda   (1660),  375 

Declaration  of  Independence  (1776), 
516 

Declarations  of  Indulgence:  (1672),  397; 
(1687).  425;    (1688),  427 

Denain:  battle  of   (1712),  463 

Derby,  Edward  Geoffrey  Sinitli  Stanley, 
Earl  of:  see  Stanley,  Edward  Geof- 
frey Smith,  Earl  of  Derliy 

Derby,  Henry,  Earl  of:  see  Henry  IV, 
king  of  England 

Derry :   see  Londonderry 

Despenser,  Hugh  le.  Earl  of  Winches- 
ter: exiled  by  Parliament,  154;  ex- 
ecuted, 155 


Despenser,  Hugh  le,  son  of  Hugh  le 
Despenser,  Earl  of  Winchester :  ex- 
iled  by    Parliament,    154;    executed, 

ISS 

Devon,  Earl  of :  commissioned  to  in- 
quire into  grievances  of  Irish  ten- 
ants, 604 

Devonshire,  William  Cavendish,  1st 
Duke  of:  joins  William  HI,  429 

Devonshire,  William  Cavendish,  4th 
Duke  of:  becomes  First  Lord  of  the 
Treasury,   497 

Dickens,   Charles :    sketch  of,  612 

Digby,  John,  Lord :  his  mission  to  Vi- 
enna, 316 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  Earl  of  Beacons- 
field  :  becomes  leader  of  opposition 
party,  605 ;  defeats  Peel  ministry, 
606;  made  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, 609;  introduces  a  Reform 
Bill  (1859),  621;  first  ministry  of, 
625 ;  second  ministry  of,  628 

Doddington,  Bubb :   intrigues  of,  489 

Domesday   Book,   79 

Dominic,  Saint :  founds  order  of  Do- 
minicans,  133 

Domitian,  emperor  of  Rome:  recalls 
Agricola   from   Britain,   II 

Donald  Bane,  king  of  Scotland :  acces- 
sion and  reign  of,  86 

Dorset,  Thomas  Grey,  Marquis  of: 
plots  against  Gloucester,  220 

Dover:  naval  battle  of   (1216),   130 

Dover,  Treaty  of    (1670),  394 

Downs,  Battle  of  the :  see  North  Fore- 
land 

Drake,  Francis:  sketch  of,  289;  singes 
the  king  of  Spain's  beard.  295 ;  his 
services  against  the  Armada,  296 ; 
death  of,  298 

Drogheda :  captured  by  Parliamentary 
forces    (1649),  363 

Druids:  teachings  of,  6 

Drununond,  Thomas :  his  Irish  policy. 
506 

Dudley.  Edmund:  instrument  of  Henry 
VII,  230;  death  of,  235 

Dudley,  Guilford :    executed.   270 

Dudley,  Lord  Robert :  his  relations  with 
l-!lizabeth.   280 

Dunbar:  battles  of   (1296),  14S:    (1650), 

3('4 
Duncan,  king  of  Scotland :   reign  f>i,  86 


INDEX 


661 


Duncan,  Adam,  Viscount  Camperdown : 
sent  to  blockade  Dutch  fleet,  547 

Dundas,  Henry,  Viscount  Melville :  see 
Melville,   Henry  Dundas,  Viscount 

Dunes,  Battle  of  the  (1657),  372 

Dunstan,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury : 
takes  the  part  of  Eadward  the 
Martyr,  56;  death  of,  56 

Dunston,  Abbot  of  Glastonbury :  his 
early  career,  47;  becomes  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  50 

Durham,  John  George  Lambton,  Earl 
of:  made  governor-general  of  Can- 
ada, 596 

Dupleix,  Joseph  Frangois,  Marquis  de : 
his  successes  in  India,  502 


Eadgar,  king  of  England :  accession  of, 

49;   reign   of,  50 
Eadgar,    king    of    Scotland :     accession 

and    submission   to   William    Rufus, 

Eadgar  the  /Etheling,  king  of  England : 
chosen  king,  67 

Eadmund,  king  of  the  West  Saxons : 
reign  of,  46 

Eadmund  Ironside,  king  of  the  West 
Saxons :  reign  of,  59 

Eadred,  king  of  the  West  Saxons :  reign 
of,  47 

Eadward,  king  of  the  West  Saxons : 
reign  of,  45 

Eadward  the  Martyr,  king  of  the  West 
Saxons  :   reign  of,  56 

Eadward  the  Confessor,  king  of  Eng- 
land :   reign   of,  61 

Eadwig,  king  of  England :   reign  of,  48 

Eadwine  king  of  North-humberland : 
reign  of,  32 

Ealdhelm,  Abbot  of  Malmesbury : 
teaches   in  school   at  Canterbury,  38 

East  India  Company,  British  :  sketch  of, 
501;   fall  of,  618 

Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill   (1851),  609 

Ecgberht :  becomes  over-lord  of  Eng- 
land, 40 

Economical   Reform   Bill    (1782),  522 

Edgehill :  battle  of  (1642),  344 

Edmund  Crouchback :  offered  crown  of 
Sicily  and   Naples,    136 


Education  Act   (1870),  626 

Edward  I,  king  of  England:  appeal  of 
the  Knights  Bachelors  to,  139;  sur- 
renders to  baronial  forces,  140;  car- 
ries out  reforms  of  Simon  de  Mont- 
fort,  141 ;  reign  of,  143 

Edward  II,  king  of  England:  birth  of, 
144;  reign  of,  152 

Edward  HI,  king  of  England:  reign  of, 
156;  death  of,  172 

Edward  IV,  king  of  England :  flees  to 
Calais,  211;  wins  battle  of  Morti- 
mer's Cross,  212;  crowned,  213,  214 

Edward  V,  king  of  Egland :  accession 
of,  219;   death  of,  221 

Edward  VI,  king  of  England :  birth  of, 
258;  reign  of,  264 

Edward  VII,  king  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  and  emperor  of  India:  ac- 
cession of,  642 

Edward,  Prince  of  Wales,  called  the 
Black  Prince :  invades  Normandy, 
160;  at  war  with  Charles  V,  168; 
assumes  leadership  of  the  Com- 
mons,  172 

Edward,  Prince  of  Wales,  son  of  Henry 
VI:  birth  of,  210;  death  of,  217 

Egypt :  comes  under  the  control  of  Eng- 
land  and   France,  633 

Eleanor    of    Aquitaine :    marries    Henry 

II  of    England,   96;    defends    Aqui- 
taine against  France,   122 

Eleanor  of   Castile,  queen   of  England : 

death  of,  147 
Eleanor    of    Provence :    marries    Henry 

III  of  England,   134 

Eliot.  Sir  John:  leader  of  Opposition 
Party,  321 ;  death  of,  329 

Elizabeth,  queen  of  England :  birth  of, 
254;   imprisoned,  270;   reign  of,  274 

Elizabeth  of  York:  marries  Henry  VH, 
223 

Elizabeth  Stuart,  queen  of  Bohemia: 
marries  Frederick  V,  Elector  Pala- 
tine,  311 

Empson,  Richard  :  instrument  of  Henry 
VH,  230;   execiUed,  235 

Encumbered    Estates   Act    (1848),   607 

England,  History  of:  prehistoric  and 
Roman  Britain,  3;  the  English  Set- 
tlements, 17;  the  strife  of  the  Eng- 
lish kingdoms,  27;  the  kingship  and 
the   struggle    with   the    Danes,    41 ; 


669. 


INDEX 


Eadgar's  England,  50;  England  and 
Normandy,  56;  William  I,  71;  Wil- 
liam II,  82;  Henry  I— Stephen,  88; 
Henry  II,  97;  Richard  I,  112;  John, 
121;  Henry  III,  130;  Edward  I — Ed- 
ward II,  143;  from  the  accession  of 
Edward  III  to  the  Treaty  of  Bre- 
tigni,  156;  reign  of  Edward  III,  after 
the  Treaty  of  Bretigni,  167 ;  Rich- 
ard II  and  the  social  revolution, 
173 ;  Richard  II,  and  the  political 
revolution,  180;  Henry  IV — Henry 
V,  191 ;  Henry  VI  and  the  loss 
of  France,  201 ;  the  later  years 
of  Henry  VI,  208;  the  Yorkish 
kings,  214;  Henry  VII,  223;  Henry 
VIII  and  Wolsey,  235;  the  breach 
with  the  Papacy,  243 ;  the  royal  su- 
premacy, 254;  Edward  VI — Mary, 
264;  the  Elizabethan  settlement  in 
church  and  state,  274;  Elizabeth  and 
the  European  conflict,  285 ;  Eliza- 
beth's years  of  triumph,  295 ;  James 

I,  307;  the  growth  of  the  personal 
government  of  Charles  I,  320;  the 
overthrow  of  the  personal  govern- 
ment of  Charles  I,  332;  the  forma- 
tion of  parliamentary  parties  and 
the  first  years  of  the  civil  war,  340 ; 
the  New  ]\Iodel  Army,  351;  the 
commonwealth  and  protectorate, 
362;  Charles  II  and  Clarendon,  379; 
Charles  II  and  the  cabal,  391 ; 
Danby's  administration  and  the 
three  short  Parliaments,  402;  the 
last  years  of  Charles  II,  412;  James 

II,  421;  William  HI  and  Mary  11, 
435 ;  William  III  (alone),  444; 
Queen  Anne,  453 ;  establishment  of 
Parliamentary  supremacy :  Town- 
shend,  Sunderland,  and  Walpole, 
468;  establishment  of  Parliamentary 
supremacy :  Walpole,  Carteret,  and 
the  Pelhams,  481  ;  Newcastle  and 
Pitt,  493;  the  break  up  of  the  Whig 
party,  504;  the  .Ntruggle  for  Amer- 
ican Independence,  513;  Pitl  ar.d 
Fox,  524;  the  Frencli  Revolution, 
539;  the  union  with  Ireland  and 
trouble  with  France,  545 ;  the  ascend- 
ency of  Napoleon,  555 ;  the  downfall 
of  Napoleon,  562:  [{ngland  after 
Waterloo,  569;   First   Reform  Bill — 


Catholic  Emancipation  and  Parlia- 
mentary reform,  581 ;  the  reformers 
in  power,  591;  free  trade,  602;  the 
Crimean  War  and  the  end  of  the 
East  India  Company,  611 :  anteced- 
ents and  results  of  the  Second  Re- 
form Act,  620 ;  the  last  years  of  the 
nineteenth   century,   632 

Erskine,  John,  Earl  of  Mar :  see  Mar, 
John  Erskine,   Earl  of 

Essex,  Arthur  Capel,  Earl  of:  impli- 
cated in  the  Rye  House  Plot,  414 

Essex,  Robert  Devereux,  3d  Earl  (jf : 
at  the  capture  of  Cadiz  (1596),  298; 
his  campaign  in  Ireland,  303 ;  death 
of,  303 

Essex,  Robert  Devereux,  2d  Earl  of: 
appointed  general  of  Parliamentary 
forces,  344 

Essex,  Thomas  Cromwell,  Earl  of:  see 
Cromwell,   Thomas 

Etaples,  Treaty  of    (1492),  226 

Eugene  of  Savoy,  Prince:  his  campaign 
in  Italy,  454 

Eustace,  son  of  Stephen :  character  of, 
95 ;   death  of,  96 

Evesham:  battle  of    (1265),    141 

Exchequer,   Court  of:    established,    145 


Faddiley:  battle   of    (584  A.u.),  25 
Fairfax,  Sir  Thomas :  appointed  general 

of  the   New  Model  Army.  351 
Falaise,  Treaty  of   (1174),  108 
Falkirk:  battles  of  (1298),  150;    (1746), 

488 
Falkland,  Lucius  Cary,  Viscount:  leader 

of    religious    toleration    party,   341 
Family   Compact,  The,  480 
Farmer:     candidate     for    presidency    of 

Magdalen   College,  426 
Fashoda  Episode,  The   (1898),  639 
Fawkes,  Guy:   joins  plot  against  James 

I  of  I'ugland.  308 
Felton,  John :   assassinates  the   Duke  of 

Buckingham.   325 
Fenians  :  rising  f)f.  O25 
I'^rdinand      of      Aragon  :      joins      Holy 

League,    236 
Ferdinand   of   Brunswick.    Prince:   com- 
mands  in  Hanover.   501 


INDEX 


663 


Ferry  Bridge :  battle  of  (1461),  213 
Feudalism:  growth  of,  in  England,  51; 
in    Normandy,    58;    systematized   by 
William  the  Conqueror,  73 ;    feudal 
dues,    84;     Henry    II    attempts    to 
lessen  the  power  of  the  barons,  98; 
general  breaking  up  of,  226 
Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  240 
Fielding,  Henry :  sketch  of,  494 
Finch,  Daniel,  Earl  of  Nottingham :  see 
Nottingham,  Daniel  P^inch,   Earl  of 
First  of  June,  Battle  of  (1794),  543 
Firth,  John:  persecution  of,  251 
Fisher,  John,  Bishop  of  Rochester :  sup- 
ports   cause    of    Catharine    against 
Henry   VIII    of   England,   246;    im- 
prisoned, 254 ;   death   of,  255 
Fitzgerald,  Garret,  8th  Earl  of  Kildare : 
see   Kildare,   Garret    Fitzgerald,  8th 
Earl  of 
Fitzgerald,    Vesey :    candidate    for   office 

against  O'Connell,  584 
Fitz-Nigel,  Richard:  writings  of,  115 
Fitzosbert,     William,     surnamed     Long- 
beard  :     leads     an     insurrection     of 
London  artisans,   117 
Fitzwilliam,    Earl :    made    Lord-Lieuten- 
ant of   Ireland,   545 
Five  Knights'  Case,  The   (1627),  323 
Five  Mile  Act   (1665),  387 
Flambard,   Ranulf.   Bishop   of  Durham: 
his    power    and    influence,    83 ;    de- 
posed by  Henry  I,  88 
Fleetwood,  Charles :   given   command  of 

Puritan   army,  373 
IHeurus:   battle  of    (1794),  543 
Flodden:  battle  of   (i5i3)>  236 
Florida:  ceded  to  England   (1763),  505; 

returned  to  Spain    (1783),  523 
Folkland :   meaning  of  term,  52 
Fontenoy:  battle  of   (1745),  487 
Forster,    William    Edward :    educational 

reforms  of,  626 
Fox,  Charles  James:  supports  reform 
measures,  520 ;  member  of  cabinet, 
522;  resigns  office,  523;  becomes 
Secretary  of  State  (1783),  525;  fa- 
vors the  French  Revolution,  540; 
Foreign  Secretary  in  All  the  Tal- 
ents Ministry,  558;  death  of,  558 
Fox,  Henry:  becomes  leader  of  ttie 
House  of  Commons,  494;  resigns 
office,  497 


Fox's  Martyrs,  529 

Forest.   Friar:   death   of,  258 

Fort  Duquesne :  captured  by  the  Eng- 
lish (1758),  500 

Francis,  Saint:  life  of,  132 

Francis  I,  king  of  F"rance :  contest  with 
Charles  V  of  Spain,  240;  at  the 
Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  240 ;  cap- 
tured at  battle  of  Pavia,  241  ;  makes 
alliance  with  England,  242 

Francis  II,  king  of  France :  marries 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  265 

Franciscans,  Order  of:  organization  of, 
132;  advent  in  England,   133 

Frederick  (I)  Barbarossa,  Holy  Roman 
emperor:  sets  up  Calixtus  III  (an- 
ti-Pope) in  opposition  to  Alexander 
IH,    102 

Frederick  V,  Elector  Palatine  and  king 
of  Bohemia :  marries  Elizabeth 
Stuart,  311 

Frederick.  Prince  of  Wales :  quarrels 
with  George  II,  480;   sketch  of,  489 

Friars   Minorites:   see   Minorites,   Friars 

Friars   Observant :   suppressed.  255 

Friars  Preachers :  see   Preachers.  Friars 

Friedland:  battle  of   (1807),  559 

Frobisher,  Martin :  his  services  against 
the  Armada,  296 


Gage,  Thomas:  sent  to  Boston,  515 
Gardiner,      Stephen:      obtains      appoint- 
ment   of    Wolsey    as    Papal    legale, 
246;   made  chancellor.  269 
Garter,  Order  of  the :  instituted,   163 
Gaul :  conquered  by  Caesar,  6 
Gaveston,   Piers :  career  of,   152 
Gemot,    The    Great :    see    Great    Gemot, 

The 
Geneva   Arbitration.  The    ( i872\  6j8 
(koffrey,  Count  of  Anjou  :  marries  lun- 
])re^s    Matilda,    93;    comiuers    Xor- 
niaiuly,  95:   death  of.  <)9 
(ieotfrey,     CouiU.     of     Pjrittau}' :     marries 
Constance    of    Brittany,    loo:    deatli, 
109 
George   f,  king  of  Great  Britain:  acces- 
sion of,  466;  reign  of,  467;  death  of, 

477  _ 

George    II,   king   of   luigland :    reign   of, 
477:    death    of.   503 


664, 


INDEX 


George  III,  king  of  Great  Britain :  ac- 
cession of,  503 ;  reign  of,  504 ;  death 
of,  573       ^ 

George  IV,  king  of  Great  Britain :  as- 
sumes regency  for  his  father,  564; 
reign  of,  573 ;   death  of,  585 

George,  Prince  of  Denmark:  joins  Wil- 
Ham  of  Orange,  430 

Gerard,  Balthazar :  assassinates  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  293 

Gibraltar:  captured  by  the  English 
(1705),  456;  attacked  by  French 
and  Spaniards   (1782),  523 

Gilbert  de  Clare,  Earl  of  Gloucester: 
see  Gloucester,  Gilbert  de  Clare, 
Earl  of 

Giraldus  Cambrensis  or  Gerald  of 
Wales,  116 

Glencoe :  massacre  of    (1692),  437 

Glenelg,  Lord :  attempts  to  manage  Ca- 
nadian affairs,  596 

Gladstone,  William  Ewart :  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  614;  opposes 
China  War,  620;  becomes  leader  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  624;  first 
ministry  of,  625 ;  second  ministry 
of,  633 ;  third  ministry  of,  635 ; 
fourth  ministry  of,  637 

Glamorgan,  Herbert,  Earl  of:  see  Som- 
erset, Edward,  Marquis  of  Wor- 
cester 

Glendower,  Owen :  leads  Welsh  revolt, 
192;     forms    alliance    with    France, 

193 

Gloucester:   siege  of   (1643),  345 
■Gloucester,    Gilbert   de    Clare,    Earl    of: 
appointed     Elector,      140;      quarrels 
with    Simon    de    Montfort,    141 ;    at 
battle  of  Evesham,  141 

Gloucester,  Humphrey,  Duke  of:  regent 
for  Henry  VI  in  England,  201 ; 
marries  Jacqueline  of  Holland  and 
Hainault,  202;  fend  with  Beaufort, 
202 ;  opposes  peace  with  France, 
206;  charged  with  treason,  207; 
death  of,  207 ;  gives  nucleus  of  Bod- 
leian Library.  238 

Gloucester,  Richard,  Duke  of:  see  Rich- 
ard  III,  king  of  England 

Gloucester,  Robert,  Earl  of:  revolts 
against  Stephen  I.  94 

Gloucester,  Thomas,  Duke  of:  quarrels 
with  Richard  H,  iSo;  takes  up  arms 


against  Richard,  181 ;  restored  to 
favor,  182;  plots  against  Richard, 
183;   murder  of,   184 

Goderich,  Viscount :  see  Robinson, 
Frederick  John,  Earl  of  Ripon 

Godfrey,  Sir  Edmond  Barry :  murder 
of,  406 

Godfrey  of  Bouillon:  leads  Crusaders, 
87 

Godolphin,  Sidney,  Earl  of:  sketch  of, 
453 

Godwine,  Earl  of  the  West  Saxons : 
wins  confidence  of  Cnut,  59;  quar- 
rels with  Eadward  the  Confessor, 
61 ;  restoration  of,  63 

Gondomar,  Count  of:  negotiates  a 
Spanish  alliance  with  James  I  of 
England,  312,  313 

Gordon,  Lady  Catherine :  marries  Per- 
kin  Warbeck,  227 

Good  Parliament,  The,  172 

Gordon,  Charles  George :  defends  Khar- 
toum, 635 

Gordon,  Lord  George :  leads  anti-Cath- 
olic mob,  520 

Gordon,  George  Hamilton,  Earl  of  Ab- 
erdeen :  see  Aberdeen,  George 
Hamilton  Gordon,  Earl  of 

Cower,  John :   his  poetry,   187 

Grace,   Pilgrimage  of,  257 

Grafton,  Augustus  Henry  Fitzroy,  Duke 
of:  becomes  nominally  Prime  !Min- 
ister,  510 

Graham,  James,  Marquis  of  Montrose : 
see  Montrose,  James  Graham,  Mar- 
quis of 

Graham,  Sir  James  Robert  George: 
member  of  Peel's  ministry,  602 

Grand  Alliance,  Treaty  of   (1701),  451 

Grand    Remonstrance,   The    (1641),   341 

Granville,  John  Carteret,  Earl  of:  see 
Carteret,  John,  Earl  of  Granville 

Grasse,  Frangois  Joseph  Paul  de :  de- 
feated  by   Admiral   Rodney,   522 

Gravelincs:   battle   of    (1588),   297 

Great   Contract    (1610),   310 

Great  Gemot,  The :  William  the  Con- 
queror  convokes,   80 

Great   Schism,  The,   173 

Greenwich    Plospital :    founded,    443 

Greenwood :    hanged,    301 

Gregorian  Calendar :  adopted  in  Eng- 
land,  488 


INDEX 


665 


Gregory  (I),  Saint,  Pope:  sends  St. 
Augustine  to  England,  28 

Gregory  VII  (Hildebrand),  Pope: 
quarrels  with  Emperor  Henry  IV, 
yj;  his  relations  with  William  the 
Conqueror,  TJ 

Gregory  IX,  Pope :  demands  money 
from  English  clergy,   135 

Gregory  XIII,  Pope:  corrects  the  cal- 
endar, 488 

Grenville,  George  (1712-1770)  :  made 
Prime  Minister,  507;   death  of,  514 

Grenville,  William  Wyndham,  Baron 
Grenville :  his  reply  to  Napoleon, 
549;  made  Prime  Minister,  557 

Grey,   Lady   Catherine :    imprisoned,   279 

Grey,  Charles,  Earl  Grey:  proposes 
Parliamentary  reforms,  586;  forms 
ministry,   586 

Grey,  Henry,  Earl  of  Suffolk:  rebellion 
of,  270 

Grey,  Lady  Jane :  proclaimed  queen  of 
England,  269;   death  of,  270 

Grey,  Lord  Leonard :  his  rule  in  Ire- 
land, 261 

Grey,  Sir  Richard :  taken  prisoner  by 
Gloucester,  219;   execution,  220 

Grey,  Thomas,  Marquis  of  Dorset :  see 
Dorset,  Thomas  Grey,  Marquis  of 

Grindal,  Edmund,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury :  suspended  from  his  office, 
290 

"  Groans  of  the  Britons,  The,"  17 

Grocyn,  Oxford  reformer,  239 

Grossetete,  Robert,  Bishop  of  Lincoln : 
leads  opposition  of  clergy  to  papal 
exactions,  135 

Grote,  George :   sketch  of,  613 

Guthrum,  Danish  chieftain :  struggle 
with   vElfred  the   Great,  43 

Gualo,  papal  legate :  appointed  guardian 
of  Henry  III  of  England,   130 

Guesclin,  Bertrand  du :  war  policy  of, 
168 

Gvrth,  Earl  of  East  Anglia :  made  earl, 
63 


H 


Habeas  Corpus  Act    (1679),  407 
Hadrian,  emperor  of  Rome :  visits  Brit- 
ain,  II 


Hales,  Sir  Edward :  trial  of,  424 
Halifax,   George    Savile,   Marquis :    sup- 
ports   Charles    II    against    Shaftes- 
bury, 408 ;   is  dismissed  from  office, 
423 
Hampden,    John :    refuses   to   pay   ship- 
money,  334 ;  impeached,  343 
Hardy :  trial  of,  543 
Harfleur:  siege  of   (1415),  197 
Hargreaves,    James :    invents    the    spin- 
ning-jenny, 533 
Harlcy,  Robert,   Earl  of  Oxford :  holds 
office  as  a  moderate  Tory,  455 ;  be- 
comes   Lord    High    Treasurer    and 
Earl  of  Oxford,  463;  resigns  office, 
466 ;  impeached,  469 
Harold  I,  king  of  England :  reign  of,  60 
Harold    II,   king   of   England:    becomes 
earl     of    Wessex,   63 ;     accession   to 
English     throne,    64;    at     battle    of 
Stam.ford  Bridge,  66;  death  of,  67 
Harold     Hardrada,    king    of    Norway: 
plunders     coast     of     England,     65 ; 
killed   at   Stamford   Bridge,  66 
Harris,    James,    Earl    of    Malmesbury: 
see      Malmesbury,     James      Harris, 
Earl  of 
Harthacnut,  king  of  Denmark:  becomes 

king  of  England,  60 
Hastenbcck :   battle  of    (1757),  499 
Hastings,   Warren :   appointed  Governor 
of  Bengal,  526;  impeachment  of,  531 
Hastings,    William,   Lord :    death,    220 
Havre:   bombarded    (1759),  501 
Hawke,    Sir    Edward,    Baron    Hawke : 
sent     against     the     French     (1755), 
496;    (1759),   SOI 
Hawley,   General :   his   campaign  against 

the   Young   Pretender,  487 
Hazlcrigg,    Sir   Arthur:    impeached,   343 
Hcathficld  :   battle  of    (633  a.d.),  34 
Heights  pi  Abraham:  battle  of  (1759), 

500 
Hengist,  Jutish  chieftain,   17 
Henrietta,   Duchess  of  Orleans:   negoti- 
ates alliance  between  Louis  XIV  of 
France  and   Charles   II  of  England, 

394 

Henrietta  Maria :  marries  Charles  I  of 
England,   318 

Henry  VII,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  cap- 
tures and  imprisons  Richard  of 
England,   113 


666 


INDEX 


Henry  I,  king  of  England :  reign  of,  88 

Henry  H,  king  of  England:  invades 
England,  96;  reign  of,  97 

Henry  HI,  king  of  England:  reign  of, 
130 

Henry  IV,  king  of  England :  takes  up 
arms  against  Richard  H,  181 ;  cre- 
ated Duke  of  Herford,  185 ;  ban- 
ished, 185 ;  becomes  Duke  of  Lan- 
caster, 185 ;  claims  English  throne. 
186:  accession  of,  186;  death  of,  196 

Henry  V,  king  of  England :  early  years, 
195 ;  reign  of,  196 

Henry  VI,  king  of  England :  reign  of, 
201 

Henry  VII,  king  of  England:  his  claims 
to  the  throne,  217;  invades  Eng- 
land, 221 ;  proclaimed  king,  222 ; 
death  of,  231 

Henry  VIII,  king  of  England :  dispen- 
sation granted  for  his  marriage  to 
Catharine  of  Aragon,  231 ;  reign  of, 

235 
Henry  II,  king  of  France :  death  of,  278 
Henry    III,    king   of   France:    accession 

of,  290 
Henry  IV,  king  of  France :   forms  alli- 
ance with  Elizabeth  of  England,  298 
Henry,    son    of   Henry   II    of    England: 

coronation  of.  105 :  death  of,  109 
Henry  of  Blois,  Bishop  of  Winchester : 

anoints    Stephen,   king   of    England, 

93 ;    acknowledges    Matilda,   95 
Henry    of    Lancaster:    see    Henry    IV, 

king   of   England 
Henry    of    Trastamara:    opposes    Pedro 

the   Cruel,   167 
Hepburn,  James,  Earl  of  Bothwell :  see 

Bothwell,   James   Hepburn,   Earl   of 
Herbert,    Arthur,    Earl    of    Torringtou : 

defeated  at  Beachy  Head,  438 
Hereford,   Roger.  Earl  of:  leads  revolt 

of  the  earls,  78 
Hereford,   Henry,  Duke  of:    see   Henry 

IV,  king  of  England 
Hereward  :  revolt  of,  7.^ 
Hertford,    Edward    Seymour,    Earl    of: 

see     Seymour,     Edward,     Duke     of 

Somerset 
Hicks,    William:    liis    campaign    in    the 

Soudan.  634 
Hill,  Abigail :   her  relations  with  Queen 

Anne,  45S 


Hill,    Rowland :    plans    postal    reforms, 

597 

Hoche,  Lazare :  commands  Bantry  Bay 
expedition,  546 

Hogarth :   sketch  of,  494 

Holies  or  Hollis,  Denzil,  Baron  Holies : 
takes  part  in  House  disturbance, 
327;  fined  and  imprisoned,  329;  im- 
peached,  343 

Holmes,  Sir  Robert :  attacks  Dutch  fleet 
in  the   Channel    (1672),  397 

Holy  League,  236 

Home  Rule  Bills:   (1886),  635;    (1893), 

637 
Homildon  Hill:  battle  of   (1402),  193 
Honorius    III,    Pope:    character   of,    130 
Honorius,   emperor  of  the   West :    Brit- 
ons implore  aid  from,  16 
Hooker,     Richard:     his     "Ecclesiastical 

Polity,"  301 
Hooper,  John:  martyrdom  of,  271 
Hopton,  Sir  Ralph :  commands  Royalist 

forces,  345 
Plorsa,  Jutish  chieftain,   17 
Hotham,   Sir  John :  closes  Hull  against 

Charles  I,  344 
Hotspur,  Henry:  see  Percy,  Henry 
Hough :   chosen   president   of   Magdalen 

College,  426 
Howard.      Catherine :      marries      Henry 

VIII  of  England.  261 
Howard,   Charles,   Baron  of   Effingham : 

commands  English  fleet  against  the 

Armada,    296;     at    the    capture    of 

Cadiz   (1596),  298 
Howard,    Henry.    Earl    of    Surrey :    see 

Surrey,  Henry  Howard,  Earl  of 
Howard,   Thomas,   Earl   of    Surrey   and 

3d    Duke    of    Norfolk :    at    Flodden, 

236 
Howard    of    Escrick.    Edward    Howard, 

Lord  :   implicated  in  the  Rye  House 

Plot,  414 
Howe,   Richard,   Earl   Ilowe :   wins   Bat- 
tle of  the  First  of  Jui-.e,  543;  quells 

mutiny  in  the  navy.  547 
Howe,    \\'illiam.    Viscount    Howe:     his 

campaigns   in   America,   516 
Hrclf,   first   Duke  of  the   Xormans :   or- 

gani;:cs   Xormandy.  57 
Hubert    dc    Burgh:    see    Burgli.    Hubert 

de 
Hubert,   Walter,   Archbishop   r)f   Canter- 


INDEX 


667 


bury:  his  administration  as  Justi- 
ciar, 114 

Hubertsburg,  Peace  of   (1763),  505 

Hugh  the  Great,  Duke  of  the  French 
and  lord  of  Paris:  marries  sister  of 
^thelstan,  46 

Hugh  le  Despenser :  see  Despenser, 
Hugh  le 

Hugh  of  Puiset,  Bishop  of  Durham : 
appointed  Justiciar,    112 

Hulbert,  Walter,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury :    death,    122 

Hundred  Days,  The   (1815),  567 

Hundred  Years'  War,  157 

Hunt,  Henry:  arrest  of,  572;  his  reform 
proposals,  583 

Huskisson,  William :  labor  reforms  of, 
575 ;  resigns  from  ministry,  584 ; 
death  of,  590 

Hyde :  leader  of  religious  toleration 
party,  341 

Hyde,  Anne :  marries  James  H  of  Eng- 
land,  399 

Hyde,  Edward,  1st  Earl  of  Clarendon: 
Lord  Chancellor,  380;  disgraced, 
390 

Hyde,  Lawrence,  Earl  of  Rochester : 
supports  Charles  H,  415;  dismissed 
from  office,  425 ;  leader  of  the  High 
Tories,  455 

Hyder  AH :  rises  against  British  in 
India,  527 


Iberian  Race :  invades  England,  4 
Ida.  king  of  Bernicia,  25 
Independence,   American   War  of,   513 
Independence,    Declaration    of     (1776), 

516 
Independents,   The :    rise   of,   349 
Ine,  king  of  Wessex :  goes  on  a  pilgrim- 
age to  Rome,  39 
Inkcrman :  battle  of   (1854),  616 
Innocent   III,   Pope:   opposes  the  choice 
of  an   archbishop   of   Canterbury   of 
King    John,     123;     excommunicates 
John,    124;    supports   John's   opposi- 
tion to  the   Barons.   128;   excommu- 
nicates  Lonis   Vni   of   France,    120 
Innocent  IV,   Pope:  accession  and  char- 
acter of,   135;   offers  crown   of   Na- 


ples and  Sicily  to  Prince  Edmund 
of  England,  136 

Intcrcursus  Magnus   (1496),  228 

Ireland :  invasion  of  Henry  II  of  Eng- 
land, 107 ;  conditions  in,  under  Mary 
and  Elizabeth,  290;  conquest  of,  by 
Elizabeth,  304;  union  with  Great 
Britain    (1800),  545 

Ireland,  Duke  of:  see  Oxford,  Robert 
de  Vere,  Earl  of 

Ireton,  Henry :  at  battle  of  Naseby,  353 ; 
draws  up  "  The  Heads  of  the  Pro- 
posals," 358 

Irish  Land  Acts:  (1870),  625;  (1881), 
633;  (1896),  637 

Isabella  of  France  (1292-1358)  :  marries 
Edward  II  of  England,  152;  con- 
spires   against    Edward.    154 

Isabella  of  France  (1389-1409)  :  marries 
Richard  II  of  England,  183 


Jacquerie,  Revolt  of  the   (1358),  165 

Jamaica  :   captured  by  the  English,  370 

James  I,  king  of  England  (VI  of  Scot- 
land) :  birth  of,  282;  plots  against 
William  of  Orange  and  Elizabeth, 
292 :    reign   of,   307 

James  II,  king  of  England  (VH  of 
Scotland :  captures  New  Amster- 
dam, 386:  declares  his  conversion 
to  Catholicism,  394;  reign  of,  421; 
death  of,  451 

James  I,  king  of  Scotland  :  held  as  host- 
age by  Henry  IV,  194;  released  and 
sent   home,   202 

James  IV,  king  of  Scotland:  supports 
claims  of  Warbeck,  227;  attempts 
invasion  of  England,  228;  marries 
Margaret  Tudor,  229;  invades  Eng- 
land,  236 

James  V,  king  of  Scotland:  at  war  with 
Henry  VIII  of  England,  261 

James  VI  and  VII,  kings  of  Scotland: 
see  James  I  and  II,  kings  of  Eng- 
land 

Jeanne  r);'rc:   see  Dare,  Jeaiuie 

Jeffreys,  George:  ondcnuis  Richard 
Baxter,  422;  holds  the  Bloody 
Assizes,   423 


668 


INDEX 


Jenkins  Episode,  The  (1738),  483 
Jenkinson,  Robert  Banks,  Earl  of  Liv- 
erpool :  see  Liverpool,  Robert  Banks 
Jenkinson,   Earl  of 
Jerusalem,   Kingdom  of:    its  fall,   no 
Jervis,    John,    Earl    of    St.    Vincent :    at 

battle  of  Cape  St.  Vincent,  547 
Jesus,  Society  of:  power  of,  281 
Jews :  William  Rufus  encourages  their 
settlement  in  England,  83;  their 
unpopularity  in  England,  91 ;  mas- 
sacre of,  in  England,  112:  perse- 
cuted by  John  of  England,  124; 
banished  by  Edward  I  of  England, 

145 

Jews'  House  at  Lincoln,  118 

John,  king  of  England:  sent  to  Ireland, 
no;  rebels  against  Henrj'  II,  no: 
usurps  royal  power,  113;  accession 
of,  121 ;  death  of,  129 

John  (II)  the  Good,  king  of  France: 
accession  of,  164;  defeated  and  cap- 
tured    at     Poitiers,     164 ;     released, 

John  de  Grey,  Bishop  of  Norwich : 
chosen  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
123 

John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster : 
wages  war  in  France,  168;  joins 
baronial  and  anti-clerical  party,  170; 
supports  Wycliffe,  172;  claims 
throne  of  Castile,  181 ;  marries 
Catherine    Swynford,    183 

John  the  Fearless,  Duke  of  Burgundy: 
orders  murder  of  Duke  of  Orleans, 
194;  forms  alliance  with  Henry  IV 
of  England,  197:  marches  to  Paris, 
199;  death  of,  200 

John  the  Marshal:  sues  Thomas  a 
Becket,   102 

Jones,  Ernest:  leader  of  labor  revolt, 
600 

Jones,  Inigo:   sketch  of,  419 

Joyce,  Cornet  George:  conducts  Charles 
I  to  Newmarket,  358 

Julius  II.  Pope:  grants  dispensation  for 
marriage  of  Henry  VIII  and  Cath- 
arine of  Aragon,  231 ;  joins  Holy 
League,  236 

Julius  :   martyred,   14 

June,  Battle  of  the  Fir^^t  of   (1794').  543 

Junot.  Andoch.c :  his  campaign  in  Por- 
tugal,  562 


K 

Keble,    John :    publishes    his    "  Christian 

Year,"  611 
Kent,   Edmund,  Earl  of :   see   Plantage- 

net.  Edmund,  Earl  of  Kent 
Keroualle,  Louise   de :    see   Portsmouth, 

Duchess  of 
Ket's  Rebellion    (1549").  266 
Khartoum:  siege  of   (1884).  635 
Kildare,  Garret  Fitzgerald.  8th  Earl  of: 
supports    claims    of    Lambert    Sim- 
nel,   225 ;    supports   claim.s   of   War- 
beck    and    is    deprived    of    office    of 
Lord      Deputy,      227 ;      reappointed 
Lord  Deputy,  228 
Killiecrankie:  battle  of   (i689\  436 
Kimberley:  siege  of   (1900),  641 
Kimbolton,    Lord :     see    Montagu,    Ed- 
ward, Earl  of  Manchester 
Kitchener,    Horatio    Herbert,    Viscount 
Kitchener   of   Khartoum :    his    cam- 
paign in  the  Soudan.  638 
Knights   Bachelors   of   England :    appeal 

to  Prince  Edward,  139 
Knights'  Case,  The  Five  (1627'),  323 
Knox,   John:   teachings  of,   268;    leader 
of  the   Lords   of  the   Congregation, 
278 
Kriiger,   Stephanus  Johannes   Paul :   de- 
clares war  against  the  British  Gov- 
ernment, 641 
Kymry,  The :  union  of,  26 


Laborers.  Statute  of  (1349),  163 
Ladysmith :  siege  of  (1900),  641 
Lafayette.  Marie  Jean  Paul  Roch  Yves 
Gilbert  du  Motier,  Marquis  of:  as- 
sists American  colonies,  517 
La  Hogue:  battle  of  (1692),  440 
Lally.    Thomas    Arthur.    Count    of:    his 

campaign  in  India,  502 
Lamb,     William,    Viscount     Melbourne : 
see  Melbourne,  William  Lamb,  \'is- 
co'.nit 
Lambert.  John :   martyrdom  of,  259 
Lambton,    John    George,    Earl    of    Dun- 
ham :     see    Dunham,    John    George 
Lambton,  Earl  of 
Lancaster.  John  of  Gaunt.  Duke  of:  see 
John  of  Gaunt,   Duke  of  Lancaster 


INDEX 


669 


Lancaster,  Thomas,  Earl  of:  leads  bar- 
onial opposition  to  Edward  II,  153; 
defeated  at  Boroughbridge,  154; 
death  of,   154 

Landen :   see   Neerwinden 

Lanfranc,  Abbott  of  Bee  (afterward 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury)  :  confi- 
dant of  William  the  Conqueror,  62 ; 
made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
"jd;  death  of,  84 

Langland,  William :  his  "  Vision  of 
Piers  the  Plowman,"  169 

Langton,  Stephen,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury :  elected  archbishop,  123 ; 
heads  barons  against  king,   125 

Largos:  battle  of  (1759),  501 

Latimer,  Lord :  impeached,  172 ;  returns 
to  court,   172 

Latimer,  Hugh,  Bishop  of  Worcester : 
reforms  of,  252;  preaches  against 
the  vice  of  the  times,  267;  death  of, 
271 

Laud,  William,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury :  advises  Charles  I  regarding 
church  matters,  329;  imprisoned  in 
the  Tower,  ZZT^  execution  of,  352 

Lauderdale,  John  Maitland,  Duke  of : 
sketch  of,  395 

Lawrence,  Saint :  becomes  second  Arch- 
bishop  of  Canterbury,  30 

Legge,  William,  Earl  of  Dartmouth : 
dismissed  from  office,  496 

Leicester:  siege  of  (1645),  353 

Leicester,  Earl  of:  appointed  Justiciar, 
98 

Leipzig:  battle  of   (1813),  566 

Lely,  Sir  Peter :  sketch  of,  418 

Leo  IX,  Pope:  travels  through  western 
Europe,  62 

Leo  X,  Pope:  joins  league  between 
England  and  France,  237 ;  contro- 
versy with  Martin  Luther,  245 ; 
death,  243 

Leofric,  Earl  of  Merced :  mediates  be- 
tween Godwine  and  Eadward  the 
Confessor,  61 

Leofwine,  Earl  of  Mercia:  his  influ- 
ence, 60 

Leopold  of  Saxe-Coburg,  Prince:  mar- 
ries Charlotte  of  England,  573 

Leslie,  Alexander,  Earl  of  Leven  :  com- 
mands invasion  of  Scots  into  Eng- 
land, 348 


Leslie,      David:      commands     Scottish 

forces,  363 
Leuthen :  battle  of  (1757),  499 
Levelers,     The :     Cromwell     suppresses, 

363 
Leven,   Alexander   Leslie,   Earl   of:    see 

Leslie,  Alexander,  Earl  of  Leven 
Lewes:  battle  of   (1264),  140 
Lewes,  Mise  of   (1264),  140 
Lexington:  battle  of  (1775),  515 
Lichfield  House  Compact   (1835),  594 
Light  Brigade,  Charge  of  the,  616 
Ligny:  battle  of  (1815),  568 
Lille:  siege  of   (1708),  459 
Limerick:  siege  of   (1690),  438 
Linacre,  Oxford  reformer,  239 
Lincoln:    settlement    of,    19;    battle    of 

(1141),  9S;   (1217),  130 
Lincoln,  John  de  la  Pole,  Earl  of:   see 

Pole,  John  de  la,  Earl  of  Lincoln 
Lincoln  Cathedral :  built,   141 
Lindsey,  Robert  Bertie,  Earl  of:  his  ex- 
pedition to  Rochelle,  325 
Lisle,  Alice;  condemned  to  death,  423 
Liverpool,      Robert      Banks      Jcnkinson, 
Earl  of :  made  Prime  Minister,  564 
Llewelyn,  Prince  of  Wales :  career  and 

death,   144 
Locke,  John:  publishes  his  "Letters  on 

Toleration,"  436 
Lollards:    followers    of    Wycliffe,    175; 

persecution   of,    196 
London :    founding    of,    12 ;    sacked    by 
Northmen,      42;       surrendered      by 
Danes  to  Alfred,  43 ;  loses  its  char- 
ter, 413 
London,    Tower    of:    built    by    William 

the    Conqueror,   y}, 
London   Bridge:  built,   177 
London  Fire,  The   (1666),  388 
Londonderry   (Dcrry)  :  siege  of   (1689), 

437 
Londonderry,    Robert    Stewart,    Marquis 

of :    see    Stewart,    Robert,    Marquis 

of   Londonderry 
Long      Parliament,     Tlie      (1640-1660)  : 

sunnnoned.  ^^t,"]  :   dissolved,  374 
Longbeard,     William :      see      Fitzosbert, 

William 
Lords   of    the   Congregation :    organized, 

277 
Lords    Ordainers :    appointed   by    Parlia- 
ment,   153 


670 


INDEX 


Losecoat  Field :  see  Stamford,  Battle  of 

Lostwithiel :  battle  of  (1644),  349 

Louis  VII,  king  of  France :  divorces 
Eleanor  of  Aquitaine,  96 

Louis  (VIII)  the  Lion,  king  of  France: 
invades  England,  128;  excommuni- 
cated, 129 ;  defeated  at  Lincoln,  130 

Louis  (IX),  Saint,  king  of  France:  ar- 
bitrates between  Henry  III  and  the 
barons,   140 

Louis  XI.  king  of  France :  reconciles 
Warwick  and  Margaret,  217 

Louis  XII,  king  of  France :  invades 
Italy,  229,  236 ;  marries  Mary 
Tudor,  237 ;   death  of,  237 

Louis  XVI,  king  of  France :  death  of, 

541 

Louis  XVIII,  king  of  France:  restored 
to  his  throne,  568 

Louis  the  Bavarian :  gives  his  support 
to  Edward  III  of  England,   158 

Louisburg:  captured  by  the  English 
(1758),  500 

Louisiana:    ceded  to   Spain    (1763),   505 

Lovel,  Francis,  Viscount  Lovel :  rebel- 
lion of,  224;  joins  insurrection  of 
Lambert   Simnel,   224;    death,   225 

Lowestoft:  battle  of   (1665),  386 

Lunsford,  Thomas :  appointed  Lieuten- 
ant of  the  Tower,  342 

Luther,  Martin :  teachings  of,  244 

Luttrell,  Colonel :  elected  to  Parlia- 
ment, 511 

Lyndhurst,  John  Singleton  Copley, 
Baron :  proposes  alteration  in  Re- 
form Bill,  589 

Lyons,  Richard :  impeached,  172 

M 

Macadam     CMcAdam),    John    Loudon: 

improves   roads   in   England,   5S9 
Macaulay,    Thomas    Babington.    Baron : 
favors  Reform   Bill,  588;   sketch  of, 
612 
Macaulay,     Zachary :     agitates     slavery 

question,  592 
Mackintosh,    Sir    James:    advocates    re- 
form of  the  criminal  law,  575 
Mad   Parliame:it,  The.   138 
Mafeking:    siege   of    (1900 ).   641 
Magersfontein  :    battle   of    (1900).   641 
Maj^na    Carta    (Magna    Charta)  :    sign- 


ing and  terms  of,  127;  changes  in, 
at  accession  of  Henry  III,  130 
Magnus,  king  of  Norway:  accession  of, 
60 

Maid  of  Norway:  see  Margaret,  queen 
of   Scotland 

Maid  of  Orleans :  see  Dare,  Jeanne 

Maitland,  John,  Duke  of  Lauderdale : 
see  Lauderdale,  John  Maitland, 
Duke  of 

Majuba  Hill:  battle  of  (1880),  634 

Malcolm  II,  king  of  Scotland :  defeats 
the   North-humbrians,  60 

Malcolm  (III),  Canmore,  king  of  Scot- 
land :  ravages  northern  England, 
73 ;  his  invasion  of  England  and 
death.   86 

Malcolm  IV,  king  of  Scotland :  surren- 
ders Northumberland  and  Cumber- 
land to  England,  98 

Malm.esbur\',  James  Harris.  Earl  of: 
attempts  to  negotiate  a  treaty  with 
France,  546 

Malplaquet:  battle  of  (1709),  459 

Malta :   siege  of,  551 

Manchester,  Edward  Montagu.  Earl 
of:  see  Montagu,  Edward,  Earl  of 
Manchester 

Manchester  Massacre   (1819),  572 

Manila  :  reduced  by  English,  505 

Mansfield.  William  Murray,  Earl  of: 
sketch  of.  494;  becomes  Chief  Jus- 
tice, 497;  his  decision  regarding 
slavery,  540 

Manwaring.   Roger :   impeached,  326 

Map,  \\'alter:   sketch  of,   116 

Mar,  John  Erskine,  Earl  of:  rising  of, 
470 

March,  Edmund  Mortimer,  Earl  of:  see 
Mortimer,  Edmund,  Earl  of  March 

March  of  the  Blanketeers   (1816),  571 

Margaret,  queen  of  Scotland :  betrothed 
to  Prince  of  Wales.   146;   death.  147 

Marjjaret,  queen  of  Malcolm  III  of  Scot- 
land: her  influence  over  rvlalcolm, 
86:  death  of.  86 

Margaret  of  Anjou:  marries  Henry  VI 
of  England,  206;  takes  up  amis 
against  Yorkists,  212;  escapes  to 
Scotland.  213;  defeated  by  Mon- 
tague. 215 

Margaret  of  Bungnndy:  supports  claims 
of   Perkin   Warbeck,  227 


INDEX 


671 


Margaret  Tudor:  marries  James  IV  of 
Scotland,  229 

Marlborough.  John  Churchill,  Duke  of: 
joins  William  III,  429;  deprived  of 
office,  439;  sent  to  protect  Dutch, 
451 ;  his  influence  over  Queen  Anne, 

453 

Marprelate  Tracts :  circulated,  301 

Marston  Moor:  battle  of  (1644),  348 

Mary  I,  queen  of  England :  betrothed  to 
dauphin,  242;   reign   of,  269 

Mary  II,  queen  of  England:  accession 
of,  431 ;  reign  of.  435 ;  marries  Wil- 
liam of  Orange,  404;   death  of,  442 

Mary  of  Guise :  regent  of  Scotland.  278 

Mary  of  Modena :  marries  James  II  of 
England,  400 

Mary  Queen  of  Scots :  claims  throne  of 
England,  278;  returns  to  Scotland, 
279;  prisoner  in  England,  283; 
death  of.  294 

Mary  Tudor  or  Mary  of  France :  mar- 
ries Louis  XII,  237;  marries  Charles 
Brandon,  2.2,7 

Maserfield  :   battle  of   (642  a.d.).  35 

Mason   and   Slidell   Incident,  622 

Massena.  Andre:  his  campaign  in  the 
Spanish  peninsula,  564 

Massey:  appointed  to  the  Deanery  of 
Christ  Church,  424 

Matilda,  queen  of  Henry  I  of  England : 
called  the  good  queen,  88 

Matilda,  empress  of  Germany  and 
queen  of  England :  barons  swear  to 
accept  her  as  their  future  sovereign, 
93 ;  acknowledged  as  queen,  95 ; 
leaves  England,  95 

Maximus,  emperor  of  Rome :  pro- 
claimed emperor,  16 

Maximilian,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  ne- 
gotiates for  marriage  with  Anne  of 
Brittany,  225;  joins  tlie  Holy 
League,  236;  joins  league  for  peace, 
237;   death  of,  240 

I\Iayne,   Cuthbert :   death   of.   291 

Meaux ;   siege  of   (1421).  200 

Melbourne,  William  Lamb,  Viscount: 
member  of  Grey's  ministry,  587; 
first  ministry  of,  593 ;  second  minis- 
try  of,   595 

Alelville,  Henry  Dnndas,  Viscount:  im- 
peached,  556 

Merchant  Gild,  The:  rise  of,  117 


Merciless  Parliament,  The,  181 
Merton,  Walter  de:  founds  Merton  Col- 
lege, 142 
Methucn  Treaty    (1703),  454 
Metternich.      Prince     Clemens     Wenzel 
Nepomuk  Lothar  von :   opposed  by 
Canning,  574 
Middlesex,    Lionel    Cranfield,    Earl    of: 
see  Cranfield,  Lionel,  Earl  of  Mid- 
dlesex 
Milan  Decree   (1807").  560 
Mill,  James   Stuart :   sketch  of,  613 
Milton,    John :     writes     "  Areopagitica," 
352 ;  publishes  his  "  Paradise  Lost," 
391 
Minden:  battle  of  (1760),  501 
Ministry  of  All  the  Talents   (1806),  557 
Minorites,  Friars:  organized,   132 
Monasteries :  suppression  of,  255 
Money:  first  use  of,  in  Britain,  6 
Monk,  George :  forces  the  dissolution  of 

the  Long  Parliament,  374 
Monmouth,    James    Fitzroy,    Duke    of: 
his  campaign  against  the  Scots,  409; 
implicated   in   the   Rye  House   Plot, 
414;  exiled  to  Holland,  415;  rebel- 
lion of,  422 
Montagu,  Edward,   Earl  of   Manchester 
(Lord     Kimbolton     and     Viscount 
Mandeville)  :    impeached,   343 
Montague,    Charles :    Chancellor   of   the 
Exchequer,   441;    restores    the    c  ir- 
rency,   444 ;    resigns   his   office,  447 ; 
impeached,  450 
Montague,  John  Nevill,  Marquis  of:  see 
Nevill,   John,   Marquis  of  Montague 
and  Earl  of  Northumberland 
Montague,    Richard :    impeached,   326 
Montcalm,    Louis    Joseph,    Marquis    of: 
commander     in     chief     of     French 
forces    in    America,    500;    death    of, 
500 
Montfort,    Simon    de :   his   early   career. 
134 ;     joins    baronial    party    against 
the  king,  136:  surrenders  his  castles. 
138:    takes    arms   against   king.    139; 
made  elector.   140;  defeated  at  T'!ve- 
sham.    TJT 
Montrose,   James    Graham.    Marquis    of: 

rebellion    of,    t^ii 
Moore,     Sir     John :     his     campaign     in 

Spain.   563 
More,   Sir   Thomas:   Iiis  "Utopia,"  239; 


672 


INDEX 


knighted  and  made  a  Privy  Coun- 
cilor, 240;  speaker  of  Parliament, 
241 ;  the  Renaissance  and,  243 ; 
sketch  of,  249;  imprisoned,  254; 
death  of,  255 

Mortimer,  Edmund,  Earl  of  March : 
heir  to  English  throne,  187;  under 
custody,  191 ;  Henry  V  releases, 
196;  conspires  for  throne,  197 

Mortimer,  Robert :  conspires  against 
Edward  II  of  England,  154;  rules 
England,   156;  executed,   156 

Mortimer,  Roger:  chosen  as  heir  of 
Richard   IT.    187 

Mortimer's  Cross:  battle  of  (1461),  212 

Mortmain,  Statute  of:  enacted  (1279), 
145;   reenacted    (1391),   183 

Mount  Badon:  battle  of  (ca.  490),  18 

Mountjoy,  Charles  Blount,  Lord:  his 
campaign  in  Ireland,  303 

Mowbray,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Notting- 
ham and  Duke  of  Norfolk  (1366- 
1399)  '■  takes  up  arms  against  Rich- 
ard II.  181;  created  Duke  of  Nor- 
folk,  185;  banished,   185 

Mowbray,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Notting- 
ham (1386-1405)  :  leader  of  insur- 
rection,   194 

Mowbray's  Rebellion :  see  Robert  of 
Mowbray 

Muir,  Thomas :   transported,   543 

Municipal  Corporation   Bill    (1836),  595 

Murray,  James  Stuart,  Earl  of:  rebel- 
lion of.  282 

Murray,  William,  Earl  of  Mansfield: 
see  Mansfield,  William  Murray, 
Earl  of 

Mutiny  Act   (1689),  435 


N 


Namur:    captured    by    William    III    of 

England,  444 
Napoleon    (I)    Bonaparte:   his   Egyptian 

expedition,  548;  made  First  Consul, 

549;    ascendancy    of,    555;    downfall 

of,  562 
Naseby :  battle  of  (1645).  353 
Navarino :   battle  of    C1827),   582 
Navigation    Acts:    passed     (1651),    364; 

(1660),   386;    repealed    (1849),   608 
Neerwinden        (Landen)  :        battle       of 

(1693),  440 


Nelson,  Horatio:  at  battle  of  Cape  St. 
Vincent,  547;  at  the  Battle  of  the 
Nile,  549;  at  battle  of  Copenhagen, 
552;  at  battle  of  Trafalgar,  557 

Neolithic  Men :  invade  England,  4 

Nevill,  George,  Archbishop  of  York: 
deprived   of  chancellorship,  216 

Nevill,  John,  Marquis  of-  Montague  and 
Earl  of  Northumberland :  defeats 
Queen  Margaret,  215 ;  deserts  Ed- 
ward IV,  217;  death  of,  217 

Nevill,  Richard,  Earl  of  Warwick:  see 
Warwick,  Richard   Nevill,  Earl  of 

Nevill's  Cross:  battle  of  (1346),  161 

New  York  (New  Amsterdam)  :  cap- 
tured by  the   English,  386 

Newark:  siege  of   (1646),  355 

Newburn  on  the  Tyne :  battle  of 
(1640),  337 

Newbury:  battles  of  (1643),  345; 
(1644),  350 

Newcastle,  Thomas  Pelham.  Duke  of: 
sketch  of,  484;  made  Prime  Minis- 
ter, 494;  becomes  First  Lord  of  the 
Treasury.   499;    resigns,   505 

Newcastle,  William  Cavendish,  Mar- 
quis of:  commands  Royalist  forces, 

345 

Newcastle-on-Tyne :  built,  86 

Newman,  John  Henrv :  teachings  of, 
611 

Newport,  Treaty  or  Negotiation  of 
(1648),  360 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac:  sketch  of,  419;  as- 
sists  in   restoring  the   currency,  444 

Nicholas  I,  emperor  of  Russia:  pro- 
poses division   of  Turkey,   614 

Nightingale,  Florence :  her  work  in  the 
Crimea,  617 

Nile,  Battle  of  the   (1798),  549 

Norfolk,  Thomas  Howard,  3d  Duke  of: 
see  Howard,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Sur- 
rey and  3d  Duke  of  Norfolk 

Norfolk,  Thomas  Howard,  4th  Duke  of: 
convicted  of  treason,  262 ;  in  the 
Ridolfi  plot,   287 

Norfolk,  Thomas  Mowbray.  Duke  of: 
see  Mowbray,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Not- 
tingham and  Duke  of  Norfolk 

Norman  Conquest,  71 

Norri-,    Sir  John:    sacks   Cornnna.   298 

North,  Frederick,  Lord  North  :  becomes 
Chancellor   of   the    Exchequer,    511; 


INDEX 


67S 


made  Prime  Minister,  512;  becomes 
Secretary  of  State  (1783),  535 

North  Foreland:  battle  of  (Battle  of 
the  Downs),  387 

Northampton:  battle  of  (1460),  211 

Northern    Confederacy:    organized,    552 

Northmen :  religion  of,  41 ;  plunder  the 
coast  of  England,  42 

Northumberland :  settlement  of,  25 ; 
conquered  by  the  Danes,  42 

Northumberland,  Henry  Percy,  Earl  of: 
see  Percy,  Henry,  Earl  of  North- 
umberland 

Northumberland,  John  Dudley,  Duke 
of :  power  of,  267 ;  death  of,  269 

Nottingham,  Daniel  Finch,  Earl  of: 
leader  of  the  High  Tories,  455 

Nottingham,  Thomas  Mowbray,  Earl 
of :  see  Mowbray,  Thomas,  Earl  of 
Nottingham  and  Duke  of  Norfolk 

Noy,  William :  advises  Charles  I  con- 
cerning the  raising  of  ship-money, 
333 

Nymwegen,  Peace  of  (1678),  405 


O 


O'Brien,  Smith :  leader  of  armed  resist- 
ance in   Ireland,  608 

O'Connell,  Daniel :  supports  Catholic 
emancipation  movement,  584;  agi- 
tates the  repeal  of  the  Union,  591 ; 
agrees  to  the  Lichfield  House  com- 
pact, 594;  retires  from  public  life, 
604 

O'Connor,  Feargus :  leader  of  labor  re- 
volt, 600 ;  summons  the  Chartists  to 
Kensington  Common,  608 

O'Neill,  Hugh,  Earl  of  Tyrone :  leads 
risings  in  Ulster,  303 

Oates,  Titus :  tells  of  a  Popish  plot, 
406;   punishment  of,  421 

Ockley :  see  Aclea 

Oda.  Archbishop  of  Cantcrburv:  sketch 
of,  48 

Odo,  Bishop  of  Raveux  :  revolts  against 
William  Rufus!  82 

Olaf  Trygvasson  :   attacks  London,  57 

Oldcastle,  Sir  John,  Lord  Cobdan :  ex- 
communicated.  196 

Olive   Branch   Petition.  The    (1775),  516 

Omdurman:  battle  of    (1898),  638 


Onslow  Incident,  The   (1771),  514 

Order  of  the  Garter :  see  Garter,  Order 
of  the 

Orders  in  Council   (1807),  560 

Ordovices.  The :  at  war  with  the  Ro- 
mans,  9 

Orleans:   siege  of   (1428),  203 

Orleans,  Charles,  Duke  of:  taken  pris- 
oner at  Agincourt,   199 

Orleans,  Louis,  Duke  of:  regent  of 
France,   193;  murder  of,  194 

Orleans.  Maid  of:  see  Dare,  Jeanne 

Ormond,  Thomas  Butler,  Marquis  of: 
opposes    Cromwell   in   Ireland,   363 

Ormond,  James  Butler,  2d  Duke  of: 
succeeds  to  the  command  in  the 
Netherlands,   463 ;    attainted,   469 

Osborne,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Danby: 
given  the  Treasurership,  399;  in  the 
confidence  of  Charles  II,  402;  com- 
mitted to  the  Tower,  407;  released, 
415;  joins  William  III.  429 

Oswald,  king  of  North-humberland : 
reign  of,  35 

Oswin,  king  of  Bernicia :  reign  of,  35 

Oswini,  king  of  Deira :  accession  of,  35 

Oswold,  Bishop  of  Worcester:  expels 
secular  clergy  from  Worcester,  50 

Otho,  Cardinal :  papal  legate  to  Eng- 
land. 135 

Otto  IV,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  joins 
John  of  England  against  Philip  II 
of  France,  124;  defeated  at  Bou- 
vines.  126 

Oudenardc:    battle   of    (1708).  459 

Oxford:  siege  of   (1645),  353 

Oxford,  Robert  de  Vcre.  Earl  of:  char- 
acter of,  180;  condemned  to  death, 
181 

Oxford,  Robert  ILarley,  Earl  of:  see 
Harley,   Robert,   Earl  of   Oxford 

Oxford,   Provisions  of   (1258).   138 

Oxford,  University  of:  origin  and 
growth  of.  ri6:  growth  in  reign  of 
Henry   III,    142 

Oxford  Reformers,  239 


P,  Q 

Paleolithic  Men  :   description  of,  3 
Palmerston,    Henry   John    Temple,   Vis- 
count :   member  of   Grey's  ministry, 


674 


INDEX 


587;  foreign  policy  of,  593;  dis- 
missed from  office,  609;  supports 
Villier's  Resolution,  610;  made 
Prime  Minister  (1855),  617;  second 
ministry  of  (1859),  621 
Pandulf,     Papal     legate :     receives     the 

submission  of  John,  125 
Paris,  Treaties  of:   (1763),  505;   (1783), 

523 
Paris,  University  of:  origin  and  growth 

of,  116 
Parker :  leader  of  navy  mutiny,  548 
Parker,    Sir   Hyde :    given   command   of 
navy  against  the  Northern  Confed- 
eracy, 552 
Parker,    Matthew,    Archbishop    of    Can- 
terbury:   made   archbishop,   275 
Parker,  Samuel :  appointed  to  the  Bish- 
opric of  Oxford,  424 ;  candidate  for 
presidency     of     Magdalen     College, 
426 
Parliament,    Barebone's    (1653).    366 
Parliament,  The  Addled   (1614).  311 
Parliament,  The  Cavalier    (1661).  382 
Parliament,  The  Good   (1376),  172 
Parliament,     The     Long      (1640-1660)  : 

summoned,  337;  dissolved,  374 
Parliament,  The  Mad  (1258),  138 
Parliament,   The   Merciless    (1388),    181 
Parliament,  The   Short   (1640),  337 
Parliament,  The  Wonderful   (1388),  181 
Parliament  of  Shrewsbury,  The   (1398), 

184 
Parma,    Alexander    Farnese,    Duke    of : 
his    conquests    in    the    Netherlands, 
289,  291 
Parnell,    Charles    Stewart:    leads    Home 

Rule  party,  633 :  arrested.  634 
Parr.    Catherine:    marries    Henry    VIIT 

of  England.  261 
Parsons,  or   Persons.   Robert :   teachings 

of,  292 
Patay :   battle   of    (1429),   204 
Paterson,    William :    suggests   the    Bank 

of  England.  442 
Paulinus :   becomes   Bishop  of  York,  34 
Pavia:  battle  of   (1525).  241 
Peasants'   Revolt,   The    ('1381).   174 
Pedro  the  Cruel,  king  of  Castile:   strife 

with  Henry  of  Trastamara,   167 
Peel.   Sir  Robert:  recommends   resump- 
tion of  cash  payments  by  the  Bank 
of   England.   571;    Home    Secretary, 


574.  582;  police  reforms  of,  586; 
made  Prime  Minister,  594;  asked  to 
form  a  ministry,  597;  second  min- 
istry of,  601 ;  death  of.  609 

Peking:  siege  of   (1900),  639 

Peiham.  Henry:  becomes  First  Lord  of 
the  Treasury,  487 ;  death  of,  490 

Pelissier,  Aimable  Jean  Jacques :  com- 
mands French  forces  in  the  Crimea, 
617 

Pembroke.  Richard  the  Marshal,  Earl 
of :  see  Richard  the  Marshal,  Earl 
of  Pembroke. 

Pembroke,  William  the  Marshal,  Earl 
of:  see  William  the  Marshal,  Earl 
of   Pembroke 

Penda,  king  of  Mercia :    reign  of,  34 

Penitential  System :  introduced  by  The- 
odore of  Tarsus,  38 

Penn,  Admiral :  his  expedition  to  the 
West  Indies,  370 

Penry,  John  :  hanged.  301 

People's   Charter,  The.  599 

Perceval.  Spencer:  made  Prime  ^linis- 
ter,  564 

Percy.  Henry,  ist  Earl  of  Northumber- 
land :  aids  in  the  dethronement  of 
Richard  H,  185 ;  defeats  Scots  at 
Homildon  Hill,  193 ;  revolts  against 
Henry  IV,   193;   death  of,   194 

Percy.  Henry  (Harry  Hotspur),  son  of 
the  first  earl  of  Northumberland : 
at  battle  of  Homildon  Hill,  193;  re- 
volts against  Henry  IV,   193 

Percy.  Thomas,  Earl  of  Worcester: 
aids  in  dethronement  of  Richard 
II.  185;  defeats  Scots  at  Homildon 
Hill.  193;  revolts  against  Henry 
IV,   193 

Ferrers,  Alice:  mistress  of  Edward  III, 
171 

Peter  des  Roches :  see  Roches,  Peter 
dcs 

Peter   the   Hermit:    leads   Crusaders,   87 

Petition   of   Right    (1628),   324 

Phih'p  II.  king  of  France:  aids  sons  of 
Henry  II  of  England,  no;  supports 
claims  of  Arthur  to  English  throne, 
121  ;  prepares  to  invade  England, 
124:      wins      battle      of      Bouvines, 

I2't 

Philip  IV,  king  of  France:  makes  treaty 
with     Scotland,     148;     concludes     a 


INDEX 


675 


truce  with  Edward  I  of  England, 
150 

Philip  VI,  king  of  France :  his  foreign 
policy,  157;  at  battle  of  Cregy,  161; 
death  of,   164 

Philip  I,  king  of  Spain :  concludes  alli- 
ance with  Henry  VII  of  England, 
228 

Philip  II,  king  of  Spain :  marries  Mary, 
queen  of  England,  271 ;  proposes 
marriage  to  Elizabeth,  277;  claims 
throne  of  England,  295 

Philip  III,  king  of  Spain :  his  negotia- 
tions with  James  I  of  England,  311 

Philip  the  Good,  Duke  of  Burgimdy: 
joins  the  English,  200;  enters  into 
a  league  with  Charles  VII  of 
France,  205 ;  becomes  a  European 
potentate,  205 

Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania :  occupied 
by  the   British    (1777),  517 

Philiphaugh:  battle  of  (1645),  354 

Philippa,  queen  of  England :  intercedes 
for  burgesses  of  Calais,  162 

Phcenicians :  visit  Britain,  5 

Phcenix  Park  Murders,  634 

Picts,   a   Briton   tribe :   harass   Romans, 

15 

Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  257 

Pinkie  Cleugh  (Pinkey)  :  battle  of 
(1547),  265 

Pitt,  John,  Earl  of  Chatham :  his  cam- 
paign against  Napoleon,  563 

Pitt,  William,  Earl  of  Chatham :  sketch 
of,  483 ;  opposes  policy  of  Carteret, 
486;  dismissed  from  office,  496;  re- 
turns to  power,  497 ;  popularity  of, 
498;  resigns  premiership,  505;  sup- 
ports repeal  of  Stamp  Act,  509; 
forms  ministry  (1766),  510  ;  death 
of,  518 

Pitt,  William,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Chat- 
ham :  sketch  of,  524 ;  made  Prime 
Minister  (1783),  528;  recalled  to 
office,  554;  death  of,  557 

Pius  V,  Pope :  excommunicates  Eliza- 
beth of  England,  283 

Plague,  The:  in  London   (1665),  386 

Plantagenet,  Edmund,  Earl  of  Kent: 
executed,  156 

Plantagenet,  Edward,  Earl  of  War- 
wick: see  Warwick,  Edward  Plan- 
tagenet,  Earl  of 


Plantagenet,  Richard,  Earl  of  Corn- 
wall :  leads  barons  in  opposition  to 
Henry  III,  134;  regent  of  England, 
136;  chosen  king  of  the  Romans, 
137;  swears  to  the  Provisions  of 
Oxford,  139;  captured  after  battle 
of  Lewes,  140 

Plassey:  battle  of   (1757),  502 

Pleistocene  Age,  3 

Plymouth,    Massachusetts :    settled,   313 

Poitiers:  battle  of  (1356),  164 

Pole,  John  de  la.  Earl  of  Lincoln :  joins 
insurrection  of  Lambert  Simnel, 
224;   death  of,  225 

Pole,  Michael  de  la.  Earl  of  Suffolk: 
character  of,  180;  impeached,  181 

Pole,  Reginald :  Papal  legate,  271 ; 
made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
272 ;  death  of,  273 

Pole,  William  de  la.  Earl  of  Suffolk: 
his  influence  over  Henry  VI,  206; 
losses  in  France,  207;  impeached 
and  murdered,  209 

Poll-tax:  imposed  by  Parliament,  174 

Poor  Laws    (1834),  592;    (1838),  596 

Pope,  Alexander :   sketch  of,  481 

Port   Mahon:   battle  of   (1756),  496 

Portland,  William  Bentinck,  Earl  of: 
impeached,   450 

Portland,  William  Henry  Cavendish 
Bentinck,  Duke  of:  becomes  Prime 
Minister,  525 ;  second  ministry  of, 
559;   death  of,  563 

Portsmouth,  Louise  de  Keroualle, 
Duchess  of:  her  relations  with 
Charles  II  of  England,  395 

Posidonius  :  visits  Britain,  5 

Poynings,  Sir  Edward :  sent  as  deputy 
to   Ireland,  227 

Poynings'  Law   (1494),  227 

Poyntz,  Major-General :  defeats  Charles 

I,  354 

Praemunire,  Statute  of:  enacted  (1353), 
169;   reenacted    (i393),   183 

Pragmatic    Sanction,   485 

Pratt,  Charles,  Earl  of  Camden :  de- 
cisions of,  507 

Prayer  Book,  First :  issue  of,  author- 
ized (1549),  266 

Prayer  Book,  Second :  issue  of,  author- 
ized  (1552),  268 

Preachers,   Friars:    founded,    133 

Pressburg,  Treaty  of   (1805),  557 


676 


INDEX 


Preston  Pans:  battle  of  (1745),  487 
Pretender,  The  Young:  attempts  to  win 

the  throne,  487 
Pride's  Purge   (1648),  360 
Princes  in  the  Tower :  murder  of,  221 
Princeton:  battle  of   (1777),  516 
Property   Qualification  Act    (1711),   465 
Provisions  of  Oxford :  see  Oxford,  Pro- 
visions of 
Provisors,    Statute   of:    enacted    (1351), 

168;   reenacted    (1390),   183 
Prynne,    William:    opposes    Laud,    331; 

tried  before  the  Star  Chamber,  333 
Pulteney,  William,  Earl  of  Bath:  leads 

parliamentary    faction,   478 ;    created 

Earl  of  Bath,  484 
Puritans :  beliefs  of,  286 
Pusev,  Edward  Bouverie :  teachings  of, 

611 
Pym,  John :  leader  of  the  popular  party, 

327.  336 ;  impeached,  343 ;  death  of, 

348 
Pyramids,  Battle  of  the   (1798),  549 
Pytheas :  visits  Britain,  5 
Quadruple     Alliance:     formed     (1718), 

472 
Quatre  Bras:  battle  of   (1815),  568 
Quebec:  battle  of   (1759),  500 
Quia  Emptor cs   (1290),  145 
Quiberon  Bay:  battle  of  (1759),  501 


R 


Raglan,  Fitzroy  James  Henry  Somerset, 
Baron :  commands  English  forces 
in  Crimea,  615 

Raleigh.  Sir  Walter:  at  the  capture  of 
Cadiz  (1596),  298;  accused  of  trea- 
son, 307;  death  of,  312 

Ralph  de  Diccto :  sketch  of,  116 

Ralph  Warder,  Earl  of  Norfolk :  leads 
revolt  of  the  earls,  78 

Ramillies:  battle  of  (1706),  456 

Ranulf  de  Glanvile :  wins  battle  of  Aln- 
wick, 108;  writes  first  English  law- 
book, IIS 

Reading:  siege  of  (1C43),  345 

Recognitions,  System  of:  established  by 
Henry   II.   103 

Reform  Rill.  The  First   (1831).  587 

Reform   Bill.  The  Second    (1868),  625 

Regulating  Act    (i773),  5^6 


Reign  of  Terror,  542 

Renaissance,  The :  effect  on  the  Papacy, 

243 

Restoration,  The,  374 

Revolution,  American,  513 

Revolution,  French,  539 

Rice,  Spring:  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, 597 

Rich,  Edmund,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury :  leads  opposition  against  Peter 
des  Roches,  132 

Richard  (I)  Coeur  de  Lion,  king  of 
England :  given  possession  of  Aqui- 
taine,  109;  joins  the  Crusades,  no; 
rebels  against  Henry  H,  no;  reign 
of,  112 

Richard  II,  king  of  England:  recog- 
nized as  heir  to  throne,  172;  reign 
of,  173;  death  of,  191;  his  body 
transferred  to  Westminster,    196 

Richard  III,  king  of  England:  created 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  214;  character, 
219;  acknowledged  Protector,  219; 
feud  with  the  Woodvilles,  219; 
reign  of.  220 

Richard  (II)  the  Good,  Duke  of  Nor- 
mandy: forms  alliance  with  /Ethel- 
red  the  Unready,  58 

Richard  the  Alarshal.  Earl  of  Pem- 
broke :  leader  of  the  barons  against 
Henry  III,  131 

Richard  Plantagenet,  Earl  of  Cornwall : 
see  Plantagenet,  Richard,  Earl  of 
Cornwall 

Richmond,  Duke  of:  asks  for  manhood 
suffrage  and  annual  Parliaments 
(1780),  520 

Richmond,  Henry  Tudor,  Earl  of:  see 
Henry  VII,  king  of  England 

Ridley,  Nicholas :  martyrdom  of,  271 

Ridolfi  Plot.  287 

Right,   Petition  of   (162S).  324 

Ripon,  Frederick  John  Robinson,  Earl 
of :  see  Robinson.  Frederick  John, 
Earl  of  Ripon 

Rivers,  A:ithony  Woodville,  Earl:  taken 
prisoner  by  Gloucester,  219;  execu- 
tion of.  220 

Rizzio,   David:   murder   of,  282 

Robert  HI,  king  of  Scotland:  sends  his 
son  to  be  educated  in  France.   194 

Robert,  Duke  of  Normandy :  accession 
of,    82;    his    poor    government,    86; 


INDEX 


677 


joins  Crusaders,  87;  attempts  inva- 
sion of  England,  88;  defeated  at 
Tinchebrai,  8g 

Robert,  Earl  of  Gloucester:  see  Glou- 
cester, Earl  of 

Robert  of  Belleme :  revolts  against 
Henry   I,  89 

Robert  of  Jumieges,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury :  deposed  by  Earl  God- 
wine,  63 

Robert  Mov^'bray,  Earl  of  Northumber- 
land :  rebels  against  William  Rufus, 
86 

Roberts,  Sir  Frederick  Sleigh,  Earl 
Roberts :  his  campaign  in  South 
Africa,  641 

Robespierre,  Maximilian  Marie  Isidore: 
death  of,  543 

Robinson,  Frederick  John,  Earl  of 
Ripon :  commercial  reforms  of, 
576;  made  Prime  Minister,  582; 
member  of   Peel's  ministry,  602 

Robinson,  Sir  Thomas :  becomes  leader 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  495 

Rochelle :   siege  of   (1627-1628),  322 

Roches,  Peter  des.  Bishop  of  Winches- 
ter: favorite  of  Henry  TU,  131;  dis- 
missed, 132 

Rochester:   siege  of    (1088),  82 

Rochester,  Lawrence  Hyde,  Earl  of: 
see  Hyde,  Lawrence,  Earl  of  Roch- 
ester 

Rockingham,  Charles  Watson  Went- 
worth.  Marquis  of:  becomes  leader 
of  the  Whigs,  507 ;  first  ministry  of, 
509 ;  second  ministry  of,  522 ;  death 
of,  523 

Rockingham,  The  Council  of   (1095),  85 

Rodney,  Sir  George  Brydges :  his  expe- 
dition against  the  French,  501 ;  de- 
feats  DeGrassc,  522 

Roger,  Archbishop  of  York:  crowns 
Henry,  son  of  Henry  H  of  England, 
105 

Roger,  Bishop  of  Salisbury:  chief  min- 
ister of  Henry  L  91  ;  ([uarrels  with 
King   Stephen,  94 

Roger  of  Hoveden  :   sketch  of,   116 

Romilly,  Sir  Samuel :  advocates  reform 
of  the   criminal   law,   575 

Rooke,  Sir  George:  captures  Gibraltar, 
456 

Root  and  Branch  Bill    (1641),  341 


Rosebery,  Archibald  Philip  Primrose, 
Earl  of:  becomes  Prime  Minister, 
637 

Roses.  Wars  of  the:  see  Wars  of  the 
Roses 

Rossbach :  battle  of   (1757),  499 

Rouen:  siege  of  (1419),  199 

Runnimcde:  meeting  of  John  and  the 
barons  at,   127 

Rupert,  prince  of  the  Palatinate:  at  the 
battle  of  Edgehill.  344 

Russell,  Edward,  Earl  of  Orford : 
sketch  of,  439;  First  Lord  of  the 
Admiralty,  441  ;  resigns  his  office, 
447;  impeached,  450 

Russell,  John,  Earl  Russell :  election  re- 
forms of,  583;  introduces  the  first 
Reform  Bill,  587 ;  member  of  Grey's 
Cabinet,  588 ;  becomes  Home  Sec- 
retary in  Melbourne's  ministry,  595 ; 
attempts  to  form  a  ministry,  606; 
first  ministry  of,  606;  second  min- 
istry of.  623 

Russell,  John,  Duke  of  Bedford :  see 
Bedford,  John  Russell,  Duke  of 

Russell,  William  Lord  Russell :  impli- 
cated in  the  Rye  House  Plot,  414 

Russo-Japanese  War,  642 

Russo-Turkish  War.  632 

Rye  House   Plot    (1683),  414 

Ryswick,  Peace  of   (1697),  445 


Sacheverell,  Henry :  impeached.  459 
Sackville,    Lord    George :    at    battle    of 

Minden,  501 
St.     Albans:     battles     of     (1455),     211; 

(1461),  212 
St.  Albans,  Assembly  of  (1213).  125 
St.   Arnaud,  Jacques   Achille   Leroy   dc : 

commands  French  forces  in  Crimea, 

615 

Sr.   Brice,  Massacre  of,  58 

St.  John,  Henry,  Viscount  Bolingbroke : 
holds  olTice  as  a  moderate  Tory, 
455 ;  created  Viscount  Bolingbroke, 
463 ;  becomes  Secretary  of  State  to 
the  Pretender.  469;  his  opposition 
ti)  Walpole,  478 

St.    Paul's    School  :    founded,   239 

St.   Quenlii: :   battle  of   (1557),  272 


678 


INDEX 


St.  Vincent,  John  Jervis,  Earl :  see  Jer- 
vis,  John,  Earl  of  St.  Vincent 

Saladin:  takes  Jerusalem,   no 

Saladin  Tithes,  no 

Salamanca:  battle  of  (1812),  565 

Salisbury,  Earl  of:  defeated  at  Bou- 
vines   (1214),  126 

Salisbury,  Earl  of:  summons  Welshmen 
to  aid  Richard  II   (1399),  186 

Salisbury,  Richard,  Earl  of:  beheaded, 
212 

Salisbury,  Robert  Cecil,  Earl  of:  fa- 
vored by  James  I,  307;  made  Lord 
Treasurer,  309 

Salisbury,  Robert  Arthur  Talbot  Gas- 
coyne  Cecil,  Marquis  of:  resigns 
from  Lord  Derby's  ministry,  624; 
first  ministry  of,  635 ;  second  min- 
istry   of,    636;    third    ministry    of, 

637 

Salisbury  Cathedral :  nave  of,  built,  141 
San  Stefano,  Treaty  of  (1878),  632 
Santa  Cruz:  battle  of  (1657),  371 
Saratoga:  battle  of  (1777),  517 
Savile,    George,    Marquis    of    Halifax : 
see   Halifax,   George    Savile,    Mar- 
quis of 
Savile,   Sir  George :   desires  reforms  in 

Parliament,  519 
Savoy  Conference    (1661),  382 
Saxe,  Count  Maurice  de :  his  campaign 

in  the  Netherlands,  487 
Saxons :  harass  Romans,   15 ;   origin  of, 
15;   their  conquests   in   Britain,    18; 
supremacy  of  the  West  Saxons,  41 
Say,  Lord :  beheaded  by  Jack  Cade,  210 
Scapula,   Ostorius :    rules   Britain,  9 
Schism  Act   (1714),  466 
Schomberg,     Friedrich    von :    his    cam- 
paign in   Ireland,  437 
Schoolmen,   The,    192 
Schwarz,   Jvlartin :   joins   insurrection   of 

Lambert    Simnel,   225 
Scotland :     the     Reformation     in,     335 ; 

united  with   England    (1707),  457 
Scott,  Sir  Walter :  sketch  of,  577 
Scrope,    Richard,   Archbishop   of   York : 

leader  of  insurrection,   194 
Sebastopol :    siege  of    (1854),  616 
Security,   Act  of    (1703),  457 
Sedgemoor :   battle   of    (1685),   422 
Self-denying  Ordinance    (1644),  351 
Senlac:  battle  of  (1066),  66 


Separatists:  founded,  301 
Septennial  Act  (1716),  470 
September  Massacres    (1792),  541 
Settlement,  Acts  of  (1661),  390;  (1701), 

448 
Seven  Years'  War,  497 
Severus,  emperor  of  Rome:  visits  Brit- 
ain, II 
Seymour,  Edward,   Duke  of  Somerset: 
his     campaign     in     Scotland,     262; 
made     Protector,     264;     death     of, 
268 
Se3Tnour,    Jane :    marries    Henry    VIII, 

256;  death  of,  258 
SejTnour,    Thomas,  Lord    Sudely:    exe- 
cution of,  266 
Seymour,    William :    his    claims    to    the 

throne  of  England,  304 
Shaftesbury,    Anthony    Ashley    Cooper, 
1st    Earl    of:    sketch    of,    395;    dis- 
missed from  office,  400;  sent  to  the 
Tower,  404;  death  of,  413 
Shaftesbury,    Anthony    Ashley    Cooper, 
7th   Earl  of:   takes  up  labor  ques- 
tion, 592 
Shakespeare,   William :    sketch   of,    302 
Sharp,  Dean  of  Norwich:  James  II  or- 
ders  suspension   of,  424 
Shelburne,     William     Petty,     Earl     of: 
member   of   Rockingham's   ministry, 
522;  made  Prime  Minister,  523 
Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe :  sketch  of,  577 
Sheriffmuir:  battle  of   (1716),  470 
Sheriffs,  The  Inquisition  of  the,  104 
Short  Parliament,  The    (1640),  2)27 
Shrewsbury:  battle  of   (1403),  193 
Shrewsbury,   Parliament  of    (1398),   184 
Sidmouth,  Henry  Addington,  Viscount: 
see     Addington,     Henry,     Viscount 
Sidmouth 
Sidney,  Algernon:  trial  of,  415 
Sidney,  Sir  Philip :  aids  the  Dutch  Re- 
public, 293 
Silistria:   siege  of   (1854),  615 
Simnel,   Lambert :    insurrection   of,   224 
Simon   de   Montfort :    see   Montfort,   Si- 
mon de 
Sinope  :  battle  of  (1854),  615 
Six  Acts,  The   (1819),  572 
Six  Articles,  Statute  of   (1539),  259 
Slave-trade :     Pitt    attempts    to    abolish, 

540 
Slidell :   see  Mason  and  Slidell   Incident 


INDEX 


679 


Sluys    (Sluis)  :  naval  battle  of   (1340), 

160 
Smerwick:  battle  of  (1580),  291 
Solemn   League   and   Covenant    (1643), 

347 
Somers,    John,    Baron    Somers :     Lord 

Keeper  of  the  Seal,  441 ;  impeached, 

450 
Somerset,  Edmund  Beaufort,  Duke  of: 

favorite   of   Henry   VL   210;    death 

of,  211 
Somerset,  Edward,  Marquis  of  Worces- 
ter, titular  Earl  of  Glamorgan,  and 

called  Herbert  of  Raglan :  concludes 

treaty  with  the  Irish,  354 
Somerset,    Edward    Seymour,    Duke    of 

see     Seymour,     Edward,     Duke     of 

Somerset 
Somerset,  Fitzroy  James  Henry,  Baron 

Raglan :   see  Raglan,  Fitzroy  James 

Henry  Somerset,  Baron 
Somerset,  John  Beaufort,  Duke  of:  see 

Beaufort,  John,   Duke   of   Somerset 
Somerset,    Robert    Carr,    Earl    of:    see 

Carr,  Robert,  Earl  of  Somerset 
Sophia,    Electress    of    Hanover:    made 

heir  of  English  Crown,  448 
South  African  War,  640 
South  Sea  Company,  473 
Southampton :  burnt  by  French,   160 
Southwark:  burnt  by  William  the  Con- 
queror, 67 
Spafields   Riot    (1816),  570 
Spencer,    Charles,    Earl   of   Sunderland : 

see    Sunderland,    Charles     Spencer, 

Earl   of 
Spencer,    John    Charles,    Earl    Spencer: 

member  of  Grey's  ministry,  586 
Spenser,  Edmund :  sketch  of,  302 
Spurs,  Battle  of  the    (1513),  236 
Stafford,  Henry,  Duke  of  Buckingham : 

see    Buckingham,    Henry    Stafford, 

Duke  of 
Stamford:  battle  of   (1470),  216 
Stamford    Bridge:    battle   of    (1066),   66 
Stamp  Act  (1765),  509 
Standard,  Battle  of  the   (1138),  93 
Stanhope,    James,    Earl    Stanhope :    be- 
comes head  of  the  government,  472 ; 

death  of,  474 
Stanley,    Edward    Geoffrey    Smith,    Earl 

of    Derby:     his     Irish    policy,    591; 

abolishes    slavery,    592 ;    niembcr    of 


Peel  ministry,  602;  becomes  head 
of  Protectionists,  606;  first  minis- 
try of,  609;  second  ministry  of,  621; 
third  ministry  of,  624 

Stanley,  Sir  William :  death,  227 

Star  Chamber,  Court  of,  225 

Steinkirk:   battle  of    (1692),  440 

Stephen  I,  king  of  England :  reign  of, 
93 

Stephenson,  George :  invents  a  locomo- 
tive, 590 

Stewart,  Robert,  Marquis  of  London- 
derry :  aids  Pitt  to  secure  union  of 
Ireland  and  Great  Britain,  550; 
member  of  Portland  ministry,  559; 
death  of,  573 

Stigand,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury: 
made   archbishop,   63 

Stirling:  battle  of  (1297),  150 

Stockton  and  Darlington  Railways: 
opened,  590 

Stoke:  battle  of  (1487),  225 

Stone  of  Destinv:  carried  to  England, 
148 

Stow-on-the-Wo!d :     battle     of     (1646), 

355 
Strachan,    Sir    Peter:    commands    fleet 

sent  against  Napoleon,  563 
Strafford,    Edward,    Duke    of    Bucking- 
ham :      see      Buckingham,     Edward 

Strafford,   Duke   of 
Strafford,  Thomas  Wentworth,  Earl  of: 

see    Wentworth,    Thomas,    Earl    of 

Strafford 
Stratford,     Archbishop :     quarrels     with 

Edward  III,  162 
Straw,    Jack :     leads     Peasants'    Revolt, 

174 
Strode,   William :    impeached,   343 
Stuart,  Henry,  Lord  Darnley:  see  Darn- 
ley,  Henry  Stuart,  Lord 
Stuart,    James,    Earl    of    Murray:    see 

Murray,  James   Stuart,   Earl   of 
Succession,  Act  of   (1534),  254 
Succession,  War  of  the  Polish,  480 
Sudbury,  Simon  of.  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury:  beheaded,   175 
Suetonius   Paullinus:    sent  to   Britain,  g 
Suffolk,     Charles     Brandon,    Duke    of: 

marries   Mary   Tudor,  237 
Suffolk,  FIcnry  Grey,  Earl  of:  see  Grey, 

Henry.  Earl  of  Suffolk 
Suflolk,    Michael    de   la    Pole,   Earl   of: 


680 


INDEX 


see  Pole,  Michael  de  la,  Earl  of 
Suffolk 

Suffolk,  William  de  la  Pole,  Earl  of: 
see  Pole,  William  de  la.  Earl  of 
Suffolk 

Sunderland,  Charles  Spencer,  Earl  of: 
becomes  Secretary  of  State,  458; 
leader  of  Whig  party,  472 

Supremacy,  Acts  of  (1534),  254; 
(1559),  27s 

Surrey,  Henry  Howard,  Earl  of  Sur- 
rey :   death  of,  262 

Surrey,  John  de  Warenne,  Earl  of :  ap- 
pointed guardian  of  Scotland,  148 

Surrey,  Thomas  Howard,  Earl  of:  see 
Howard,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Surrey 
and  3d  Duke  of  Norfolk 

Sussex:  origin  of,  18;  pillaged  by  Wil- 
liam the  Conqueror,  67 

Swegen,  son  of  Earl  Godwine :  misdeeds 
of,  60 ;  death  of,  62 

Svend,  Viking  chieftain :  attacks  Lon- 
don, 57;  conquers  England,  58; 
death  of,  59 

Swift,  Jonathan :   sketch   of,  462 

Swynford,  Catherine :  marries  John  of 
Gaunt,   183 


Talavera:  battle  of    (1809),  563 
Talbot,  John,  Earl  of  Shrewsbury :  de- 
feats the  Burgimdians,  205 
Tallard,    Camille    de    la    Baume,    Count 

of :  at  the  battle  of  Blenheim,  455 
Tamworth  Manifesto    (1834),  594 
Tea:  introduced  in  EngFand,  418 
Tel-el-Kebir:   battle  of    (1882).  634 
Telford,    Thomas :     improves    roads    in 

Scotland  and  Wales,  589 
Temple.   Henry  John,  Viscount  Palmer- 

ston :    see    Pahnerston,    Henry   John 

Temple,    Vi.-count 
Tennyson,   Alfred.   Lord:   sketch  of,  613 
Terror,  Reign   of,  542 
Test  Act    (1673),  399 
Texel :  battle  of  (1073),  399 
Thackeray.   William    Makepeace:    sketch 

of.  612 
Thanct,     Isle     of:     Jutes     land     in,     17; 

Northmen    plunder.    42;    Louis    the 

Lion  lands  in,    128 


Thehvall :  trial  of,  543 

Theodore  of  Tarsus :  consecrated  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  37;  intro- 
duces penitential  system,  38;  founds 
school   at  Canterbury,   38 

Thirty   Years'   War,  313 

Thistlewood   Conspiracy    (1S20),  573 

Thomas  a  Becket:  made  chancellor,  98; 
made  Archbishop  of  Canterburj-, 
100;  quarrel  with  Henry  H,  loi ; 
persecuted,  102;  returns  to  Eng- 
land, 106;  murder  of,  106 

Throgmorton,  Francis :  reveals  Spanish 
plot  to  invade  England,  292 

Thurstan,  Abbot  of  Glastonbury :  orders 
English  monks  to  be  shot,  76 

Ticonderoga :  captured  by  Americans, 
51S 

Tilsit,  Treaty  of   (1807),  559 

Tinchebrai:  battle  of   (1106),  8g 

Tithe  Act  (1838).  596 

Todleben,  Gottlieb  Heinrich :  defends 
Sebastopol,  616 

Toleration  Act    (1689),  435 

Tone,  Theobald  Wolfe :  founds  Society 
of  L'nited  Irishmen,  545 

Tooke,   Home :   trial   of,  543 

Tories :  origin  of  the  term,  409 

Torrington,  Arthur  Herbert,  Earl  of: 
see  Herbert,  Arthur,  Earl  of  Tor- 
rington 

Tostig,  Earl  of  North-humberland :  ap- 
pointed carl,  63;  allies  himself  with 
Harold  Hardrada,  65;  killed  at 
Stamford   Bridge,   66 

Tours,  Truce  of   (1444),  206 

Tourvillc,  Anne  Hilarion  de  Cotentin, 
Count  of:  his  expedition  against 
England,   438 

Tower  of  London :  see  London,  Tower 
of 

Townshend,  Charles,  Viscount  Town- 
shend  (1674-1738)  :  becomes  Secre- 
tary of  State,  40S:  made  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant of  Ireland,  472;  re<ig;is  from 
office,  47S 

Townshend,  Charles  (  1725-1767)  :  power 
of.  510;   death  of,  511 

Towton :   battle   of    (r4f'iL  213 

TrafalLTir:   battle  of   (1805).  557 

Tran.^vaal:    annexed    to    Great    Britain, 

Transvaal   War.  640 


INDEX 


681 


Treasonable  Correspondence  Act  (1793), 

542 
Treasons,  Act  of  (1534),  254 
Treasons,   Statute  of   (1352),   164 
Trenton:  battle  of    (1776),  516 
Trcsilian,   Chief  Justice:   hanged,    181 
Triennial   Act    (1640)  :  passed,  22>7\   re- 
pealed, 385 
Triennial   Act    (1694),   442 
Trinobantes :   state  of,   formed,  6;   seek 

protection  of  Cjesar,  7 
Triple     Alliances,     The:     (1668),     393; 

(1716),  471 
Tromp,       Cornells :       commands       fleet 

against  the  English,  365 
Troyes,  Treaty  of   (1420),  200 
Tudor,   Henry,   Earl   of   Richmond :    see 

Henry  VH,  king  of  England 
Tyler,    Wat:     leads     Peasants'     Revolt, 

174;  death,   175 
Tyrconnel,    Richard     Talbot,    Earl    of: 

sent  to  Ireland,  425 
Tyre:  siege  of,  (1187),  110 


U,  V 

Ulm:  battle  of  (1805),  557 

Uniformity,  Acts  of:  (i5=;9),  275; 
(1662),   382 

Union,  Acts  of:  between  Scotland  and 
England  (1707).  457;  between  Ire- 
land and  Great  Britain  (1800), 
^545 

United    Irishmen,    Society   of:    founded, 

545 

Urban  II,  Pope:  preaches  the  first  cru- 
sade, 87 

Utrecht,  Treaty  of   (1713),  463 

Valentine:  takes  part  in  House  disturb- 
ance, 327 ;  lined  and  imprisoned,  'i2') 

Val-es-dunes  :   battle  of    (1047),  62 

Vane,  Sir  Henry:  prfKluccs  evidence 
against  tlie  Earl  of  Strafford,  33X ; 
negotiates  treaty  between  England 
and  Scotland,  347 ;  introduces  a  re- 
form bill.  365 

Venables :  his  expedition  to  the  West 
Indies,  370 

Vendome,  Louis  Joseph.  Duke  of:  his 
campaign  in  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands, ^58 

Venezuelan   Boundary   Dispute,   639 


Venice:  joins  the  Holy  League,  236 

Vere,  Robert  de.  Earl  of  Oxford :  see 
Oxford,  Robert  de  Vere,  Earl  of 

Vere,  Sir  Horace :  his  campaign  in  the 
Palatinate,  313 

Verneuil:  battle  of  (1424),  202 

Victor  Emmanuel,  king  of  Sardinia: 
joins  allies  against  Russia,  617 

Victoria,  queen  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  and  empress  of  India: 
reign  of,  595;  death  of,  641 

Viennp,  Congress  of   (1814),  567 

Vienna  Note   (1853),  614 

Villiers,  Charles:  presents  bill  for  re- 
peal of  Corn  Law,  600 ;  introduces 
a  resolution  concerning  the  repeal 
of  the  Corn  Law,  610 

Villiers,  George,  Marquis  of  Bucking- 
ham :  sec  Buckingham,  George  Vil- 
liers, Marquis  of 

Vimeiro:   battle  of    (1808),  562 

Virginia,   Colony  of:   growth  of,  313 

Vortigern,  Briton  chieftain :  invites 
Jutes  to  Britain,  17;  is  defeated  by 
Jutes,   18 


W 

Wakefield :   battle   of,  212 

Wales :    Harold   reduces,   64 ;    revolt   of, 

192 
Wales,   Statute  of   (1284),   144 
Walker,     Ohadiah :     professes     Catholi- 
cism, 424 
Wallace,   William:   revolts  against  Eng- 
land.  ISO 
Wallingforrl,   Treaty   of    (1153),   96 
Walpole,    Robert,    Earl    of    Orford :    op- 
poses   George    I    of    England,    471 ; 
career  nf,  474 
Waltheof.   English   earl :   beheaded,   78 
Wanborough  :  l")attle  of   (ca.  585),  25 
Wandewash  :  battle  of   (1760'),  502 
Warbeck,    Pcrkin :    insurrection   of,   227; 

execution  of,  229 
Warenne    or   Warreime,    John    de.    Earl 
of    Surrey :     see    Surrey,    John    dc 
Warenne,  Earl  of 
War  of  i8t2,  566 
Wars  of  the  Roses,  211 
\\'ar\vick,   Thomas   de   Beauchamp,   Earl 
of:    takes    up   arms   against    Ivichard 
II,  181;  banished  to  Isle  of  ]\lan,  184 


682 


INDEX 


Warwick,  Edward  Plantagenet,  Earl  of: 
execution  of,  229 

Warwick,  John  Dudlej%  Earl  of:  see 
Northumberland,  John  Dudley, 
Duke  of 

Warwick,  Richard  Nevill,  Earl  of :  rup- 
ture with  Edward  IV,  216;  recon- 
ciled to  Lancastrian  party,  217; 
death  of,  217 

Washington,  George,  president  of  the 
United  States :  given  command  of 
American  forces,  516 

Waterloo:  battle  of   (1815),  568 

Watt,  James :  invents  a  steam-engine, 
534 

Wedmore,  Peace  of  (878  a.d.).  43 

Wellesley,  Sir  Arthur :  see  Wellington, 
Arthur  Wellesley,  Duke  of 

Wellington,  Arthur  Wellesley,  Duke  of: 
his  campaign  in  Spain,  562;  becomes 
Prime  Minister,  582;  protects  Lon- 
don against  Chartists,  608;  death 
of,  61Q 

Wentworth,  Charles  Watson,  Marquis 
of  Rockingham:  see  Rockingham, 
Charles  Watson  Wentworth,  Mar- 
quis  of 

Wentworth,  Thomas.  Earl  of  Strafford : 
leader  of  third  Parliament  of 
Charles  L  323;  joins  Charles  L  328; 
made  chief  advisor  of  Charles  I, 
336;  impeached  and  imprisoned, 
2,2,7;   death  of,  339 

Wesley,  John :  sketch  of.  493 

Wesley,  Samuel :  preaches  against  James 
II's   Declaration  of  Indulgence,  427 

Wessex:  conquered  by  Mercians  (779 
A.D.),   39 

Westminster  Abbey:  built  by  Eadward 
the  Confessor,  64 ;  rebuilt  bv  Henry 
III,   142 

Wexford :  surrenders  to  Parliamentary 
forces    (1649).  363 

Wharton,  Thomas.  Marquis  of  \\'har- 
tcn :  Comptroller  of  the  Household, 

441 
Whigs :   origin  of  the  term,  409 
White   Hill:  battle  of    (1620),  313 
Whitefield.   George :   sketch   of.  493 
Whitgift,   John,   Archbishop    of    Canter- 
bury :   appointed.  300 
Wilberforce,      William :       his       crusade 
against  slave-trade,  541 


Wilfrid,  Saint:  makes  English  church 
conform  with  church  of  Rome,  27 

Wight,  Isle  of:  Jutes  form  settlements 
in,  18 

Wilkes,  John:  arrested,  507;  trials  of, 
508;  reelections  of,  511 

William  (I)  the  Conqueror,  king  of 
England:  visits  England,  62;  claims 
the  English  crown,  64;  death  of,  8l 

William  (II)  Rufus.  king  of  England: 
character  and  reign  of,  82 ;  death 
of,  87 

William  III,  king  of  England :  marries 
Mary,  daughter  of  James,  404;  in- 
vited to  England,  428;  accession 
of,    431;    reign    of,    435;    death    of, 

451 

William  IV,  king  of  Great  Britain: 
reign  of,  585 ;  death  of.  595 

William  the  Lion,  king  of  Scotland : 
aids  the  revolt  of  the  English  bar- 
ons, 108;  released  from  doing  hom- 
age to  English  king,  112 

William,  prince  of  Orange :  assassi- 
nated, 293 

William,  Bishop  of  Valence :  his  influ- 
ence   over    Henry    HI    of    England, 

134 

William  of  Longchamps,  Bishop  of  Ely : 
appointed  Justiciar,  112;  driven 
from  England,  113 

William  of  ^lalmesbury :  early  English 
writer,  92 

William  of  Xewburgh :  English  histo- 
rian, 116 

William  of  Wykeham,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester :    see   Wykeham,   William  of 

William  the  Marshal.  Earl  of  Pem- 
broke :  appointed  guardian  of 
Henry  III  of  England,  130;  defeats 
Louis  at  Lincoln,   130 

Williams,  John,  Archbishop  of  York: 
impeached.  343 

Willis,   Dr.:   attends   George   III.   531 

Wilmington,  Earl  of:  see  Compton, 
Spencer 

Winceby:   battle  of    (1643).  348 

Winchclsey,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury: 
refuses  to  allow   taxation   of  clerg\', 

149 
Winnii-'.gton    Bridge:    battle    of    (1659), 

374 
Winwced:    battle   of   the    (655    a.d.).   35 


INDEX 


683 


Wolfe,  James:  at  the  battle  of  Quebec, 
500 

Wolseley,  Sir  Garnet:  his  Egyptian 
campaign,  634 

Wolsey,  Thomas:  career  of,  236;  fall 
of,  247 

Wonderful  Parliament,  The  (1388),  181 

Wood's  Half-pence,  477 

Woodville,  Elizabeth:  marries  Edward 
IV,  215 

Worcester:  battle  of   (1651),  364 

Worcester,  Thomas  Percy,  Earl  of:  see 
Percy,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Worcester 

Wordsworth,  William:  sketch  of,  577 

Wren,  Sir  Christopher:  rebuilds  St. 
Paul's,  419 

Wulfhere:  leads  revolt  of  Mercians,  2>^ 

Wyatt,  Sir  Thomas :  rebellion  of,  270 

Wycliffe,  John:  belief  and  teachings  of, 
171 ;  summoned  before  an  ecclesias- 
tical court,  172;  translates  the  Bible 
into  English,  173,  188;  his  teach- 
ings, 173;  last  years  of,  175 

Wykeham,  William  of,  Bishop  of  Win- 


chester: founds  first  great  public 
school  in  England,  170;  member  01 
the  Council,  172 


X,  Y,  Z 

York,  Archbishop  of:  see  Nevill,  George 

York,  Frederick  Augustus,  Duke  of: 
his  campaign  against  France,  541 

York,  James,  Duke  of:  see  James  II, 
Icing  of  England 

York,  Richard,  3d  Duke  of  (1411- 
1460)  :  succeeds  Bedford  in  France, 
205 ;  sent  to  Ireland,  207 ;  first  Pro- 
tectorate of,  210;  second  Protec- 
torate of,  211;  claims  the  throne, 
212;  receives  aid  from  Ireland,  224 

York,  Richard,  Duke  of  (1474-1483)  : 
in  the  power  of  Gloucester,  220; 
murdered,  221 

Yorke,  Charles,  Lord  Morden:  accepts 
the  chancellorship,  512 

Zuyder  Zee:  battle  of  (1666),  ^^7 


